Question about weighing food

Options
Hi MFP! I have been tackling my diet head-on lately and bought myself a kitchen scale. I am a little curious about a couple of things, though. I'm finding it easy to just add the weight of my bowl to the scale and then tare it, and then just dish up a portion and weigh it. But here are my questions:

1. What is the most accurate method to weighing chicken?
2. What is the most accurate method to weighing rice?
3. Is it necessary to count seasonings (mainly salad vinaigrette or soy sauce) if used very sparingly?

With both chicken and rice (two staples in my diet; I eat both at least in one meal) I'm not sure whether to count the weight of it cooked, or uncooked. Or, in the chicken's case, should I be weighing it frozen?

My method for counting chicken right now is, I will cook it, then weigh it on the scale, take that number (usually averages between 220g and 250g), and then divide the weight of the chicken by 112 since a serving size is 112g. Does this sound right?

I just want to continue seeing the pounds come off, so I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

Thanks,
Luke

Replies

  • chachadiva150
    chachadiva150 Posts: 482 Member
    Options
    You're making it too complicated.

    1. Count the weight of the chicken after you cook it.
    2. For the chicken, go by the scale weight. For the rice, uses measuring cups and go by cup, half cup, etc,
    3. For the seasoning, only count them if they are high caloric or high is sodium. Your vinaigrette and soy sauce should be counted.

    Find a database listing for chicken by the ounce and use that listing. Then just toss your cooked chicken on the scale and enter the number of ounces.
  • foodswag
    foodswag Posts: 2 Member
    Options
    You're making it too complicated.

    It's not as complicated as I made it sound. Honestly.
    For the rice, uses measuring cups and go by cup, half cup, etc

    Okay, well I don't eat the entire pot of rice. I usually make 140g of raw rice and I end up eating 132g when I weighed the cooked rice on the scale.
  • FitToBeFab
    FitToBeFab Posts: 537 Member
    Options
    I get your math for calculating chicken and you're right if the entry from the database for your diary is by grams. I think it's easier to go by ounces, but I'm in the states and we don't use the metric system :-)

    Rice should probably go by cup, especially if that's how it's measured on the serving suggestion of the box.
  • mfp_1
    mfp_1 Posts: 516 Member
    Options
    Weight is generally more accurate than volume. There's a youtube video somewhere that demonstrates it.

    You can use volume if you want, just accept that it's less accurate.