Weighing food! I need help lol

[LiveFitBeFit]

Hello all,

I bought a great food scale a few months ago that i've been using religiously lately...

Anyways I am just curious should I be weighing my meats RAW or COOKED? I usually weigh it before then cook it. Idk though looking for help and opinions. I know carbs are always weighed before being cooked..

Thanks guys

[gbrice75]

I weigh everything before. Almost all nutritional data is for raw content, unless otherwise specified. The general rule of thumb of meats being roughly 6g protein per oz. assumes raw weight. Just remember that meats will always lose some weight during the cooking process (some fat, mostly water). So if you intend to eat 6oz of chicken breast and weigh out 6oz cooked, you're eating roughly 8oz... and effectively going way over your macros in the course of a day. Biggest rookie mistake.

[LiveFitBeFit]

Wow thanks! Figured you'd be the man to fill me in on this info! Today I weighed a large a** chicken breast 11oz raw! I ate the damn thing PWO but I was just curious, and thought i'd ask Thanks again GB!

[gbrice75]

Nice! Probably weighed a good 8oz cooked I bet.

[Dpyle]

Well gb you just explained why I've put on a few pounds while maintaining maybe dropping a bit of body fat. Been weighing all meats cooked and all carbs uncooked.

[rasc170]

I would imagine that weighing after it's cooked would be more accurate, since you're burning a lot of water and it's mostly actual meat. But i've heard from other people that weighing before is more accurate as well. Kinda weird :/

I always weigh it after it's cooked but use the values below, which clearly show it's weight after cooking.

http://www.fitday.com/fitness/FoodVi...dds2-f24122100

[gbrice75]

^^ I understand your logic, but it's flawed. If a raw piece of meat is 24g of protein, cooking it doesn't lessen the protein content just because water was lost. i.e. water was lost, not protein. 24g of protein is 24g of protein.

[Noles12]

^^ I understand your logic, but it's flawed. If a raw piece of meat is 24g of protein, cooking it doesn't lessen the protein content just because water was lost. i.e. water was lost, not protein. 24g of protein is 24g of protein.

Exactly. The protein is not coming out in liquid form.

You can lose some fat content as wel as water but the protein remains unchanged

[haterade]

when i did my bb diet .. my trainer had me weigh cooked.. i really dont know if there is a "wrong way" or if its just opinion/ preference.. the reality of it is is your looking for a specific amount of protein, carbs and fats not actual weight..

[Noles12]

when i did my bb diet .. my trainer had me weigh cooked.. i really dont know if there is a "wrong way" or if its just opinion/ preference.. the reality of it is is your looking for a specific amount of protein, carbs and fats not actual weight..

If you account for water loss and fat loss, then weighing cooked can be used as well.

The problem is cooked weight is not equivalent to uncooked. 6 oz of cooked chicken will have more protein than 6 oz of raw. Unless you can measure out exactly how much fat and water was lost, then you would not be able to accurately measure the protein content with the cooked weight alone.

This often leads to being off on macros because one is weighing cooked and assuming uncooked numbers. Every gram of carbs, protein, and fats are calories

[bobjack]

maybe just take a number between cooked and raw? i've been doing this with beef because when i grill it, it nearly halves in weight

[Noles12]

maybe just take a number between cooked and raw? i've been doing this with beef because when i grill it, it nearly halves in weight

You can figure out what the ratio is from raw to cooked by weighing before and after then apply that to each serving of the cooked food.

So if you were to cook 20 oz of raw meat and it came out as 15 oz cooked, then you would multiply each serving you measure after by 1.25.
6oz cooked=7.5oz for macros based on the situation i described

[rasc170]

im more confused on this subject now than I was before entering this thread

[Noles12]

im more confused on this subject now than I was before entering this thread

Easiest approach. Weigh your meats in portions you want uncooked. Then you have accurate macros with no other work necessary

[JAB1]

Easiest approach. Weigh your meats in portions you want uncooked. Then you have accurate macros with no other work necessary

^^This.. Example- You want four servings of 6oz meat, so you weigh up 24 oz raw meat and cook. Once cooked say it weighs 20 oz, so you divide out 4, 5 oz servings. (note: these weights were examples not accurate cook of loss of weight, etc).

[gbrice75]

when i did my bb diet .. my trainer had me weigh cooked.. i really dont know if there is a "wrong way" or if its just opinion/ preference.. the reality of it is is your looking for a specific amount of protein, carbs and fats not actual weight..

Weighing cooked is fine, as long as you have a good idea of the raw protein content. i.e. I will eat a 6oz cooked portion of chicken and know it has roughly 50g of protein, because it's uncooked weight was around 8oz.

As most do, I cook my food in bulk for the week. What I do with all my foods (protein and carbs) is this:

Weight out raw/dry weight. If I want an 8oz portion of chicken breast for 5 days, I weigh out 40oz of chicken. I then cook the chicken, and reweigh the cooked meat. Obviously, it will be under 40oz. Take the new weight, and divide by 5. BAM! You have your serving size/weight.