What's going on with chicken?

bathsheba_c
bathsheba_c Posts: 1,870 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
I had cornflake crumb chicken for dinner tonight (yummy!), and went to log it in my diary, when I found the weirdest thing.

Thighs apparently contain fewer calories, protein, and cholesterol than legs, even though both are dark meat. Not only that, but the calorie values are lower if you have "unit from 1lb chicken" than if you have "bone removed." If it matters, it's both meat and skin.

Will someone please explain to me what's going on here? Depending upon what's going on, I'm either under target for the day or over by 200 calories!

Replies

  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Your question was answered quite well in the other thread you posted about it.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/622089-database-info-for-chicken-can-t-be-accurate
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,870 Member
    Oh, hey! It was part answered.

    I posted it more in depth here because I started poke around more and uncovered more weirdness. Like bone-in being significantly fewer calories than bone-out.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    Most of the foods have been entered by users. You can't always trust everything...it stinks, but it's true. Maybe try Google to get clearer info and then choosing which entry to use from the MFP database.
  • devonette
    devonette Posts: 263 Member
    Bone in would be fewer calories because you don't eat the bone, so if you weighed the piece with the bone still in, the calories would only be in the meat part, which weighs significantly less, where if you weigh a piece of boneless chicken at the same weight as the bone in piece, that's all meat, and would have more calories.

    What I would do, if you cook your chicken with the bone still in it, is to weigh it with the bone in, and then when you are done eating it, weigh the bone, and subtract that from the first number. That will give you the weight of the chicken meat only. There are several listings for chicken, dark meat, cooked, boneless, and they are all relatively close in calories, so find the one that that suits you best for weighing in grams or ounces.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Like bone-in being significantly fewer calories than bone-out.
    Well yes... one pound of bone-in chicken is not as much meat as one pound of boneless. Part of the weight is the bone.
  • GasMasterFlash
    GasMasterFlash Posts: 2,206 Member
    Like bone-in being significantly fewer calories than bone-out.
    Well yes... one pound of bone-in chicken is not as much meat as one pound of boneless. Part of the weight is the bone.
    What if I eat the bones?
  • bathsheba_c
    bathsheba_c Posts: 1,870 Member
    I'm using the site-entered information.

    I understood "1 unit" to mean "1 piece." So one unit of a chicken thigh would be one chicken thigh. Am I not understanding the site correctly?
  • Contrarian
    Contrarian Posts: 8,137 Member
    Like bone-in being significantly fewer calories than bone-out.
    Well yes... one pound of bone-in chicken is not as much meat as one pound of boneless. Part of the weight is the bone.
    What if I eat the bones?

    Please don't eat the bones. You'll choke.
  • GasMasterFlash
    GasMasterFlash Posts: 2,206 Member
    I'm using the site-entered information.

    I understood "1 unit" to mean "1 piece." So one unit of a chicken thigh would be one chicken thigh. Am I not understanding the site correctly?
    I thought that one chicken thigh meant two legs. Now, I'm really confused.
  • ElizabethRoad
    ElizabethRoad Posts: 5,138 Member
    Like bone-in being significantly fewer calories than bone-out.
    Well yes... one pound of bone-in chicken is not as much meat as one pound of boneless. Part of the weight is the bone.
    What if I eat the bones?
    I didn't know you swing that way.
  • 99clmsntgr
    99clmsntgr Posts: 777 Member
    The site-entered data comes from the USDA database (http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/list), I'd trust it. After all, it's your government, would they lie to you?

    The other posters are right, one pound bone-in chicken will have less consumable product than one pound of boneless chicken. If you eat the bones, well....the closest I've heard to that is a weird aunt who would crack the bones and suck the marrow out. Weird. Seriously.

    As for the "one unit" measurement, it's for the yield from one pound of product. Meaning, if you buy one pound of bone-in chicken thighs then remove all the bones, but forget to weigh it (because then you can get the mass of your now boneless thighs), you can use the 1 unit "yield from 1 pound" as an estimate, which has some statistics behind it to make it, for the most part, an accurate estimate.
  • EKarma
    EKarma Posts: 594 Member
    Sounds like you may want to get kitchen scale and start weighing your foods. That's what I did. :)
This discussion has been closed.

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