How Should I Weigh Food When Tracking Macros?

Tracking macros goes hand-in-hand with weighing your food. But did you know that there is a significant difference in weighing your foods raw and cooked?

HERE'S WHY YOU SHOULD WEIGH RAW EVERY TIME. 

Weighing your food AFTER it has been cooked can cause many discrepancies when it comes to tracking your macros.

While some of you may prefer to weigh out your food once all the cooking is done (for convenience sake), putting in the extra hard yards to pre-weigh your ingredients will ensure that what you're entering is ACCURATE.

Raw ingredients have not been affected by cooking methods or a loss (or gain) in the volume of liquid present.

Use rice as an example. If you cook rice in 1 cup of water vs 3 cups of water, the absorption of the water would obviously create a greater weight at the end of the cooking process (even though the quantity of the rice hasn't changed).

This is where the discrepancies occur.

Another example is chicken breast. Depending on the cooking method, a 100 gram serving of chicken breast can shrink to 70 grams or less! Another great example is pasta. Also make sure you measure pasta in raw weight before water absorption.

Remember: Carbohydrates will usually soak water up during cooking (making it heavier), and proteins will release water (getting smaller/tighter). 

You will need to prepare and cook foods the same way every time to ensure that what you enter into your macro tracking app reflects the true macronutrient breakdown of the food.

Tracking RAW takes any chance of preparation affecting the true macros out of the equation.

HOW TO WEIGH BIG BATCHES OF FOOD:

A common question we get here at THE BOD is: How do I weigh my meals out once cooked ensuring that there is an equal amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats in each of my meal prep containers?

Follow these steps to help with weighing food AFTER the cooking process.

1. Make sure all elements of your dish have been weighed raw.
2. If possible, keep the protein separate in a different bowl.
3. Weigh your curry and divide the weight by the number of serves needed.
4. Repeat this step for your protein.
5. Measure out equal weights of the curry and beef into your containers.
6. If your protein and curry are already mixed through, don't stress.
   While the protein measurement won't be as accurate, remember that your body responds to consistency. If each serve of protein should be 100g per day, but some days there is less and some days more, your average intake of beef is still going to be 700g by the end of the week.

For more information on tracking and weighing your food to hit your own unique goals, check out THE BOD app or reach out to our BOD Coaches in our THE BOD Facebook Group or via Instagram @thebod_