There's probably a better section of the forum to ask this, but it's such a silly question.
For breakfasts, I sometimes like oatmeal. I use 1/2 cup Quaker oats and 1 cup water and nuke it. Then I add plain cinnamon and maybe a banana. The calorie content for 1/2 cup oats dry is 150 cal. The 1/2 cup of oats fluffs up quite a bit to at least 1 cup of oatmeal. And I'm a weirdo and like really soupy oatmeal, so I always add considerably more water. So that 1/2 cup oats turns into about 1 1/2 cup oatmeal.
I have always assumed that since I'm not adding anything other than water, the calorie content is still 150 cal, no matter how much the volume of oatmeal turns into. This is correct, right? That seems like a no brainer. And that's why I like oatmeal, it feels like a ton of food because the oats soak up so much water.
Well, this exact same situation popped up on a Q&A article on caloriecount.com this morning, and the answer confused me.
Quote:
On the box of Quaker Oatmeal it lists the calories as 150 for 1/2 cup dry. When cooking it according to directions (1 cup water and dash of salt), does the calorie amount change? This question could be applied to all foods where it lists a calorie amount for the dry form (noodles, pastas) but not for cooked.
Answer
When food moves from the uncooked state to the cooked state, the calories do not change; however, the weight of the food might change in cooking. Because the calorie count of a food is based on the food’s weight or volume, when the volume changes, the calorie count changes too. Changes in volume are due to changes in water. Some foods, like oatmeal, gain volume from water, while other foods, such as meat, lose water weight. Some nutrients are damaged by exposure to water, heat, light, and air, but not so for calories.
The bolded part is what confused me. What I'm assuming it means is 1/2 cup dry oats has MORE calories in it than 1/2 cup soupy oatmeal, correct? Because the calories aren't as concentrated. Surely adding water and applying heat can't magically increase calories, lol.
What? I'm confused as ****? 1/2 cup(uncooked) is 150cals. Ok. So whatever you do to the 1/2 cup(eat raw, water it, whateva) is your bussiness right? If not, there is no value in knowing and reading nutrition labels is there?
Oh man.. now I am confused. I am an oatmeal fan too. I would think that the oatmeal would be the same amount of calorie.. water or not. You aren't creating MORE oats.. right?
What? I'm confused as ****? 1/2 cup(uncooked) is 150cals. Ok. So whatever you do to the 1/2 cup(eat raw, water it, whateva) is your bussiness right? If not, there is no value in knowing and reading nutrition labels is there?
Well that's generally my summation of it.
1/2 cup of dry oats that are 150 cal could be added to a gallon of water and make 1 gallon of "oatwater" (ew, lol). If somebody drank that whole gallon, they'd still just be consuming 150 calories.
I guess I was just confused by the Q&A answer with the volume stuff. But once I reread it it made more sense what was being said. 1/2 cup dry oats = 150 calories. 1/2 cup "oatwater" = a fraction of 150 calories.
I think shes saying that if you prepare the food, and then take a given volume of food, the calorie count changes. So if you have 1/2 a cup of uncooked oats, then prepare them with water and eat them, it's still 150 calories. But if prepare your oats, and then measure out 1/2 cup of them, the calorie count will be different. The oats will have more volume, and so 1/2 cup will be less oats than 1/2 a cup of the unprepared ones. Basically like measuring out your popcorn before it's popped vs afterward.
LOL! Ok. That makes sense. Just like when I cook my brown rice. 1/4 of a cup is a 150cals. So I cook 1cup of brown rice but instead of making it 4servings, I stretch it to 5 by adding lots of water. So the cooked serving is less than 150.
LOL! Ok. That makes sense. Just like when I cook my brown rice. 1/4 of a cup is a 150cals. So I cook 1cup of brown rice but instead of making it 4servings, I stretch it to 5 by adding lots of water. So the cooked serving is less than 150.
Yes, 1/4 cup = 150cal
so 1 cup = 4(150) = 600cal
in 5 servings = 600/5 = 120cal/serving
And if you stretched it to 6 servings by adding MORE water (which probably wouldn't make good rice, but for the sake of the example), each serving would be 100 cal. And so on.
I think shes saying that if you prepare the food, and then take a given volume of food, the calorie count changes. So if you have 1/2 a cup of uncooked oats, then prepare them with water and eat them, it's still 150 calories. But if prepare your oats, and then measure out 1/2 cup of them, the calorie count will be different. The oats will have more volume, and so 1/2 cup will be less oats than 1/2 a cup of the unprepared ones. Basically like measuring out your popcorn before it's popped vs afterward.
It's this, exactly. You should weigh all food prior to cooking and use the raw food estimate, because people's cooking preferences will change the weight of the prepared product. For example, your soupy oatmeal may weight 150 grams (a TOTAL random guess, LOL), but my condensed oatmeal may only be 120 grams. It's still 150 calories of oatmeal, though - even if you're "eating more."
This really plays a big role in meats, particularly fatty meats. a 10 oz fatty steak may cook into 6-8 ounces of meat - but you still have to count it as 10 oz raw PLUS whatever it's cooked in. If you weigh your food after cooking, you may grossly under or over estimate your calorie intake.
And sadly the opposite is true. Making things like banana chips pretty calorie dense compared to a real banana. Which is sad since i like me some banana chips.
Also - some meats have their serving sizes in cooked meat. If it wasn't already hard enough to calorie count.
Silly question about calorie changes with cooking
