[Pita09]

So, I was putting in my calorie count for dinner tonight in Fitday. I weighed my sweet-potato raw and it was 6oz. which is 179 calories. I weighed the same sweet-potato again after baking and it is 3 oz. OK, I go to the section for cooked and skinless and for 3oz. it's 83 calories and for 3oz. raw,yields it's 59 calories.

What calorie count do I go with?????

This yield thing happens a lot with veggies and I NEED to know what the secret is. Please enlighten me!!

[HeidiNicole]

In this sense yield is output or the production of a certain amount. So, according to Fitday a 3 oz raw sweet potato will produce 59 cal of cooked potato(not including skin). You need to go with the 3oz cooked weight which was 83cal since your potato was 6oz raw. Unless you are eating the skin, then I would use the raw weight so 179 cal.

[Primm]

I always use the raw weight with CK, because everyone cooks things to a different level of done-ness, so the water loss between say a rare and well done steak is significant.

It's more accurate that way. I just add on the calories I use during cooking (if I use a spray or olive oil, for example) and there you go!

[Pita09]

Thank you for the explanation Heidi. I actually thought that was what yield meant but then got myself confused. I think yield is very important when figuring out the calorie count for recipes that call for veggies.

Primm, it's certainly a guessing game sometimes on how to figure out the exact calories. I just got the best digital scale that zeros out. I've taken to weighing as much as I can in it's raw state and then once it's cooked.

[Primm]

It is. And if you put exactly the same food into two different calculators (Fitday vs CK for example) you'll get two slightly differing calorie counts! I think the best we can do is get it as accurate as possible and then not stress too much about the slight differences.

If you allow yourself 1400 say per day and you actually eat 1420, does that really matter anyway? In the big scheme, long term view of things? I don't think so.

[mandalinn82]

I always use the raw weight.

Calorie counting is, in a very real sense, a series of educated guesses. The calories in a tomato, for example, will depend on it's size, sure, but also it's level of ripeness, relative moisture content, the soil it was grown in, and how much sun it got...all of those things effect sugar and water levels, and therefore the total calories. So you're always looking at an estimate no matter how you slice it. But being "close" is better than having no idea, right? And it all evens out in the end.