I need help calculating my rice correctly

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a_ahmed
a_ahmed Posts: 6
in Food and Nutrition
http://www.sparkpeople.com/calories-in.asp?food=uncle+bens+whole+grain+brown+rice

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/uncle-bens-canada-whole-grain-brown-rice-20815745

I am using Calories in Uncle Ben's (Canada) Whole Grain Brown Rice...

I have been using fitday.com for ages, and i've just realized i've been miscalculating. I've used their generic brown rice... but now that i got this app on my iphone i got the accurate reading...

HOWEVER... I am clueless now.. i measure my rice cooked... so say 200g, 250g, 300g per meal. However that is cooked.

On the label and in the link (to this site and the other site) it shows that 35ml or 30g (dry?) is equal to 125ml prepared and is equal to 110 calories. Like wth? Couldn't they just say such and such grams is such and such calories? I'm confused as hell by this...

I have a scale and measure all my food with it in grams.... usually my rice is 200g cooked, if im gaining weight i increase per meal to be 250g or 300g (bulking).

Help me out :(

Replies

  • GreekByMarriage
    GreekByMarriage Posts: 320 Member
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    bump, I am curious here as well
  • t8tersalad
    t8tersalad Posts: 85 Member
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    bump
  • gsager
    gsager Posts: 977 Member
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    Yes, 30 g. dry.
  • a_ahmed
    a_ahmed Posts: 6
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    ya i figured 30g is dry but next to it it also says 35ml (why such confusing information?)

    Then it says cooked is 125ml...

    For that 30g dry it's 110 calories but that doesnt help me much... since i eat lots of times a day i cook the food for the whole day. Therefore I measure per cooked grams not dry.... example, 200g, 250g, or 300g per meal of cooked...
  • reese66
    reese66 Posts: 2,920 Member
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    Found this, hope it helps
    http://www.convertunits.com/from/milliliters/to/grams
  • a_ahmed
    a_ahmed Posts: 6
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    unfortunately that doesn't help.

    125ml is 125grams if it's water. Been a while since I've been in school lol... but it depends on density of the matter... not everything has the same density or state as water. You will see if you search (i tried googling) difference rice, and all of them gave different ml and gram equivalent measurements that's why I came here to ask for help...

    As you can see it mentions that it is 35ml (30g). ??? And that's 110 calories.... then it means cooked it's supposed to result in 125ml... :-/ So that's where I'm stuck..
  • beccala18
    beccala18 Posts: 293 Member
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    I would say to figure out how much the entire bag's calories are (using the 30g dry measurement), then divide by how many portions YOU get out of it cooked.

    Or measure the rice before you cook it and after to figure out how much it bulks up.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,129 Member
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    It kind of depends on the type of rice and how long you cook it (how much water it absorbs.)

    I just figure cooked rice is about double the volume of uncooked. So 1/2 cup uncooked is one cup (or a little more) cooked rice.


    The difference is not that much. Don't get all obsessive about 20-30 calories. You'll have a nervous breakdown. This is not an exact science.
  • a_ahmed
    a_ahmed Posts: 6
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    Well I'm not worried about 20-30 cals, but if I'm off by 100-200 calories per meal that's a problem... i eat 5 meals a day the problem gets compounded.

    Anyways, this brown rice is whole grain so i'm guessing that's considred 'long grain'. The thing is all rices are different when I tried to google on their nutritional values/calories/etc... so can't use a ballpark from the stuff i've googled.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,129 Member
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    Okay. A serving is a cup. Make it a little less, for padding to make you feel better.
  • a_ahmed
    a_ahmed Posts: 6
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    Well I asked my wife's advice LOL... and she told me what one person here said.

    Measure dry... then cook whole thing, measure result, always use same water/etc... and then divide that into portions and then out of dry divide calories.

    :-/ Only way i guess. Ah I wish cooking was even simpler hahahahhahahaha. Guys can suck at cooking :-/... but i need to know exact calories whether i'm cutting or bulking and any miscalculation is bad business for me... I'm an amateur bodybuilder and usually i can indulge in foods due to my level of training but wondering why my weight is not going up or going down when calories are miscalculated is an epic fail...
  • mfp_1
    mfp_1 Posts: 516 Member
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    1. The most accurate measure of solids is weight, not volume. There isn't anything wrong with using volume, just accept it's less accurate.

    2. The most accurate measure of water-absorbing foods like rice and pasta is uncooked. There isn't anything wrong with using cooked measures, just accept it's less accurate.

    Uncle Ben's information is confusing, even on the manufacturer website. They say 30 grams uncooked is 110 calories. They suggest a cooked volume but not a cooked weight, I don't know why. It doesn't matter how much the weight or volume increases after cooking, it will still be 110 calories. Any weight increase is just a variable amount of water. Any volume increase is a variable amount of water and air.

    As your wife suggests, if you want to control calories weigh it uncooked. If you can't or don't want to use uncooked weight, run your own tests and accept it's less accurate.

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