🍗 How to Weigh Meat 🍗 A common question that I get regarding meal prep and macros is this: 💬 “Oli, should I weigh my chicken raw or cooked?” Good question, considering raw and cooked chicken differ in weight. 🏝 This is primarily because, through the cooking process, water and other juices in the meat evaporate. Therefore, the short answer to your question is: 🥩 You should weigh your chicken raw. Especially considering most nutrition labels present the nutrient data with regard to one serving of raw chicken. However, I realize that’s not always realistic. If you can’t weigh your chicken raw, don’t stress! Here’s what to do: 1️⃣ If weighing your chicken cooked, multiply the serving size by 1.4 and use that nutritional data. For example, 100g of raw chicken is 123 calories, and 100g of cooked chicken (123 calories * 1.4) is 172 calories, give or take. Make sense? 2️⃣ The other thing you can do, assuming you don’t like basic arithmetic haha, is simply log your chicken the same way you weigh it. Here’s what I mean: Some nutrition apps have already done that basic arithmetic for you. So instead of searching “chicken breast”, search for “chicken breast cooked” and log that instead.
💎 At the end of the day, consistency is better than perfection but the more accurate you can be, the more likely you’ll make progress at the rate you desire.
This formula isn’t the same or all foods, just meat. For example with pasta, it works in the opposite manner. 100g raw pasta is higher in calories than 100g of cooked pasta.
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