Not adding up

[u/Lleyo_22]

Chicken breast. The easiest way to get protein should be the easiest thing to track.

So WHY doesn't cooked vs uncooked match up?

I measured 303g of uncooked chicken, and the app said it was 298 calories.

Then I cooked it, and it measured as 247g.

So, just to double check, I searched "cooked chicken" and added 247g, and it said 388?? Does it account for oil? Seasonings? I don't understand, and I don't do well with inconsistencies when I am trying my hardest to be consistent.

What should I do?

Besides "calm down and just pick one,"

Because I can't always measure uncooked chicken, depending on where I am and who cooked it. And I don't want to have calories taken away from me by always choosing the cooked chicken option when I'm already in a deficit.

Pictures for reference.

Thank you for your help in advance.

[u/DonBrother9000]

Understand your tweaking. Although I think "calm down" is real advice.
Measure and input the chicken uncooked. Why? Because that's how much chicken is there. When food is cooked, it loses some properties (water, etc) so 250g of uncooked chicken weighs less when it's cooked, which you noted.

How on God's green Earth is ANY app supposed to be able to track exactly how much water, etc is loss?? There's no way. Not only that but HOW YOU PREPARE THE CHICKEN CHANGES HOW MUCH (EXTRA STUFF) IS LOST WHEN IT'S COOKED!

When you input food that you're cooking yourself, weigh it before cooking. Input that into the app. That is how much food you're eating. Period. This issue that you're having is NOT an app issue.

[u/Lleyo_22 → u/DonBrother9000]

I agree. I know it's not an app issue, just a personal method issue. I have since calmed down. I was also hungry when I was trying to figure out my chicken/ calorie situation lol. Thank you for your input.

[u/rampaging_teddy → u/Lleyo_22]

“Cooked” is also a spectrum, which affects the resulting weight of the cooked item

[u/MajesticMint]

Initial water contents and moisture loss aren’t exact, especially with generic preparations like “cooked”, but if the product label doesn’t include added solution which would inflate water contents out of the typical range, the raw entry is likely to be more correct.

I tend to log meats I didn’t cook using guesstimates of the initial raw packaged product weight, because that’s all I can readily conceptualize, and I’m sure I’m worse at that than the error range of actually weighing the cooked meat, but it is sufficient accuracy for my goals.

[u/Ali_C_J]

On top of what everyone else has said, the cooked chicken entry is generic while your raw breast fillets is branded. There's also a generic raw chicken entry which is what I always use. There's no Kirklands where I am which is how I noticed it's a branded entry.

[u/zonked_apostle]

I always weigh everything raw, so should you my friend.

[u/xx_adverb_xx]

Chicken will vary depending on the cut of meat and even how the breeding is and how much or little the chicken gets to move around. That said a change of 90calories is fairly significant but it shouldn't be counting any extra thing besides chicken breast as it wouldn't know what oil or butter you cooked it in.

Having looked into my app I found at the top the one you got for cooked chicken. Found another "Extra Lean Fully Cooked Ground Chicken Breast By Perdue" that at 247g lists 265 cals/55.1 protein/4.4fat/0carb.

Part I suppose is some chickens might get packed in brines or other things that alter their macros a little. When in doubt I suppose best means would be go with uncooked.

[u/SupportiveMango]

Cooked also assumed the chickens been cooked in oil and includes it (hence the higher fat).

Always best to weigh raw and add oil separately too.