New here so hope this is the right forum...

I am confused about counting calories for pasta/rice etc.

Do we count the calories before we cook the pasta or afterwards?  The calorific gain for cooked pasta is so high that I can't quite believe that water would mean a 100g of pasta increases from 350 cals to 650... am I being really stupid or does anyone else feel confused about dry/cooked weight calories?

Well the thing is that 100g of NON COOKED pasta is around 300 kcal, when it gets cooked it gains water weight so calories do not increase, but size does, so you should measure how much you are cooking when it is dry, and thats the total calories in the pasta =D!

Thank you for that - I didnt see how calories could increase but a lot of recipes seem to calculate the amount of calories for the cooked pasta/rice which never made a lot of sense to me

You should measure the rice AFTER cooking for the caloric calculations.  You might eat 1 cup of cooked rice for a reasonable serving but not the 4 cups that cook up from 1 cup of uncooked rice.

LOL no man, at the end you have to measure the uncooked rice because even if you get four cups from 1 cup of uncooked rice at the end, if you eat just one cup of the 4 you are still eating 1/4th of the cup of uncooked rice... so u have to calculate the values per 100g of the uncooked rice -_-

I respectfully but strongly disagree.  On a box of rice it will give you the nutritional information based upon 1/2 to 3/4cup of cooked rice.  NOT on the uncooked portion.  No nutritionist is going to tell you to have 4oz of chicken with 1 cup of uncooked brown rice as that would be the equivalent of +/-4 cups of cooked rice  That would be way too much.

yea, you are completely right, but thats not what i meant; what i meant is that you have to look out when in a package it says *per 100g as it comes OR *per 100 after being cooked =D

Agree 

...okay and when it doesnt specify?

Original Post by loseweight1234:

...okay and when it doesnt specify?

Ok see, for example in some pot noodles which was REALY confusing me, in the packet it would say, per 100g("made up as directed" or "as served") would be like 100 kcal per 100g because the noodles would have already some absorbed water, but per 100g ("as sold") they are 500kcal.

In cereals it would be just per 100g without any specification, that is how it comes in the packet "as sold", so most of the times, when it doesnt specify it is "as sold"