Brown Rice Pasta - Help!

My husband doesn't digest wheat very well so for years we have been eating brown rice pasta instead of regular wheat pasta.  The bag is 16 oz = 5 cups (I poured it into a measuring cup).  So if 2 oz is 200 calories the whole bag would be 1600 calories and if I divided that into 5 cups it would be 320 calories a cup!! (It doesn't expand the same way as regular pasta - it was 5 cups after I cooked it too).  Is that right?  How is that even possible??    A cup isn't very much - I would guess I used to eat at least 21/2 or 3 cups before -- no wonder I gained so much weight!  Ugh!!

figure depending on the size of pasta that 1/2 cup uncooked would equal around 3/4-1 cup cooked. usually the label will tell you how much it is prepared

oh and if the pasta is going to be your meal... 1 cup is actually really a LOT. pasta expands in the stomach as well, creating a fuller feeling, just drink a glass of water before and after you eat the cup of pasta. if you still arent full, go back for another 1/2 cup and you should have around 315 calories(seeing as most pasta is 210 for 2oz)

Because it is rice pasta it doesn't expand - I measured it before I cooked it and after I cooked it and both times it was exactly 5 cups (I think some of the rice must dissolve as the water is always VERY starchy after it is cooked).  That is the problem - it only says "Serving Size 2 oz" but is it 2 oz volume, 2oz by weight??  Hence my trying to figure it out above....just seemed like way too many calories for how much was in 1 cup...

It's 2oz per weight. I highly recommend getting food scales. You can get good ones for around 30 bucks.

UD

I agree.  My food scale is indispensable.  Once you have one ( and there are reasonably cheap ones too.  They're not as good, but they're good enough), try measuring out 2 oz. of dry pasta and cooking that.  Then weigh it again after it's cooked so you'll know what the equivalent cooked weight is.  As for losing starch in the water, I suppose if you really want to be completely accurate (although the manufacturer might have accounted for the lost starch when putting in the nutritional information), you could save the cooking water and let it cool.  The starch should settle to the bottom and then you could separate it from the water and weigh it.  Of course that may be a lot more trouble than it's worth.