measuring and weighing food

[MJF]

When you measure foods that will be cooked, such as rice or oatmeal, is it an uncooked measurement or cooked? Brown rice has 150 calories per 1/4 cup. I have been measuring 1/4 cup uncooked and calling that one serving, but after cooking it's looks like a cup of rice.

 

[3J]

well it really matters to what you prefer... usually i weigh oats raw because we dont make it in bulk..

rice i like to weigh cooked.. but you can easily weigh a bunch of rice raw... cook it.. weigh it again.. and do the math to get the right measurements

 

[MJF]

My brown rice that I just recently added into my diet says 150 cal per 1/4 cup. The past few days, I've been cooking 1/2 uncooked cup and bringing it for one of my meals. I just finished eating it and I didn't measure how many cups it was cooked, but it looked like almost 2 cups. So on my calorie tracker do I add 1/2 cup or close to 2 cups? It makes a heck of a difference on calories and carbs. Especially since I had previously been on a carb restricted diet. Just in this week, I can't really see my abs any longer. I know they're there but they are beginning to be covered with fat and I don't like it.

 

[MJF]

And my steel cut oats for breakfast I weigh uncooked. I weigh 1/2 cup uncooked and log it in my calorie tracker as 1/2 cup. Cooked it's probably 1 cup.

 

[3J]

so long as you are using the math to understand it its all good..

i weigh my potatoes raw.. i weigh my rice cooked.. but thats after i weighed it raw and weighed it again cooked a few times.. i use the same recipe.. same amount of water every time.. and that takes the guess work out of it

 

[MJF]

I'm not sure I understand the math yet on these. For example since the bag says 1/4 cup 150 cal. But once it's cooked it swells to 1/2 cup. Am I adding 150 calories or 300 calories to my log?

Cause if the latter, I just ate 900-1200 calories in rice alone with my 10 oz of chicken breast.

 

[3J]

in terms of adding to your log.. add the dry weight..

if youre eating everything that youre cooking in one sitting dont worry about it..

 

[MJF]

Yes. I'm eating it in one serving. I just saw one and a half cups of rice on my plate and with my recent fat gain, I wondered if I was adding to my food log incorrectly.

I have to say, it's very tough to eat enough calories whwn you use healthy food. I'm full all day long. So full that one day I wondered how I/people in general get fat. Then I went to lunch with coworkers one day, and that night my wife wanted to order pizza. That was about a 5000 calorie day of bad calories. But in the past that was a normal day.

 

[carverelli]

Weight is a mass meaurement, typically when you measure rice or oatmeal or anything cooked in water you measure it dry (volume)ie cup or 1/2 cup etc. measurement after it's cooked can be flawed because no matter how much water that soaked into the rice the calorie value hasn't changed cromwhenit was dry because water hasn't any calories.

 

[Hypnotix]

Rice typically doubles in weight after cooking, and oats increase by about half their dry weight.. weigh them both dry.

If it says 1/4 cup of rice = 150 cal, then 1/2 cup of cooked rice = 150 cal

Likewise, if it says 1/2 cup of oats = 150 calories, then 3/4 of cooked oats would also = 150 calories

This is of course, if they come out a perfect double, or a perfect half in increased weight.

The method 3J explained is incredibly precise and will definitely ensure you're getting what you want to be getting every time.