How to weigh macros and calories properly

Most databases that you use for calorie counting record grains and pasta in dry form, and meat in raw form. This matters because cooking changes the weight of food significantly.

Chicken example. You start with 150 g of raw chicken breast and cook it. The cooked piece weighs about 110 g - meat shrinks by about 25%. If you weigh 110 g of cooked chicken and log it as «110 g chicken breast» (while the database value is for raw weight), you'll log fewer calories than you actually ate.

Rice example - the opposite. 60 g of dry rice = 180 g cooked. If you weigh 60 g of cooked rice and log it as «60 g rice», that's actually 20 g dry - 70 kcal instead of 210.

Rule: always weigh in the same form as the product is recorded in your database. If unsure - check the product description.

Not all liquids weigh like water. Water: 1 ml = 1 g. But oil - 0.92 g/ml, milk - 1.03 g/ml, honey - 1.4 g/ml. So measuring oil by spoon or measuring cup is inaccurate.

The right way: put a bowl on the scale, tare (zero out) and pour. Much more accurate than a measuring spoon.

«A tablespoon of olive oil by eye» is an 8-15 g spread, on a scale it's exactly 12. The «doesn't count» drop of oil adds up to +1500 kcal per week.

Nutella, peanut butter, honey, jam, heavy sauces. The main mistake is putting the product on toast and weighing how much you spread. 2-5 g stays on the knife or spoon unnoticed, and that's noticeable in calories.

The right way: weigh the jar BEFORE, spread however much you want, weigh the jar AFTER. The difference = your real serving.

Same principle for anything sticky or drippy.

When cooking at home, weigh each ingredient separately before adding to the pot or pan. For example: «150 g chicken breast + 70 g rice (dry) + 12 g oil + 100 g broccoli».

If you eat the whole dish in one day - just log these ingredients as one meal. Nothing more to do.

If you're cooking with leftovers for several days, the rest depends on the type of dish.

Homogeneous dish (tiramisu, smoothie, pâté, cream soup) - macros are distributed evenly. Sum the macros of all ingredients, divide by the total cooked weight - you get macros per 100 g. Then cut any piece, weigh it, calculate your portion. Example: total weight 1500 g, total protein 60 g = 4 g per 100 g. A 200 g piece = 8 g of protein.

Dish with chunks (soup with potatoes and meat, stew, pilaf) - macros are distributed unevenly: one bowl gets more meat, another more side. You can't calculate a portion accurately after the fact. Solution: while cooking, split into containers right away - weigh each ingredient into each container separately. Then each portion has its own precise macros.

Avocado with skin and pit - the edible part is only ~60-70% of the mass. The pit alone can be 30-40 g out of 200. If you weigh it whole and log «avocado» - you overestimate calories by 30%.

Same with shrimp in shells, fish with bones, bananas in peels. Clean and remove non-edible parts before weighing.

Packaging always shows macros per 100 g. Not per serving (serving sizes are marketing, usually 30-40 g, and the calorie numbers look small). Weigh how much you actually ate and recalculate per 100 g.