For those of you who weigh your food and use ****** to track your calories......

[Dreamchaser]

Are you weighing and tracking your food before cooking, after cooking or both?

Obviously we need to weigh the protein raw to get the correct 100 grams serving size portion. But do you weigh your cooked food after cooking as well?

The first few days I was entering my cooked foods into ****** as cooked foods but I was only weighing them BEFORE cooking. Then today I decided to weigh everything after cooking as well to see what the calorie difference is.

Chicken breast:
97 grams raw
79 grams after cooking on indoor grill
Calorie difference: 41 less calories after cooking

Radishes:
150 grams raw
128 grams after boiling
Calorie difference: Unfortunately ****** doesn't have an entry for cooked radishes (unless you use oriental) so they have to be entered as raw.

Ground Beef:
100 grams raw
58 grams after cooking, rinsing and draining
Calorie difference: 64 less calories after cooking

Cabbage:
200 grams raw
155 grams after cooking
Calorie difference: 20 less calories after cooking

I didn't enter everything into ****** until after I had eaten everything for the day. This frees up a lot of calories. I would have increased my veggie portions, if I had realized it earlier. I actually ended up being 76 calories short for the day!

[CherylB]

Well, when you choose the item from the drop down list, you can just choose the one that fits whether it was cooked or not. I know ****** can be a royal pain! I use it, too. Just be careful to choose the right option so you get an accurate calorie and nutrition value. Good luck!

[Zbunny]

And this is yet one more reason why it's easiest to just eat the same few meals over and over. Once you have it sorted out, you can just click on "Recent foods" and it will put the same content/amount/cooking style into your journal, which you can easily adjust as needed. I usually put in the raw amount, b/c ****** has options for "raw" on most foods and that just makes it easier. If you prefer to weigh after you cook something, just be sure to click on the cooked weight so you have accurate calories.

[CherylB]

Ahh, the simplicity of P2!

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by CherylB

Well, when you choose the item from the drop down list, you can just choose the one that fits whether it was cooked or not. I know ****** can be a royal pain! I use it, too. Just be careful to choose the right option so you get an accurate calorie and nutrition value. Good luck!

Originally Posted by CherylB

Ahh, the simplicity of P2!

So what do you do end up doing Cheryl? Do you weigh it again after cooking and enter in the amount as cooked or just weigh it raw and use the raw amount? is right!

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by Zbunny

And this is yet one more reason why it's easiest to just eat the same few meals over and over. Once you have it sorted out, you can just click on "Recent foods" and it will put the same content/amount/cooking style into your journal, which you can easily adjust as needed. I usually put in the raw amount, b/c ****** has options for "raw" on most foods and that just makes it easier. If you prefer to weigh after you cook something, just be sure to click on the cooked weight so you have accurate calories.

Yes, I've been using the "recent foods" option a lot too. That works well.

[Dreamchaser]

Still confused and not sure what to do.........aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!

Not only is ****** a royal pain, so is OCD!

[Zbunny]

Originally Posted by Dreamchaser

Still confused and not sure what to do.........aaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhh!

Not only is ****** a royal pain, so is OCD!

Okay, I am going to be the boss of you. Here's what I want you to do:

Put in the raw weight for every food, so that it's consistent. If you have to customize a food, like 96/4 ground beef, just do it for the raw weight of 100 grams (you'll only have to do it one time). Then just click "recent food" each day and it will literally take you only seconds to track your food, as long as you eat just a small selection of foods each day.

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by Zbunny

Okay, I am going to be the boss of you. Here's what I want you to do:

[1moretry]

I'm using ****** and weighing my food every time. I actually use an Excel spreadsheet called MyHCGDietTracker that someone posted on another forum to figure out the math for each meal and then I enter it in ****** at the end of the day. There wasn't an entry for raw ground sirloin, so I made a custom one, but the nutrients won't reflect what's in it.

I have been thinking of weighing one of my burgers after cooking it, so I can use the built-in ****** entry for extra lean ground beef, cooked, but I think theirs is probably higher in fat than what I am eating, so I will wait until P3 to switch.

I paid to download the program so I wouldn't have to put my data online and after I did that, I noticed that their body measurements were not gender neutral. We gals generally focus on changes in different parts of our bodies than guys do, and while there was a place for a waist and chest measurement, there wasn't one for belly, upper chest vs. bust, or midriff, so I just track my measurements in the spreadsheet instead.

I am still pretty inactive, but looking forward to using their activity charts when I get to P3.

I weigh everything raw, use the calorie count for the raw food and I don't worry about what changes when I cook it because I am only eating onions and cabbage cooked, besides my protein. I do the fruits and tomatoes raw.

[CherylB]

Are we talking P3? On P2 I weighed my meat raw. This is my first day on P3 so I don't have a system yet. I imagine I'll just weigh some things raw and others cooked. I'll just log it in as whatever it was!

I love the idea of using the "recent foods" tab. For that reason alone, consistency would be key. But it's too soon for me to say how I'm going to do it.

I'm marinating a steak right now. I threw the ziplock bag, complete with steak and marinade on the scale. It came out to almost a whopping 17 oz. I figure I'll cook it, eat what I want of it then reweigh the bag with marinade, and whatever scraps of fat I didn't eat of the steak and then just adjust the weight in ******. (I put it in as 13 oz raw ribeye.)

As you can see, I'm not sweating P3 as much as I did P2. If the scale gets uppity, then I'll pay closer attention.

[Zbunny]

Originally Posted by CherylB

A If the scale gets uppity, then I'll pay closer attention.

Dang snobbish, self-aggrandizing, uppity scales! I love that!

[CherylB]

I needed a good belly-laugh! Thank you.

[metqa]

when weighing the food before you cook it you take into account all the nutrients , water,fat,carbs and protein that are there originally.

Cooking is variable and causes changes, so you now have a different weight but you don't know what was lost: water as steam? Fat dripped off?

Unless you cook something exactly the same everytime, those nutrients will vary.
and then things like onion, the avialability of carbs change from raw to cooked so it ay have more carbs after cooking than before.

I decided to use precooked weight for most of the veggies, since most of what's lost is just water so the nutrients would be mostly the same, even though the volume has changed.

One thing I noticed is with shrimp. if you measure it precooked and with shell you get a lot less than if you strip off the shell and then measure it. and if you cook it, you get less volume so you end up eating more shrimp than if you weigh it raw. so with shrimp, I peel, then weigh, then cook.

[CherylB]

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by metqa

when weighing the food before you cook it you take into account all the nutrients , water,fat,carbs and protein that are there originally.

Cooking is variable and causes changes, so you now have a different weight but you don't know what was lost: water as steam? Fat dripped off?

Unless you cook something exactly the same everytime, those nutrients will vary.
and then things like onion, the avialability of carbs change from raw to cooked so it ay have more carbs after cooking than before.

I decided to use precooked weight for most of the veggies, since most of what's lost is just water so the nutrients would be mostly the same, even though the volume has changed.

One thing I noticed is with shrimp. if you measure it precooked and with shell you get a lot less than if you strip off the shell and then measure it. and if you cook it, you get less volume so you end up eating more shrimp than if you weigh it raw. so with shrimp, I peel, then weigh, then cook.

Great post metqa! Oh boy now we are getting to the heart of the matter

I am not concerned with using ****** right now because of the amounts of nutrients (nutrients as in referring to the carbs, fats, proteins and vitamins). I'm only interested in seeing what my CALORIES are since this is such a strict 500 calorie diet. (Normally when I am just lowcarbing, I don't even use ******).

And the calories will change and make quite a difference according to whether or not you weigh before or after cooking.

Today my hamburger weighed 100 grams raw. After cooking, it weighed 61 grams. According to ******, before I cooked it, it was 176 calories raw and 132 calories after it was cooked. That's a difference of 44 calories.

We are always going to eat the same portion size of protein no matter what because protocol says 100 grams raw. But those 44 calories are going to need to be made up if you choose to count it as a cooked food.

So.....the protein amount to eat is always set at 100 grams, so that's easy. The fruit amounts are easy to calculate as well because they are pretty specific (for the most part) with the portion size and they are always going to be eaten raw (unless, of course, you choose to bake an apple).

So those 44 calories are going to need to made up for in the veggie portion.....IF you are counting it that way, KWIM???

[Zbunny]

Hey girl

I'm thinking that ****** is possibly not a good idea for you, at least right now. Make it easy on yourself, girl!

Just do this (per Shelby, a very successful hcger). Eat only what is listed in P&I and weigh each of these raw: Every day eat 200 g. of protein, 300 g. of veg, and up to 400 g. fruit -- easy peasy and you don't have to worry about calories. (If you eat the grissini, cut the fruit back a bit.)

No stress express, here we come!

And, ahem, if you will recall, I am your boss, so you must do what I say.

[CherylB]

Ok, girls. Signing off this thread for now. Hope you all have fun and much success!

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by Zbunny

Hey girl

I'm thinking that ****** is possibly not a good idea for you, at least right now. Make it easy on yourself, girl!

Just do this (per Shelby, a very successful hcger). Eat only what is listed in P&I and weigh each of these raw: Every day eat 200 g. of protein, 300 g. of veg, and up to 400 g. fruit -- easy peasy and you don't have to worry about calories. (If you eat the grissini, cut the fruit back a bit.)

No stress express, here we come!

And, ahem, if you will recall, I am your boss, so you must do what I say.

Hey Zbunny! I actually HAVE been following Shelby's advice with the 300 grams of veggies per day! (thank you shelby, by the way) I didn't know about the 400 grams for the fruit though.

But unfortunately I also went to ****** and started putting everything in there too, and started analyzing everything like crazy.......

[BigBravesGirl]

I'm OCD too. That's probably why I never used ************ like I should have. Like I told you, I'm bigger than your average bear, so a few extra calories wasn't going to hinder me too much.

<--- non-poster child for hHCG :blush:

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by BigBravesGirl

I'm OCD too. That's probably why I never used ************ like I should have. Like I told you, I'm bigger than your average bear, so a few extra calories wasn't going to hinder me too much.

<--- non-poster child for hHCG :blush:

Oh I disagree Lisa. You're doing awesome and I think you're a fabulous poster child for hHCG. I just love reading your posts!

[catkin]

Originally Posted by Zbunny

Okay, I am going to be the boss of you. Here's what I want you to do:

Put in the raw weight for every food, so that it's consistent. If you have to customize a food, like 96/4 ground beef, just do it for the raw weight of 100 grams (you'll only have to do it one time). Then just click "recent food" each day and it will literally take you only seconds to track your food, as long as you eat just a small selection of foods each day.

I'll be the boss on your other shoulder...

Do not worry about weighing vegetables cooked and/or raw. Just weigh them the way they are at the moment--still, once you get a feel for how much a serving is, just eyeball it. Try not to complicate it more than it is! I don't think you'll overdose on cucumbers. It isn't difficult.

I suggest starting a journal and posting your daily menus/amounts/water. That way we can look it over for you and spot possible problems.


Weigh your meat only when it's raw and either put them each in a baggie and freeze, or cook them all at once--in a big pan so they stay separate, cool and put in containers--freeze or not!


Then...step away from Snitday on P2!!!!!!

I only use fit day the first week or so on P3 to get a feel for how many calories I'm eating--that's all! Hate ******.

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by catkin

I'll be the boss on your other shoulder...



Do not worry about weighing vegetables cooked and/or raw. Just weigh them the way they are at the moment--still, once you get a feel for how much a serving is, just eyeball it. Try not to complicate it more than it is! I don't think you'll overdose on cucumbers. It isn't difficult.

I don't know about that, with only 500 calories allowed a day, I just MIGHT overdose on cucumbers!

I suggest starting a journal and posting your daily menus/amounts/water. That way we can look it over for you and spot possible problems.

I've been thinking about doing that. I think I just may!


Weigh your meat only when it's raw and either put them each in a baggie and freeze, or cook them all at once--in a big pan so they stay separate, cool and put in containers--freeze or not!

Yes, I've been doing this


Then...step away from Snitday on P2!!!!!!

I'll give it my best shot! :blush:

I only use fit day the first week or so on P3 to get a feel for how many calories I'm eating--that's all! Hate ******.

I'm beginning to hate it too, with a passion!

Thanks catkin!

[catkin]

You're so welcome!
No ODing on cucumbers!

The journal is good for keeping accountable--not that you need that. It's just a great idea to keep a food log that you can refer back to from time to time--tracking your losses compared to what you've eaten the previous few days can be a great tool!
You could link in in your siggy, I think, too.
As far as counting cals in P2, I just did the correct amounts and left the rest to fate!

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by catkin

As far as counting cals in P2, I just did the correct amounts and left the rest to fate!

One day I made the huge mistake of entering my info into ****** and I came up with 650 for the day. I started wondering if I was eating too much. That's when the problems began. NEVER should have went to ******! I would have been obvlious to it all and probably not any worse off! Actually, I would have been better off because I wouldn't have been stressing over every calorie!

[metqa]

Originally Posted by Dreamchaser

Great post metqa! Oh boy now we are getting to the heart of the matter

I am not concerned with using ****** right now because of the amounts of nutrients (nutrients as in referring to the carbs, fats, proteins and vitamins). I'm only interested in seeing what my CALORIES are since this is such a strict 500 calorie diet. (Normally when I am just lowcarbing, I don't even use ******).

And the calories will change and make quite a difference according to whether or not you weigh before or after cooking.

Today my hamburger weighed 100 grams raw. After cooking, it weighed 61 grams. According to ******, before I cooked it, it was 176 calories raw and 132 calories after it was cooked. That's a difference of 44 calories.

We are always going to eat the same portion size of protein no matter what because protocol says 100 grams raw. But those 44 calories are going to need to be made up if you choose to count it as a cooked food.

So.....the protein amount to eat is always set at 100 grams, so that's easy. The fruit amounts are easy to calculate as well because they are pretty specific (for the most part) with the portion size and they are always going to be eaten raw (unless, of course, you choose to bake an apple).

So those 44 calories are going to need to made up for in the veggie portion.....IF you are counting it that way, KWIM???

Okay, so here is my take on it. I weighed my meats raw and only raw. Removes confusion. A good argument for minimal cooking and processing.

The way I did it was to measure my meat, count the uncooked calories. Measure my Fruit ( minus refuse;core, peel, leaves) count the calories, count my grissini portions, count any milk or other condiments or seasonings. then add my counts, subtract from 500 and the remaining calories is what I can have for veggies.

All veggies calorie counts are not the same. 300g of red cabbage has a lot more calories( 93kcal for 300g) than 300g of cucumber ( 36kcal for 300g), and as far as fruit, they vary from 32kcal per 100g of grapefruit to 69kcal for 100g of strawberries. going just by weight of food will have your calories all over the place and lead to unhappy surprises like a 650 calorie day if you are not aware of what you have chosen is high caloric

I have post cards on my cabinets with the calorie counts for 100g of each fruit and vegetable in the list. I also have the calories for the 100g of meat. It gives me an idea of what I can combine. And when I'm using my digital scale to weigh my veggies and fruit, the weight only is to tell me how many calories that amount of food will give me. Then I can add more or remove some

I'd often put all the food choices in ****** for one day and then choose what I want from my meats, which usually has the highest calories. My veggie choices are limited by my meat choice.

If I choose a high calorie meat, my veggie choices are more limited in variety and in quantity. Beef and cabbage: they are both high calorie, that means less cabbage, and even less if it is onion. Beef and celery means a lot more celery, and cucumber means I can have maybe two whole cucumbers before coming to quota. Using ******, I can play around with the quantity of the veggies till the number of calories is where I want it to be.

On occasion, after working it out in ******, I discover that my veggie quantity was too piddly; a high water content veggie like cucumber adds up really quickly; or too plentiful, two cooking bowls of lettuce barely comes to the 200g I allowed, so I choose to eat less lettuce and go back to ****** and choose a higher calorie meat, or more strawberries if I like, or i might choose fish or chicken instead of beef cause I want more cucumber that day.

Using ******, you can plan a menu and see what the effect will be before you ever open the fridge. and you can see how much volume the veggies really look like as you adjust the quantities for the calories.

soon you will get a feel for it and be able to correctly gauge how much the veggies are , and only need ****** to check . But I used my calculator each and every day, it gave me less to stress about cause I didn't have to wonder if that extra strawberry or that extra cup of lettuce put e oer and it also kept me from under-eating some days, I only had 300 calories, and didn't realize cause I'd eaten a lot of low calorie lettuce and fish that day.

ETA: sorry I might have gotten off topic a bit, but I tend to undercook my meat and let the residual heat finish the cooking. works for chicken, fish and shrimp. When I make the chili, I only need to cook it till it's crumbly, but still pink cause when I add the tomatoes, they will absorb heat and finish cooking the meat so little water or fat is lost. I hate dry chicken and avoid chicken breast normally, that's why I cook it minimally. Less loss of moisture, and fat means the caloric difference shouldn't be as great. Fish baked in the oven, from frozen ,15 min, in pouched foil. very flaky and tasty.

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by metqa

Okay, so here is my take on it. I weighed my meats raw and only raw. Removes confusion. A good argument for minimal cooking and processing.

The way I did it was to measure my meat, count the uncooked calories. Measure my Fruit ( minus refuse;core, peel, leaves) count the calories, count my grissini portions, count any milk or other condiments or seasonings. then add my counts, subtract from 500 and the remaining calories is what I can have for veggies.

All veggies calorie counts are not the same. 300g of red cabbage has a lot more calories( 93kcal for 300g) than 300g of cucumber ( 36kcal for 300g), and as far as fruit, they vary from 32kcal per 100g of grapefruit to 69kcal for 100g of strawberries. going just by weight of food will have your calories all over the place and lead to unhappy surprises like a 650 calorie day if you are not aware of what you have chosen is high caloric

I have post cards on my cabinets with the calorie counts for 100g of each fruit and vegetable in the list. I also have the calories for the 100g of meat. It gives me an idea of what I can combine. And when I'm using my digital scale to weigh my veggies and fruit, the weight only is to tell me how many calories that amount of food will give me. Then I can add more or remove some

I'd often put all the food choices in ****** for one day and then choose what I want from my meats, which usually has the highest calories. My veggie choices are limited by my meat choice.

If I choose a high calorie meat, my veggie choices are more limited in variety and in quantity. Beef and cabbage: they are both high calorie, that means less cabbage, and even less if it is onion. Beef and celery means a lot more celery, and cucumber means I can have maybe two whole cucumbers before coming to quota. Using ******, I can play around with the quantity of the veggies till the number of calories is where I want it to be.

On occasion, after working it out in ******, I discover that my veggie quantity was too piddly; a high water content veggie like cucumber adds up really quickly; or too plentiful, two cooking bowls of lettuce barely comes to the 200g I allowed, so I choose to eat less lettuce and go back to ****** and choose a higher calorie meat, or more strawberries if I like, or i might choose fish or chicken instead of beef cause I want more cucumber that day.

Using ******, you can plan a menu and see what the effect will be before you ever open the fridge. and you can see how much volume the veggies really look like as you adjust the quantities for the calories.

soon you will get a feel for it and be able to correctly gauge how much the veggies are , and only need ****** to check . But I used my calculator each and every day, it gave me less to stress about cause I didn't have to wonder if that extra strawberry or that extra cup of lettuce put e oer and it also kept me from under-eating some days, I only had 300 calories, and didn't realize cause I'd eaten a lot of low calorie lettuce and fish that day.

ETA: sorry I might have gotten off topic a bit, but I tend to undercook my meat and let the residual heat finish the cooking. works for chicken, fish and shrimp. When I make the chili, I only need to cook it till it's crumbly, but still pink cause when I add the tomatoes, they will absorb heat and finish cooking the meat so little water or fat is lost. I hate dry chicken and avoid chicken breast normally, that's why I cook it minimally. Less loss of moisture, and fat means the caloric difference shouldn't be as great. Fish baked in the oven, from frozen ,15 min, in pouched foil. very flaky and tasty.

EXCELLENT information! Thank you so much for taking the time to type all of that out metqa. Really appreciate it!

Another question for you - I see that you are tracking your proteins in ****** and counting them as the "raw" amounts.

Do you count the veggies that you cook the same way as well, as "raw", before cooking? Or do you weigh them again after cooking and count them as the cooked amount in ******?

[metqa]

I don't reweigh after cooking my veggies. But to be sure, I try to cook lightly. less than 5 min on heat is usually enough to get it warm. With stuff like celery, and cabbage you'd have to cook longer for a cooked texture. But it doesn't change volume much like cooked spinach might. Now consider the onion, it's not so much the volume but the chemical change it takes when cooked, it has more starch when raw, and more available sugar when cooked but I still don't count it cooked, I just count it raw. If you wanted you could check ****** for onions with a precooked weight measure maybe like cooked onion, measured raw or something, I dunno, I never bothered to check that. I avoid onions as primary veggie in P2 because of the high calorie content, you get very little for so many calories. I'd rather have cabbage for the same calories, more fiber more filling.

[Dreamchaser]

Originally Posted by metqa

I don't reweigh after cooking my veggies. But to be sure, I try to cook lightly. less than 5 min on heat is usually enough to get it warm. With stuff like celery, and cabbage you'd have to cook longer for a cooked texture. But it doesn't change volume much like cooked spinach might. Now consider the onion, it's not so much the volume but the chemical change it takes when cooked, it has more starch when raw, and more available sugar when cooked but I still don't count it cooked, I just count it raw. If you wanted you could check ****** for onions with a precooked weight measure maybe like cooked onion, measured raw or something, I dunno, I never bothered to check that. I avoid onions as primary veggie in P2 because of the high calorie content, you get very little for so many calories. I'd rather have cabbage for the same calories, more fiber more filling.

Hi metqa! I love your knowledge of the chemical composition of foods, so very helpful!

I'm not using onions as veggies in P2 either, I would just rather use onion powder for onion flavor and eat some other vegetable.

If I eat celery, it is only raw.

I do love cooked cabbage on the stove and I do cook it a long time as well, so it's good to know that that one is OK to count raw.

I like tomatoes raw but I'm sure I will try cooking them sometime because I want to try the P2 chili. But I guess the tomatoes will be cooked with the ground beef at the same time so that would be too much of a pain to count as cooked, so those will be counted as raw.

What is your opinion about spinach and asparagus? Count as raw or cooked?

Spinach: cooked in the skillet - It isn't cooked very long but does change volume a lot as you mentioned. So would you weigh that one after?

Asparagus: I either roast it at 400 for 20 minutes in the oven with lemon juice which softens it up a lot. Or I cut it up and cook it in the skillet for quite a while (maybe 15 or 20 minutes) at medium or medium high heat.

[metqa]

Well, with foods that change volume like spinach, you must weigh it raw to get an accurate count.

I'm a bit odd in that I prefer my asparagus canned. So canned Asparagus and canned tomatoes are two foods that I count cooked. I use the data from the can label and measure it straight from the can before cooking. When i make the chili, I use canned tomato rather than cooking from raw fruit. It takes less cooking time since they are already processed. I just heat and eat.

The only time I count veggies as cooked is when they are already cooked/prepared before I get them, then I use the label, or the internet to find accurate data. Saurkraut or kimchee, for example, is primarily cabbage and spices, but it's severely wilted, and you don't drink the juice, so you'd have to trust the label. Otherwise, for a plain cabbage soup, I don't worry about the wilt since any moisture lost is right into the broth that I will drink. Same with spinach soup, I weigh it all before.

I do use onion powder as well, and garlic powder. My BF complains about that; too much sulfur in my system. but I love garlic and many of the ethnic pastes and spices contain garlic and add so much hotness and flavor. I'd make a sauce and then cook the veggie and meat in that sauce till heated for a spicy ethnic flavor meal.

ETA: Now is the time for cool salads. One of my favorite is the Confetti salad, I can't recall if I used celery or Napa for that. But it's either one , raw and chopped, plus the apple plus the shrimp cooked and chopped. Everything chilled and eaten cool. That with some refreshing grapefruit for breakfast and cool tea or water. Aahh, I wish it weren't so hot already!