The FastDay Forum

You know how food shrinks when you cook it?
Well I'm thinking of a whole potato - say a medium 142gms = 92 cals microwaved whole,
BUT if I slice it finely on a mandoline, blot slices dry then microwave it for 6-7 mins turning it into healthy chips; I will now have about 30 gms of dry, crispy crisps which would only be about 20 cals.
What do you think?
Which should I count?

Ooh, that's a good one. Surely the same calories will still be in the potato after drying? My brain is hurting!

It depends....
For example, I've just calorie counted a curry for tonight. On MFP, 60g grilled aubergine comes in at 38 cals, but 60g raw aubergine comes in at 10 cals. As I don't know how much oil was included with the grilled calculation, I chose the raw option, as I know I'll only use fry light. Plus, 60g of cooked is probably worth 100g of raw.
Plus, it's a faff to weigh some cooked items.
I'm sure there'll be someone to offer some expert advice though.

Calorie counting is not an exact science unfortunately. Not only different sources give different calorie counts but also food changes it's calorific content when cooked. To not go to crazy and obsessive about it I only count raw food calorie content. If I cook a batch of something, i.e. stew or soup, I count calories of only raw ingredients, plus the amount of fat added in the process, and then sum it up for the whole batch. I then take a weight of the whole batch so that I know how much to take when I need a specific amount of calories. Braking the batch into equal portions prior freezing or chilling in the fridge can also give an indication of how much calories is in each portion.

As to the dried potatoes for crisps, potato slices are losing water in the process hence are lighter after processing but calories stay the same.

When cooking aubergines I would count calories for the raw veg plus fat added during cooking (if using). Aubergines can soak up a lot of fat, from my experience.

I count raw calories + anything I have added in cooking process e.g. fat. As has been said...
The weight of your potato raw = 142g (92kcal) nothing is lost in the cooking but water
The weight of your potato cooked is 30g =92 kcal
142g of potatoes cooked in this way = 435 kcal
Its the same when cooking something which absorbs water during the cooking process such as rice...count your dry weight ..the only thing you are adding is water which will increase its weight this time!