Meats

What is the best way to measure meats? 

After the critters stop running around 

I use a food scale.a must have appliance

By weight. Before cooking.

Wait, before cooking?  I have always weighed after.  How would you measure rotisserie chicken, or steak that you slice a portion off of, wonder what weight cooking takes.

I've been weighing after too. 

Thanks for the tips! Just purchased a scale!

http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/rny/4402449/SHOULD-WE-WEIG H-RAW-OR-COOKED/

This is a link to a past thread on this same subject, fyi.

I asked a lot of nutritionists when I started, and the answers were about 50-50 for weighing raw vs cooked meat. It turns out that, at the time, there was no definitive answer. I have always weighed mine cooked, then subtracted the weight of the bones and anything I didn't finish afterward.

But, now, there actually is a correct answer. While nutrition information labels for most products were first mandatory i***** nutrition labels have only been required on raw meat and poultry products since 2012. If they are prepared or have a small amount of meat in them (think pork and beans, pasta sauce with meat, etc) the regulations are different, as well as their history. My eyes glazed over when they were talking about that, since I am uninterested in products that are only 5% meat.

The label must list only calories, grams of total fat and saturated fat. Ground meat that contains a lean percentage statement must list the percentage of fat for easier product comparisons. Manufacturers can voluntarily offer more information.

The nutrition facts are listed based on the product's raw weight. The serving size for nearly all raw meat and poultry products is four ounces. If the raw product was formed into patties, then the serving size must be the raw weight of each patty.

I'm not going to change the way I log. I don't plan to, anyway. I have almost 4-1/2 years of food logs, and I would rather maintain consistency. It's the relation between number day-to-day and month-to-month that is important to me, not the actual calorie number. But if I were to start logging today, I would begin by using the right numbers.

I think the confusion in the past, and especially when I first started logging, there was NO requirement to provide nutrient labels on raw meat. The calorie numbers out there were from various sources, and some used raw, and some cooked. That's why, when I asked various nutritionists, I received conflicting answers. It must have been just before the nutrition labels began to be required in 2012. I wish the labels actually said raw or cooked though. It would have cleared up a lot of confusion.

So Grim, if you were to have some rotisserie chicken (no bone) you would just have to weigh as is because there is no raw weight right?  Or if you have just some slices off a steak, same thing?   But, if you CAN get a raw weight you use it?

Chicken has very little fat, so doesn't lose much weight as it cooks. Unless you dry it out too much. But a steak can lose 1/4 to 1/3 when cooked. And you can look at two steaks and see a huge difference in the fat content.

I don't worry about it, and just try to stay consistent. As I said, I still use cooked weight, even though it's wrong. So, maybe I'm logging 350 calories, when it's really 425. But, it might have been more because it had more fat. Or less.

What's really important ismaking sure I'm not eatibg 25 percent more this week than I was a year ago. Or if I gain a few pounds, I know how much I'm cutting to make sure I lose it. Or, after I eat those billion calories at Thanksgiving, how long it will take me to average them out in the week or two after. Calories are important for me in the bigger picture and longer term.