HELP!!! Do you weigh your meat cooked or uncooked?

workingitout2012
workingitout2012 Posts: 44
edited October 19 in Food and Nutrition
I am so confused! Am i supposed to weigh my chicken when its raw or cooked? If i weigh it when its raw 100g is not very much at all & if i weigh it cooked arnt I eating more than 100g because it would've been more than that before it was cooked?

Also how the heck are you supposed to know which nutritional information to trust? I've looked at the different listing for 100g cooked chicken breast on here & heaps of other websites and they all list different cals between 100 to 291 - for the same thing???
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Replies

  • miracle4me
    miracle4me Posts: 522 Member
    good question
  • Arwen280804
    Arwen280804 Posts: 25 Member
    I use raw weight, that way I know I've not gone over.
    Same with Jacket Potatoes, I weigh pre-baking not after.
  • Arwen280804
    Arwen280804 Posts: 25 Member
    Ref nutritional info. If I don't have a packet of the food at home to check, and there is conflicting info on here, I look up the item online.

    Say it is for chicken breast, I might go to a supermarket website, go to the grocery section and locate a generic chicken breast and use those details, as they have come from the packaging.

    Or I look up various versions of the same thing and take an average, or use the most common listed.

    So long as it is as close as you can get, that's the main thing.
  • PercivalHackworth
    PercivalHackworth Posts: 1,437 Member
    In most cases, every measure is given uncooked. Simply put, you never know how much the cooking will make the food retain water, and that last is also in a measure proportional of the volume of the food...and since water doesn't contain any calories.
    We'd be all screwed if we would scale the rice cooked
  • fimary
    fimary Posts: 274 Member
    bump, curious about bulgar wheat and brown rice if anyone can help thanks
  • thisisjl
    thisisjl Posts: 1,074 Member
    Weigh your meat pre-cooking. As for nutritional information you should be able to look up the website for the company who packaged the meat if you can't find specific nutritional information I've found Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast is about 100-150 per 100g depending on how lean the meat is some chicken is more fatty than others.
  • PrinnyBomb
    PrinnyBomb Posts: 196 Member
    Raw weight and always try and use the packet it comes in wherever possible.
  • auntygill
    auntygill Posts: 108 Member
    Yes always raw on any food if possible.xx
  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
    I find it much easier to weigh it cooked. I cook 10lbs of chicken and 10lbs of talipia at a time. Weigh it before hand is a pure hassle.
  • swisspea
    swisspea Posts: 327 Member
    I'm surprised that most people here are saying to weigh it uncooked. I'm not a meat eater, so I'm no expert, but I do eat fish. I know that when I defrost shrimp, they weight significantly less than when they are frozen- and on the package the nutrition is given when they are de-thawed. Obviously, they loose water weight in the dethawing process. However, surely, after meat is cooked (especially on the BBQ) it has lost a significant amount of fat and calories. You aren't eating all of the fat located in the meat before it's grilled, as lots of it is lost in the cooking process (grilling). Again, I don't eat meat, but I think that weighing it when it's cooked is most effective.

    Rice confuses the hell out of me, I just go with what's on the package and go by that measurement (dry).
  • NelehY
    NelehY Posts: 52 Member
    Before cooking - once it's cooked I'm EATING!!

    Apart from anything else though - I had assumed that the calorie contents had been calculated with that assumption.

    You're hardly going to eat 200g or raw steak.....are you???
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Always weigh food before cooking it. It loses or gains water during the cooking process and it is impossible to know accurately what it will weigh after cooking.
  • lissrn
    lissrn Posts: 60 Member
    Good info
  • beachloe
    beachloe Posts: 51 Member
    I'm glad you asked this because I've always weighed mine cooked! Now I know I was wrong.
  • Kristinemomof3
    Kristinemomof3 Posts: 636 Member
    I weigh mine cooked, and always have, it's just easier. I did some research, I'm sure she did a lot too:
    http://www.skinny-bits.com/2010/04/weighing-your-food-raw-vs-cooked.html
  • MoveTheMountain
    MoveTheMountain Posts: 764
    I use raw weight, that way I know I've not gone over.
    Same with Jacket Potatoes, I weigh pre-baking not after.

    That's a really good point. (I usually forget to weight it before I cook it, but I agree it's probably the better way to go.)
  • AntWrig
    AntWrig Posts: 2,273 Member
    I'm glad you asked this because I've always weighed mine cooked! Now I know I was wrong.
    You are not wrong. Most nutritional coaches have their clients consuming cooked weight meat, due to the meat loosing size during the process. So you're actually losing vital nutrients. That 50 grams of protein has turned into 32 or 40g. That's a big difference. Even when trying to lose weight.

    Restaturants use the raw weight,because you they would lose money. When it says 14oz ribeye, you're not getting 14 oz on for plate. You would probably get 11 or 12 oz.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    I'm glad you asked this because I've always weighed mine cooked! Now I know I was wrong.
    You are not wrong. Most nutritional coaches have their clients consuming cooked weight meat, due to the meat loosing size during the process. So you're actually losing vital nutrients. That 50 grams of protein has turned into 32 or 40g. That's a big difference. Even when trying to lose weight.

    Restaturants use the raw weight,because you they would lose money. When it says 14oz ribeye, you're not getting 14 oz on for plate. You would probably get 11 or 12 oz.

    The loss in weight is due to a loss in water, not really nutrition. And even if some of the nutrition was lost, it would be totally impossible to calculate what was lost and rework macros and calories. Is the weight lost from protein? Fat? Water? A little of each? How much of each? 10 calories? 20 calories? Without high tech equipment, there is absolutely no way at all to even estimate that. That's why raw weights are more accurate.

    A 4 oz steak could be cooked and end up weighing 3 oz, 2.5 oz, or 3.5 oz, depending on exact cooking temperature, ambient temperature, humidity, precooked temperature of the meat (refrigerated or room temp,) final cooked temperature of the meat, etc. No way any one without access to a lab would be able to figure that out.
  • workingitout2012
    workingitout2012 Posts: 44
    You guys are all so amazing :) thanks for the advice! I'm going to weigh it raw from now on. You've all made some really good points & I appreciate the help. Thanks again
  • vaman
    vaman Posts: 253 Member
    Cooked! It's the weight that you are actually putting into your body that counts, raw or uncooked weight is meaningless! It's very important to accurately weigh the quantity that you are consuming and don't use the weight stated on the package.
  • euheide
    euheide Posts: 1
    You must NEVER WEIGH YOUR FOOD COOKED simply because the "nutrition data you are using", comes from "uncooked food". This means that, if you weight your food cooked, YOU ARE USING INCORRECT DATA

    In other words, if you have a chicken breast that weighs 153 g, and you weight after cooking, and you get 115 g, the nutritional data for those 115 g you added will be wrong, because it's actually related to 115 g of uncooked meat.

    So, this translates into a huge error in accounting anything from calories to fat, proteins etc in your diet, and it builds up every time you do it, every single day because you think that you're actually consuming less than you really are.

    Scientists take uncooked food (with all the water weight, etc) and they weigh it, then they analyse it and quantify it's nutritional value. So this means the registered weight is the only possible reference (or connection) to the data retrieved.

    The weight after cooked doesn't mean anything since no one has analysed it like that so you can't have any data from there anywhere (except for some scientific studies which data is not used for these ends anyway)

    What good is counting calories if you're counting incorrectly?

    This is only a matter of choice if you mean it's a choice between doing things right or wrong ;)

    by the way, I worked in a food analysis lab
  • adjones_21
    adjones_21 Posts: 234 Member
    I have always wondered this myself and this is what I have found.

    http://www.skinny-bits.com/2010/04/weighing-your-food-raw-vs-cooked.html
  • efirkey
    efirkey Posts: 298 Member
    I weigh my meats cooked. I only have one scale and I don't want to contaminate it with raw meats especially chicken. I do wash it, but I don't want to wash it several times every time I eat.
  • sweetnlow30
    sweetnlow30 Posts: 497 Member
    I am sure raw is more accurate but I always use the cooked weight. I cook for the entire family then portion the dish out. There are both raw and cooked entries in the database so I just select the cooked entry. For example, raw boneless chicken is about 130 cals but the same weight cooked is 165 cals because it has less water weight. I figured they are already doing the math. It is close enough for me :wink:

    edited for spelling
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    I'm with most people here - measure uncooked for meat, dry for pasta and rice. It's not always possible so I search for entries that reflect cooked if I don't do uncooked measurements.

    As for your question on knowing which ones are right - I go to nutritiondata.self.com and compare. You'll find the the MFP entries come from there (the ones with an * are entered by others). I can't always tell on my phone so I use that site and choose the MFP entry that is the same. I now have a list if frequent foods I have verified.
  • passmetheducksauce
    passmetheducksauce Posts: 211 Member
    weigh your meats cooked unless you eat your meat uncooked, in that case you should weigh it uncooked.
  • SensuousLettuce
    SensuousLettuce Posts: 1
    If you are consistent in your measuring (cooked vs uncooked) then it doesn't matter.

    I always do post cooking. 100 grams pre-cooked may become 75 grams after cooking (or less) and that's just not enough food.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    That's 10 cooked, 10 uncooked. Thank goodness we've solved another mystery.
  • DebbieLyn63
    DebbieLyn63 Posts: 2,654 Member
    That's 10 cooked, 10 uncooked. Thank goodness we've solved another mystery.

    Awesome :drinker:
  • jollyjoe321
    jollyjoe321 Posts: 529 Member
    I usually get precooked, but frozen stuff (cheap and easy ;) )

    I weigh it frozen, which I know is totally wrong! ;)
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