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Food question

Old 07-07-2010, 01:09 PM
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Hello I have a simple question!

When determining the weight/volume of how much you eat, is this uncooked or cooked quantities.

For example I am making 1/3 cup uncooked quinoa, and it weighed in at 56 grams. Do I use that 56g weight for adding it to my food log? Because the volume obviously increases when it is cooked.

Maybe I'm complicating this but I'll just assume its uncooked quantities and the same goes for say chicken breast or ground turkey.
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Old 07-07-2010, 01:46 PM
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I measure it out after it's cooked. I don't know if that's right, but that's how I do it. A lot of the foods in the database give you the option of choosing cooked or uncooked, because depending on the type of food, it can make a big difference on the volume. Sometimes fitday adds extra calories to cooked veggies assuming that you cook them in fat, so keep an eye out for that too. Earlier, I was trying to find fresh artichoke cooked, and I had to make sure I specified that it was cooked without fat to get the right calorie count.
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Old 07-07-2010, 02:19 PM
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the wierd thing is on my quinoa label it says that a serving size is 1/3cup or ~ 43 grams, and that it has 160 cal, 30g carb, 6g prot.

I weighed 1/3 cup uncooked and it was 60 grams on a digital scale.

the 1/3 cup uncooked becomes like 1 cup cooked,

and 1/3 cup cooked seems like a small serving size for whole grains.

I'm just confused by this labeling and I really want to make sure I'm recording my food journal accurately.

The label on the package does not specify cooked or uncooked, its arrowhead mills brand. I am thinking that its 1/3 cup uncooked but I can never be sure.

Last edited by midwestj; 07-07-2010 at 03:58 PM.
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Old 07-07-2010, 05:18 PM
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Yeah, I think the 1/3 cup quinoa would most likely be uncooked, because otherwise, that's a very small serving size for the amount of calories. As far as the grams go, I wouldn't worry too much about the discrepancy. It does make it confusing though, huh? Do you know for sure your scale is accurate? I never measure in grams... only by measuring cup and ounces. I always wonder about my scale too. Calorie counting isn't an exact science, and I do enter every bite I put in my mouth, so I know I'm pretty close even if I make a few mistakes in measuring.
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Old 07-08-2010, 06:34 AM
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Ya it can get confusing with something like rice or quinoa that expands so much after cooking you wanna make sure you get it right, some of the food labels on organic and ethnic stuff aren't that thorough.

I used the nickel method to make sure my scale was calibrated and its close enough weighing 4.9g.

Like you said its more of a ballpark number anyway, but thats ok for me because just monitoring what I eat I know I will get the results I want.
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Old 07-13-2010, 08:56 AM
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Originally Posted by midwestj
the wierd thing is on my quinoa label it says that a serving size is 1/3cup or ~ 43 grams, and that it has 160 cal, 30g carb, 6g prot.

I weighed 1/3 cup uncooked and it was 60 grams on a digital scale.

the 1/3 cup uncooked becomes like 1 cup cooked,

and 1/3 cup cooked seems like a small serving size for whole grains.

I'm just confused by this labeling and I really want to make sure I'm recording my food journal accurately.

The label on the package does not specify cooked or uncooked, its arrowhead mills brand. I am thinking that its 1/3 cup uncooked but I can never be sure.
I disagree with sarkai90, I believe the 1/3 cup is the cooked quantity. Because carbs and protein are approx. 4 calories per gram, then 1/3 cup uncooked (which you say weighs 60g) would be about 240 calories. Since the nutrition label says 160 calories then 160/36g = 4.4 cal per gram. The math would lead me to believe the serving size is 1/3 cup cooked. Remember that serving sizes on nutrition labels don't necessarily correlate to how the real world eats. A 20oz bottle of Coke has 2.5 servings (8 oz each). How many people do you know that consider this a normal serving? I've found I have to actually read the labels and not just glance at the per serving totals that are presented. Hope this helps!
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