Raw vs Cooked Food: How to Weigh and Track Accurately
Weighing food RAW is the gold standard for accuracy because cooking times, pan temperatures, and moisture loss vary wildly. 100g of raw chicken breast yields ~75g cooked (water loss), whereas 100g of dry rice yields ~240g cooked (water absorption). Both hold the exact same raw calories.
Clinical Overview & Physiological Context
Water has zero calories. When food is cooked, it either loses water (meat, vegetables) or absorbs water (rice, pasta, oats). If you weigh cooked food but log it as raw, or vice versa, your calorie calculations can be off by 30% to 100%.
Actionable Implementation Protocol
Prefer Raw Logging for Single Servings
Weigh chicken, beef, or dry rice in their raw state before cooking.
Use Cooked Entries Consistently If Batch Cooking
If preparing family meals, search the database explicitly for "Chicken breast, cooked, roasted" or "White rice, cooked".
Remember the Cooked Multipliers
Meats shrink by ~25% (multiply cooked weight by 1.33 for raw equivalent). Grains expand ~2.4x (divide cooked weight by 2.4 for dry equivalent).
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- ⚠️Weighing 150g of cooked rice and logging it as "150g dry rice", accidentally logging 540 kcal instead of 195 kcal.
- ⚠️Weighing 100g of bone-in cooked chicken and logging it as boneless raw breast.