{"id":866,"date":"2009-01-23T20:23:58","date_gmt":"2009-01-23T18:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=866"},"modified":"2015-02-12T21:24:22","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T02:24:22","slug":"counting-calories-cooked-raw-foods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/counting-calories-cooked-raw-foods\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting Calories for Cooked vs. Raw Foods"},"content":{"rendered":"
I get questions on this all the time on the forums I moderate, so I figured this was worth discussing…it seems like a common point of confusion.<\/div>\n

Simply put, foods change in volume\/weight during cooking. Certain foods, like meat or fish, shrink. Others, like pasta or oatmeal, expand. But what’s important to remember, is that the difference between cooked vs. raw is mainly due to changes in water content. Meat shrinks because moisture is lost. Oatmeal expands because water is absorbed. Water has no calories, so the absolute calories and macronutrient content of the cooked food doesn’t change to a significant extent…just the calories and macronutrients per unit volume.<\/p>\n

Whether you use “cooked” vs. “raw” calories really comes down to the number of people being served.\u00a0 If, for example, you’re making a single serving of oatmeal, the “raw” calories will do nicely…what\u00a0goes into the pot is also what comes out.\u00a0 Yes, it’s expanded from – say – 1\/2 cup to 1 cup – but it doesn’t matter, since you’re eating the whole thing.\u00a0 Ditto\u00a0for a boneless, skinless chicken breast…the 5 oz. breast you put in the pan\u00a0may\u00a0shrink to 3.5 oz. after its cooked, but it it’s no big deal…the total amount of protein – the primary source of calories – hasn’t changed.\u00a0 A\u00a0few fat calories may have been lost during cooking, but since the chicken was low in fat to begin with, the “error” is trivial.<\/p>\n

Of course, you could also use the “cooked” calories for the above examples too…if you decide to measure your food after it’s cooked vs. before.\u00a0 Doesn’t matter, really, as long as you realize it’s not necessary to measure things TWICE (i.e., before AND after cooking).\u00a0 Dieting\u00a0can be\u00a0difficult enough, without adding unnecessary work.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, if you’re cooking a pot of rice to serve for a family dinner, it’s\u00a0simpler to measure your serving AFTER cooking, and use the “cooked” calories.\u00a0 Ditto if you’re carving a serving of meat from a larger roast (like pot roast or a turkey breast), or a portion from a recipe (like chili).<\/p>\n

It’s not hard to find comprehensive calorie and nutrition information for both cooked and\u00a0raw foods: my two favorite online sources are calorieking.com<\/a> and nutritiondata.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get questions on this all the time on the forums I moderate, so I figured this was worth discussing…it seems like a common point of confusion. Simply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,28,29],"tags":[303,427,439,1851,1867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8279,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/8279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}