Should I track my meat raw or cooked?
No cooked to raw conversion math required:
No Meat Math?
If you’ve been following any coach on Instagram for over a minute, you’ve probably seen one of them tell you to use some crazy formula to convert cooked meat weight to raw weight to track it “accurately.”
We’re here to tell you that you can stop doing that immediately.
It’s not necessary nor required for accuracy.
Here’s how to make it easier 👉
2 Rules to tracking meat
Rule 1: Track your meat the way you weighed it
👉 Did you weigh your burger raw? Track it raw.
👉 Did you weigh your ground beef after crumbling it in a pan? Track it cooked and crumbled.
Rule 2: Use a USDA entry whenever possible
The USDA’s Nutrient Data Laboratory performed calorimetry on nearly all meat raised or caught in the US, both raw and cooked.
The packaging your meat came in will have nutrition facts based on its purchased state unless stated otherwise (i.e., if you’re buying raw meat, then the nutrition facts on the package are for raw).
Exception: If your meat is already cooked with sauce when you purchase (like Kevin’s), go with the packaging nutrition facts
USDA Entries?
If you’re using Cronometer (our preferred food tracking app), you can filter entries for ones from the USDA Database.
👉Tap the filter button in the search bar
👉Select USDA from the database options
Selecting your entry
Once you’re filtered, you can see all the options available for the cut of meat you selected, and select the option closest to the way you weighed your meat.
Why not do the math?
So you’ve heard meat shrinks 25% when cooked, so why not do the math instead? Wouldn’t that still be more accurate?
Let’s use an 8oz 80/20 burger as an example:
Wrap-Up
Our goal is to remove the confusion and angst from tracking and help you make it easier and more accurate with minimal math involved.
If you found this helpful, we have two webinars, Intro to Cronometer and Cronometer 201: Going From Good to Master Tracker, that cover tips like this and more.
Click HERE, and we’ll send them both to you so you can be a master tracker, too!
