How to track cooked pasta
Demystifying the noodle
Pasta Problems
One of the biggest questions that newer clients have about tracking their food is how to accurately track cooked pasta.
When the box only lists nutrition facts for dry, and you’re weighing it cooked, that can cause some significant frustration 😵💫.
Unless you are only preparing a single serving for yourself, it can be quite challenging to determine the portion of cooked pasta you consumed, which can be frustrating when logging your meals.
This guide will show you how to account for pasta once and for all.
Let's dig in. 👉
Step 1: cook the pasta
1. Weigh out your pasta prior to cooking.
2. Weigh out your pasta after cooking.
You can see the below Banza pasta doubled in weight post cooked
Step 3: create a cooked pasta entry
In Cronometer, find the pasta you cooked, and input the dry weight, then select create a copy
Step 2: you might need to do some math
Most pasta package serving sizes are 2oz/56g.
If you didn’t cook exactly 2oz of dry pasta, that’s okay! We just need to determine the cooked weight of 2oz of pasta.
For example:
If you cooked 100g of dry pasta and the cooked weight was 204g here’s how you would convert it:
[cooked pasta g] ➗ [dry pasta g] = growth ratio
growth ratio x [dry pasta serving] = cooked weight
This amounts to:
204g ➗ 100g = 2.04 ratio
2.04g x 56g = 114g (cooked weight of 56g)
Step 3: edit the entry
A few notes:
You only have to do this once per pasta type, and then that entry will be saved for all future pasta types.
Note that different kinds and shapes of pasta absorb more or less water, usually most in a 1.5 - 3.5 ratio.
Spaghetti and fettuccini will absorb more water than shells, etc.
Additionally, the firmness you cook your pasta to will determine the water absorption.
