MuscleDog.com - Connecting you to a better body!

How are you suppose to measure these foods, cooked or raw?
 
-Chicken
 
-Fish
 
-Rice
 
-Vegetables
 
-Sweet Potatoes


Everyone has a different answer
 

well the macronutrient count won’t change significantly between raw and cooked foods, but the volume of the specific food will, specifically because of water content. meat will shrink when cooked because it loses moisture, while things like pasta or rice or oats will expand becuase they absorb and hold more water.

with this in mind i would say a good rule of thumb is to measure/weigh meats and veggies raw, and grains cooked.

Thanks Pete, I ushally measure my proteins, rice, and veggies cooked. 
 
I do however measure my oatmeal dry.  I never heard of measuring oatmeal cooked??? I am a little hesitant about this..

well if you think about the difference in measuring volume, the only difference is the water content.
if you measure your rice cooked, why would it be any different to measure your oatmeal cooked? both absorb a lot of water and expand, but it’s essentially the same concept…

Pete, the label on my (dry) oatmeal says 150 calories for 1/2 cup. 
 
Are you saying that the label is talking about 1/2 oatmeal cooked??  I still don’t agree with you..

no i wasnt saying that there isn’t a difference in measuring dry vs cooked oatmeal. there is a big difference and you use different measurements for each which can be easily found. your dry oatmeal package probably lists the nutrition facts for the dry oatmeal.


i was saying that in terms of measuring your food and planning out your macros you could measure cooked oatmeal and it would actually probably make things easier since you could better judge how much cooked oatmeal you can eat vs dry. you also said that you measure your rice cooked, so i was making the point that measuring your oatmeal cooked wouldn’t be much different than measuring cooked rice since it’s a similar concept. both rice and oatmeal absorb a lot of water when cooked and expand a great deal, so measuring your cooked oatmeal would be similar to measuring your cooked rice. you use a different nutrition fact table for cooked vs raw, but it would be easier from a planning perspective to measure cooked.

does that make sense?

Thanks Pete,

However, I don’t know the appropriate measurement recommendations or amount of calories cooked oats or rice would be.  When you read nutrition labels, it only states dry measurements.  That is why I am a little confused…

Same goes with cooked fish, chicken and meats.  When you read the nutrition label and it says 3 ounces equals 100 calories, then how do you justify how many calories are in 3 oz cooked?