# Weighing your food



## Fsuphisig (Jun 28, 2014)

I would like to start bulk cooking my food twice a week and just bought myself a nice little digital scale, I googled wether to weigh your food raw or cooked and it's like this huge debate on all these forums. How do most of you do it? When they say 4oz of chicken or whatever is 22 grams protein is that cooked or raw ? Just wanna make sure I'm hitting my protein mark and not screwing myself


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## T_smith (Jun 28, 2014)

I always weigh my food cooked. But that's just how I do it, I'm sure there's lots of other people who weigh it uncooked. The reason I weigh it cooked is because the weight can change after you cook it. For example when your cooking meat, it will lose some of it's juices during the cooking process which will affect the weight. I don't think it matters too much wether you weigh it cooked or raw, just stick to one or the other every time to keep everything as accurate as possible.


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## Oldebull (Jun 28, 2014)

It does and it doesn't matter. When looking up nutritional information, it should be listed as cooked or raw. There is a difference. However, you can use either. I think that weighing cooked, with excess fat, skin, bone, already removed, will give you the most accurate information.

  I don't know what method you use to track or log your food. I really like fitday.com. You have to play around with it, and realize that the guidance it gives you isn't meant for athletes (such as macros, options to bulk, etc). But strictly for logging, and charting day to day, it works pretty well.


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## TriniJuice (Jun 28, 2014)

I weigh my shxt cooked; never understood weighing it raw...im eatN it cooked so why weigh it raw


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## coltmc4545 (Jun 28, 2014)

When I prepped for my show, my nutritionist had me weigh everything raw. So that's just how I do it. It takes some math especially when you're cooking a bunch of rice. But if the labels say raw weight, it's going to take some math too. Damn I don't miss weighing my shit.


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## Spongy (Jun 28, 2014)

The spreadsheets I give my clients lists all nutrition info choked so that's how Helios rolls


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## ken Sass (Jun 28, 2014)

i eat then get on the scales


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## Canadian muscle (Jun 29, 2014)

I weigh it cooked.
Us calorie counter websites. 

Pre cooked weight is more inconvenient. I cook 3-4 days of food at once


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## Dtownry (Jun 29, 2014)

Cooked.  Once you have an idea of the portion sizes you won't need the scale anymore.  For instance, I now know how much ground beef needs to be in my little container for it to be 8oz  I don't need to weigh it now.


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## don draco (Jun 29, 2014)

You weigh the food raw.  The nutritional data on the back of the package shows you the macronutrient/caloric content of the food in its raw form.


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## DocDePanda187123 (Jun 29, 2014)

don draco said:


> You weigh the food raw.  The nutritional data on the back of the package shows you the macronutrient/caloric content of the food in its raw form.



X2

10char


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## Fsuphisig (Jun 29, 2014)

I can see there's not consensus answer here either lol I'm leaning toward raw but I want to look up how myfitnesspal has it presented


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## JOMO (Jun 29, 2014)

Spongy said:


> The spreadsheets I give my clients lists all nutrition info choked so that's how Helios rolls



Hell Yeaahh! I go off cooked after working with the Sponge! WHat up Spongy!?


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## don draco (Jun 29, 2014)

Fsuphisig said:


> I can see there's not consensus answer here either lol I'm leaning toward raw but I want to look up how myfitnesspal has it presented



From my understanding, the food entries in myfitnesspal are created by the users themselves.  The most accurate entries will be those created via barcode scanner or by manually inputting the macronutrient & caloric content of a specific food with the 'create a food' option.  In both cases (assuming the information that is recorded manually was copied accurately), the information entered will be identical to nutritional information displayed on the food package.    

And taking into consideration that said nutritional information is based upon the _raw weight_ of the food product, it's safe to assume that the most accurate entries are representative of the food weighed in its raw form.


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## woodswise (Jun 29, 2014)

To the OP:

It doesnt make much difference whether you weigh raw or cooked just so long as you do it consistently because the key to this is getting your diet consistent day in and day out.  So I would choose the most convenient method (for me cooked), and then always do it that way.

These tools (the food log, the scale, or measuring cup) all help us to stay consistent with our diets.  Once you are consistent day after day, then you can tell whether you need to increase or decrease your food consumption or keep it the same, based on whether you are achieving the gains / changes you want to achieve.

So being perfect on knowing your macros or Kcals is not as important as eating the same amount of food and same macros day in and day out.


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## Bro Bundy (Jun 29, 2014)

if i ever weigh my food im gonna put it in a bag and sell it


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## iJMorgan (Jun 30, 2014)

I measure mine out cooked. The 3 things I can't live w/o are my digital scale, crock pot and Tupperware. Makes my life a lot easier to stay on eating healthy. I go with chicken 90% of the time switch out sweet potato or brown rice every week and supplement with broccoli and mushrooms when super hungry. When it time to cook but little time I grab 2 low sodium tuna packets and a large serving of broccoli. Add Sriracha sauce and good to go.


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## deadlift666 (Jul 1, 2014)

I typically measure cooked food.  But am reconsidering that for thing such as rice, since I'm not sure if I'm being accurate for it.


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## Fsuphisig (Jul 2, 2014)

Well I look on my fitness pal and it's the same amount of protein for cooked or raw this seems off. I think the rule of thumb is you lose one oz water for every 4 oz chicken. Shit


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## Solid Snake (Jul 13, 2014)

For meats I usually weigh cooked. You lose some weight raw vs cooked but after enough times you get a rough idea of how much you need. Rice will usually have a raw and cooked serving size amount on the label so you should be able to figure that out easily. If I weigh veggies I do it before cooking. I'm not sure what is really right or better to do but I think the big thing is consistency with your meal sizes and frequency.


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