Probably a dumb question...
Are you supposed to weigh foods before or after cooking? For example, if I eat 5 ounces of beef and I look that up in the food look-up thingy, is that 5 ounces of beef before cooking or after? Same question about pasta (and anything else you can think of...)
Thanks for your help.
Usually for meat the package specifies the serving for either raw or cooked. Like the chicken breasts I buy say they are 110 calories for 4 oz raw, which turns out to be a lil' less when cooked. If there's no nutrition info on the package, when you look it up online I would assume it's for cooked unless specified otherwise. But it's not including what you cook it in, like oil or sauces.
Pasta is always measured dry.
I am really eager to hear responses on this...I finally bought a food scale today! It's a cheap one but better than nothing. I can't WAIT to see what my estimates of chicken of 4oz is compared to what 4oz REALLY is! I do wish I knew if it was cooked or raw on the estimates.
And probably the dumbest question ever: what's the easiest way to measure/weigh pasta when it's dry? Those thin noodles just fly everywhere it seems! Cut to me wondering if I can eat more of it since it would weigh less dry...lol...I love pasta so much!
Assuming you have 'add & weigh' style scales. Take a jug or mug, place it on the scale, zero the reading..... then stand the spaghetti/lingunie/whatever in the container.
If you look it up in the food browser, it will usually show you whether it's for cooked or uncooked beef. And that goes for pork, poultry, fish, etc., too. If you're looking at the nutrition info on the actual package, the calories are shown for uncooked meat.
I weigh my pasta the same way gi-jane does. I have a good digital scale and I put a paper plate or paper towel on it, set it to zero, then place the uncooked pasta on it. I don't know what I'd do without my scale. I weigh everything from meat, to fruit, to pasta, to ____. It was money well spent.
Awesome. I am waaaaay too excited to use my food scale tonight! I hope I'm not hugely disappointed when I see the real amounts of food I'm allowed to eat! My nightmare is a tiny serving of noodles!
Original Post by craigversion2:
Awesome. I am waaaaay too excited to use my food scale tonight! I hope I'm not hugely disappointed when I see the real amounts of food I'm allowed to eat! My nightmare is a tiny serving of noodles!
Pasta servings are always so much smaller than I think they should be 
But somethings like Ranch dressing is always much more than I think I should have. Its really hard to judge somethings, enjoy the new scale! I LOVE MINE!!
On a side note, I only weigh dry pasta and everything else I weigh after I cook it... maybe this is the problem I am having? Lol I don't weigh fruit, should I be doing that really? I just figure fruits a free calorie food?
Oh, lillysmominpa, if you're counting calories, I think you need to count fruit, too. It can really add up. A 7" banana has 105 calories. A small container of grapefruit (8 oz) has 120 calories. I know that everyone is different, but I count everything that goes in my mouth (except tea and Crystal Light). You, of course, need to do what works best for you. Best wishes and continued too luck to you, to ALL of us. 
hi couldnt help but wonder if rice is also measured dry?????
Original Post by muhagie:
hi couldnt help but wonder if rice is also measured dry?????
Yup.
Generally, there are entries for foods both cooked and uncooked in the database. So, you can find dry rice and cooked rice. I usually find it more convenient to weigh things like rice and pasta cooked because with the small amounts I eat at a time, it's a lot easier to cook several servings at once, and then weigh them as I use them.
If you use the recipe analyzer, it will generally assume you mean the raw version of any food unless you specify otherwise. I've gotten some pretty shocking results when putting in things like beans and pasta.
