Meal prep Q&A: How do I weigh meat and poultry?

Which one do I use? What’s on the nutrition label? Why does it matter?

Answers (and more) below ⬇️

Picture this…

You received your meal plan from your coach. You’ve done the grocery shopping. You’ve done the cooking. You even bought the food scale. In fact, the food scale already arrived! So, you’re ready to start weighing your food and get this whole “meal prep” thing going... Sweet!

The meal plan calls for “Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast – 4 oz.” Awesome!

You start stacking bits of cooked chicken breast on the food scale… 

+ three bits of chicken breast… 2.4 oz [the food scale reads].

+ two more bits of chicken breast… 3.3 oz

+ one more bit of chicken breast… 4.2 oz

Close, but no cigar! Let’s try snipping one of the smaller chicken breast chunks in half…

- one half bit of chicken breast… 4.0 oz [the food scale reads].

Nice!

Now, you read the nutrition facts present on the packaging from the once raw chicken breast and you plug into MyFitnessPal. You can even utilize the “Scan a Barcode” feature, from the MyFitnessPal app, to streamline this plugging-in process.

“In short, for packaged raw meat and poultry products, the listed nutrition facts are based on the product’s raw weight.”

The packaging (in this example) reads: Kirkland Signature Fresh Boneless & Skinless Chicken Breast and the nutrition facts are as follows:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 4 oz

Calories 110

Total Fat 1g

Total Carbohydrate 0g

Protein 24g

The nutrition facts from the packaging match the nutrition facts on MyFitnessPal. That was easy! You repeat this food scale/log process every time you prep a meal. This meal plan, which was custom-built to optimize progress towards your health & wellness goals, calls for five meals with 4 oz of chicken breast at every meal. Sweet!

However, when you look at your macronutrient totals at the end of the day, you notice that your protein is way too low… Why is this?

The answer is simple.

Although the Food and Drug Administration handles most of the food and nutrition labeling, nutrition labeling of meat and poultry products falls under the control of the Department of Agriculture.

In short, for packaged raw meat and poultry products, the listed nutrition facts are based on the product’s raw weight. In fact, according to Joy Dubost (registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), for meats, it’s reasonable to assume that you will lose about 1/4th of the weight in cooking. In other words, 4 oz of raw meat with no bones will equal roughly 3 oz cooked. Dubost’s rule of thumb is upheld by an evaluation of cooking yields for meats and poultry by the USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory in late 2012.

So, the next time you’re referring to a meal plan, weighing food, and plugging in the numbers, make sure you’re aware whether the serving of the product is based on the product’s raw or cooked weight!

In the example above, the protein seemed too low because the raw chicken breast, once cooked, lost some of its weight (roughly 1/4th). To put it in simplest terms, when comparing raw vs. cooked chicken breast, imagine cooked chicken breast as just a more concentrated protein source, for 4 oz of cooked chicken breast will have more protein than 4 oz of raw chicken breast. So, if you’re plugging in the macros (macronutrients) from 4 oz of raw chicken breast when you’re supposed to be using the macros from 4 oz of cooked chicken breast, your protein will be lower than it should. And this is exactly what happened in the above example.

Raw vs. cooked chicken breast, food scale comparison

This will be further covered in a future blog post, but if you’re wondering if any protein is lost during the cooking process, here’s your answer:

According to The American Meat Science Association, “studies of the effects of cooking and other methods of processing report no significant alterations in the protein value of meat.” However, that is not to say that nutrients won’t be lost while cooking meat. In fact, the extent to which this occurs is strongly influenced by the cooking method (Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE). But that is a story for another time!

Another great article on this topic, written by Hope Warshaw (registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator) can be found here.

Have a health & wellness question? Send an e-mail to esserfit@gmail.com . Put “Q&A” in the subject line and tell us where you’re from!