How to weigh out cooked/uncooked pasta/rice etc when counting calories?

[Tal106]

Hey all

I'm looking to know how to weigh pasta and rice and foods like this that weigh more when cooked, particularly these two

i have this wholewheat pasta that im looking to eat

it says on the back "75g of uncooked pasta weighs approximately 170g when cooked".. so if i enter this data into my online calorie counting journal (i am using myfitnesspal.com) of what 75g of raw pasta is and then enter for the serving size "170g", then weigh the pasta when it's cooked to whatever amount i desire (for example i weighed out 200g of cooked pasta last night) will the calorie counting data be approximately correct?

[AlwaysTryin]

Weigh it raw and use the raw nutritional info. Weigh all foods raw

[Tal106]

is a cooked approximation not okay?
i really want to cook in bulk and bring the food to work with me, if i weigh it from the fridge after cooking it will the approximate calculation be alright?
it would be a massive time saver for me as i hardly have enough time as it is
or should i just bring wholemeal granary bread to work and eat that instead?

[Almogmon]

is a cooked approximation not okay?
i really want to cook in bulk and bring the food to work with me, if i weigh it from the fridge after cooking it will the approximate calculation be alright?

no. Weigh it raw.

[AlwaysTryin]

is a cooked approximation not okay?
i really want to cook in bulk and bring the food to work with me, if i weigh it from the fridge after cooking it will the approximate calculation be alright?
it would be a massive time saver for me as i hardly have enough time as it is
or should i just bring wholemeal granary bread to work and eat that instead?

You can weigh raw and cook in bulk you know...

[Makween]

is a cooked approximation not okay?
i really want to cook in bulk and bring the food to work with me, if i weigh it from the fridge after cooking it will the approximate calculation be alright?
it would be a massive time saver for me as i hardly have enough time as it is
or should i just bring wholemeal granary bread to work and eat that instead?

You're stressing over things that don't matter.

Weigh raw and cook in bulk. In practice not every serving will be exactly the same size, but they'll balance out over time.

[Tal106]

You can weigh raw and cook in bulk you know...

but wont i have to cook it in bulk in different pots? by bulk i meant one huge pot meaning i would have to weigh it again after anyway
surely using the cooked measurement on my fitness pal can't make that much of a caloric difference?

[Tal106]

You're stressing over things that don't matter.

Weigh raw and cook in bulk. In practice not every serving will be exactly the same size, but they'll balance out over time.

true, i will make sure to weigh it out raw next time though but im already in work so the cooked serving weighed will have to do

maybe i'll just take bread to work since that is easier to measure saving me valuable time in the morning, and then weigh raw pasta in the evening

[LukeTyson]

but wont i have to cook it in bulk in different pots? by bulk i meant one huge pot meaning i would have to weigh it again after anyway
surely using the cooked measurement on my fitness pal can't make that much of a caloric difference?

How many servings per pack ? Split cooked pasta in number of servings ?

[KouRon]

Just do what i did....find the conversion, for example, weigh out 100g raw, cook it then weigh it after cooked. I do this for everything that i cook in bulk.

Then its easy to calculate macros for COOKED weight....from my trials 100g of raw rice = 318g of cooked rice...so i just used a 3.18 conversion number to figure out weighted macros.

Either way whatever you do, just be consistent.

[devilbones]

Just do what i did....find the conversion, for example, weigh out 100g raw, cook it then weigh it after cooked. I do this for everything that i cook in bulk.

Then its easy to calculate macros for COOKED weight....from my trials 100g of raw rice = 318g of cooked rice...so i just used a 3.18 conversion number to figure out weighted macros.

Either way whatever you do, just be consistent.

Wait, what are you doing here?

[cldillmann1]

This is what i do for bulk cooking

weigh Raw and calc those macros

cook

divide into even portions by weight

divide previous macros by number of portions i made

each portion are these macros

[KouRon]

Wait, what are you doing here?

What don't you understand?

[devilbones]

What don't you understand?

Where does the 3.18 come into play with rice? Are you saying that you are dividing the cooked weight by 3.18 to find out your macros?

[KouRon]

Where does the 3.18 come into play with rice? Are you saying that you are dividing the cooked weight by 3.18 to find out your macros?

That is from my own observation based off my way i cook my rice. As i said, i did a trial run of 100g raw rice to see what it would turn out to be cooked, it came to 318g. So i used 3.18 as a conversion figure and then found out macros of COOKED weight by dividing that 3.18 to the macros on the packet per 100g. Make sense?

[devilbones]

That is from my own observation based off my way i cook my rice. As i said, i did a trial run of 100g raw rice to see what it would turn out to be cooked, it came to 318g. So i used 3.18 as a conversion figure and then found out macros of COOKED weight by dividing that 3.18 to the macros on the packet per 100g. Make sense?

Totally. Thats a really cool method and easy way to figure out macros for cooked weight if you are cooking in bulk. I have just weighed the bulk, cooked it, divided equally and then divided up the macros.

[Dielikeadog]

if you're eating everything your cooking why would you weigh it twice?

[KouRon]

Totally. Thats a really cool method and easy way to figure out macros for cooked weight if you are cooking in bulk. I have just weighed the bulk, cooked it, divided equally and then divided up the macros.

When i bulk cook, i prefer to store it all in just 1 Tupperware container, store it in the fridge and when it's time to eat, just grab it from there and weigh it in a bowl/tupperwear container.

if you're eating everything your cooking why would you weigh it twice?

I don't weigh everything twice, i only did 1 trail where i weighed it raw and then again cooked to see the conversion figure. After that, i just figured out what 100g of COOKED rice was in terms of macros and have gone off that ever since. So whenever i go to the fridge and grab my cooked rice, i know that if i have 200g of COOKED rice, i know what macros are for it as i have already done the macro conversion.

[tom626]

Here's a semi-related question I've been wondering. When I look up foods on nutritiondata.self.com, there are usually options for both raw and cooked. If I weigh it raw should I use the raw option when calculating macros, even though I eat it after it's been cooked? What's the point of having two different options for raw and cooked?

[KouRon]

Here's a semi-related question I've been wondering. When I look up foods on nutritiondata.self.com, there are usually options for both raw and cooked. If I weigh it raw should I use the raw option when calculating macros, even though I eat it after it's been cooked? What's the point of having two different options for raw and cooked?

If you are going off raw weight, use the raw macros, if you are going off cooked weight, go off the cooked macros.

Because food weight can change drastically after it is done cooking...most meats lose weight, whereas rice/pasta/oats all gain weight.

As for sites having cooked weight macros...i wouldn't trust it, if you want to weigh your food cooked, like i do, just trial it yourself. Grab 100g raw of watever it is (i.e 100g of Chicken Breast), cook it how you normally do, then immediately weigh it after it is cooked and find out the new weight. Then simple maths can work out the macros for the cooked weight of that food, provided you have the raw macros available.

[Tal106]

Weigh it raw and use the raw nutritional info. Weigh all foods raw

i think i will just do this from now on for simplicity

[Naeem11]

Do what I do for rice......say I make 7 servings of rice. I weigh it raw, cook it.....then re-weigh all of the rice and divide by 7.....bam, got my portions.

[cmsgtamn]

That is from my own observation based off my way i cook my rice. As i said, i did a trial run of 100g raw rice to see what it would turn out to be cooked, it came to 318g. So i used 3.18 as a conversion figure and then found out macros of COOKED weight by dividing that 3.18 to the macros on the packet per 100g. Make sense?

Ok. I'm pretty new to all this weighing stuff, and just learned today to weigh things raw. So let me make sure I'm completely understanding this.

You're rice weighs 100g uncooked with macros lets say Cal: 170, Carbs: 36, Fat: 12, Protein: 4

You then cook your 100g of rice, and after it has been cooked, it now weighs 318g. So you took 318/100 = 3.18.

Now you took the macros of 170, 36, 12, 4 and divided each of those by 3.18

So now the new cooked macros look like this: Cal: 53, Carb: 11, Fat: 1.2, Protein:1.2

Now in order to consume the macros that are on the label (the original), you would have to consume 1011 g of cooked rice?

Am I understanding this correctly? Sorry, I'm just really a noob to all this and trying to learn.

[MetilHed]

Ok. I'm pretty new to all this weighing stuff, and just learned today to weigh things raw. So let me make sure I'm completely understanding this.

You're rice weighs 100g uncooked with macros lets say Cal: 170, Carbs: 36, Fat: 12, Protein: 4

You then cook your 100g of rice, and after it has been cooked, it now weighs 318g. So you took 318/100 = 3.18.

Now you took the macros of 170, 36, 12, 4 and divided each of those by 3.18

So now the new cooked macros look like this: Cal: 53, Carb: 11, Fat: 1.2, Protein:1.2

Now in order to consume the macros that are on the label (the original), you would have to consume 1011 g of cooked rice?

Am I understanding this correctly? Sorry, I'm just really a noob to all this and trying to learn.

Dont divide the macros by 3.18. Just the weight

[cmsgtamn]

Divide the macros by the weight of 318? That doesn't seem right. The macros would be way too small. Could you please break it down like I'm the world's dumbest person, because that's pretty much what I feel like in all of this.

[BroFoods]

Here's what I've found to work.

White minute rice = 36 calories per ounce cooked
Brown minute rice = 33 calories per ounce cooked
Penne, rigatoni, and other non string style pasta = 50 calories per ounce cooked
Spaghetti, Angel hair, etc = 53 calories per ounce cooked.