Convert between raw and cooked weights for chicken, beef, rice, pasta, and vegetables — with accurate shrinkage factors, calorie density adjustments, and tracking tips.
Enter your food and weight to instantly convert between raw and cooked measurements.
BiteKit lets you log meals by speaking or typing — AI figures out the weight, cooking method, and nutrition for you automatically.
When you cook food, two things can happen to its weight: it can shrink (lose moisture or fat) or expand (absorb water). Understanding which direction your food goes is essential for accurate calorie tracking.
Meats and most vegetables lose moisture during cooking. Chicken breast loses ~25% of its weight, ground beef loses 20–30% depending on fat content, and spinach shrinks by up to 70%. The calorie total stays the same, but the food becomes more calorie-dense per gram.
Grains, pasta, rice, and legumes absorb water and grow significantly. White rice can triple in weight, pasta roughly doubles, and oats expand about 2.4×. This means cooked grains have far fewer calories per gram than their dry counterparts.
The conversion factor represents how much the weight changes: multiply raw weight by the factor to get cooked weight (or divide cooked weight by the factor to get raw weight).
| Food | Factor | Weight Change |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken Breast | 0.75 | -25% |
| Ground Beef 80/20 | 0.7 | -30% |
| Ground Beef 93/7 | 0.78 | -22% |
| Salmon | 0.8 | -20% |
| Shrimp | 0.8 | -20% |
| Steak (Beef) | 0.75 | -25% |
| Pork Chop | 0.75 | -25% |
| Turkey Breast | 0.76 | -24% |
| Food | Factor | Weight Change |
|---|---|---|
| White Rice | 3 | +200% |
| Brown Rice | 2.5 | +150% |
| Oats (Rolled) | 2.4 | +140% |
| Pasta (Dry) | 2.25 | +125% |
| Lentils | 2.5 | +150% |
| Chickpeas | 2.4 | +140% |
| Food | Factor | Weight Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sweet Potato | 0.9 | -10% |
| Broccoli (Steamed) | 0.93 | -7% |
| Spinach (Cooked) | 0.3 | -70% |
| Zucchini (Cooked) | 0.85 | -15% |
| Mushrooms (Cooked) | 0.5 | -50% |
The golden rule is consistency: always log the same state for the same food. That said, here are the recommended defaults by food type:
Weigh chicken, beef, fish, and pork before cooking. Cooking causes variable moisture and fat loss depending on method and cook time, making raw weight the more reliable reference point. Most nutrition databases (USDA, MyFitnessPal) also list values for raw meat by default.
Weigh rice, pasta, oats, and legumes after cooking. Since you typically cook a large batch and portion it out, logging the cooked weight is more practical. Note that some apps list dry weight values — check the label to confirm which state is being used.
For vegetables, either raw or cooked logging works. Weigh them whichever way is most convenient. Consistency matters more than which state you choose — just make sure the database entry matches the state you weighed them in.
A common source of tracking errors is mixing up raw and cooked calorie values. Here is a concrete example with chicken breast:
Raw (200g)
240 kcal
120 kcal per 100g
Cooked (150g)
240 kcal
160 kcal per 100g
The total calories are identical — only the weight and calorie density change. If you weigh 150g of cooked chicken but log it using a raw calorie value (120 kcal/100g), you would log only 180 kcal instead of the correct 240 kcal — an undercount of 60 kcal. Over a week, that adds up.
For meats, log raw — weigh before cooking for the most consistent results. For grains and pasta, log cooked since you portion them after cooking. Either works for vegetables as long as you stay consistent and match the database entry state.
Chicken loses weight during cooking primarily because moisture evaporates as it heats up. A typical chicken breast loses about 25% of its weight when grilled or baked. The total calories remain the same, but the calorie density per gram increases because the water content decreases.
Rice and pasta absorb water during cooking, significantly increasing their weight. White rice roughly triples in weight and pasta roughly doubles. The calorie count stays the same, but calories per 100g drops dramatically because the total weight is much higher.
The total calorie content of a portion does not change significantly with cooking (ignoring added oils or sauces). However, the calorie density — calories per 100g — does change because cooking alters the weight through water loss or absorption.
Chicken breast has a raw-to-cooked ratio of approximately 0.75. That means 200g raw chicken breast becomes about 150g cooked. The calories stay the same, but the cooked product has higher calorie density (about 160 kcal per 100g cooked vs. 120 kcal per 100g raw).
Spinach retains only about 30% of its original weight after cooking due to significant water loss. So 100g raw spinach yields roughly 30g cooked spinach. The calorie count stays the same, but the cooked spinach is much more calorie-dense per gram.
BiteKit handles the conversion automatically when you log meals. Just say what you ate and let AI figure out the rest.