Raw vs Cooked Calories

Colby

Hey guys so I have looked at a few other similar discussions before posting this, but I am still not 100% on this. My question is in regards to the total calories of certain foods when put into cronometer, raw vs cooked, particularly sweet potato. Last time I did this, I weighed the raw sweet potato (about 1650 grams) and then I weighed it after I boiled it. I drained it very well to remove all the excess water, and it ended up weighing about 1550 grams, not much of a weight loss. The thing is, when you punch these numbers into cronometer, raw vs cooked, they are very different in terms of calories. I guess my question is: if I weigh out X amount of RAW sweet potato and it's, let's say, 1000 calories on cronometer, and then I boil it, will it still be 1000 calories? I would assume it would, right? If it's different, is it negligible (something like 50 calories or less of a difference) or is it significant? There isn't really anything to melt away into the water, I could only assume that it should be very close to the original 1000 calories that it was when it was raw. Another food I cook very often are lentils, the calories on the package should be the same when they are cooked right?

Hilary

Yes, I think you got it! In general, if you are using a listing for a raw product, weigh it in its raw sate. If you are using a listing for a cooked item, weigh it in its cooked state.

The most accurate way to record your ingredients is also the most time-consuming. Cook and then weigh each ingredient separately then mix them together before you eat them. Record the weight of each cooked ingredient in your recipe. There are differences in nutrients in a cooked vs. raw food, so entering in the values as cooked foods will also give you a more accurate nutrient profile.

wklambert

There are hints on most product nutrition panels. By default, your weights should always be raw, in grams. There are exceptions. For instance, on the bacon I got last week, the serving size was "two pan-fried strips." in that case, the weight is cooked. Most of the time though, and unless specifically stated in the serving size, always measure raw.

razz

@ Hilary, can you add a feature that would take raw ingredients and convert them into cooked ingredients. Interested how many vitamins are los while cooking

The_Real_Redding

I weigh all my food raw and use the raw ingredient value. When it comes to nutrition you’ll never be accurate, food science is a messy science to begin with.

What’s more important is consistency. Your values may be off at the beginning but that’s not important really as long as you make sure to use the same database items every time because what’s important is knowing you are subtracting or adding the right amount of calories.

So let’s say you use the same ingredients all the time and Cronometer says you’re consuming 2500 kcal/day and you’re not losing weight. That means you need to cut your calories. So you cut 100kcal/day and after a week you see your weight going down. What does it matter if that 2500kcal/day was actually 2650 or 2300? The important part is that you cut the 100 calories and you’re losing weight.