PLZ help, very frustrated in calorie counting

[AzBboy]

hi everyone. I been counting cals for a while now, but i get so confused at times. Heres a few situations...

One thing I noticed is that the cans of food or individually wrapped meats NEVER contain the amount of weight as labeled. For instance, tuna. It's always about an ounce and a half less than the can claims it has. Same with the individually wrapped chicken meats (tyson) that i buy. Then I have to do some crazy off the wall division problem to get a possible nutrient breakdown...it scares me cus by how much cals am i wrong and cheating/hurting myself?
Also, foods that give serving sizes measured in cups AND grams/ounces. For instance, beans. it will say somethin like Serving size: .5 cup (40 grams.) So then i get half a cup, then put it on a scale, it weighs like 25 grams. Which do I go buy, half a cup, or the 40 gram measurement?
One more for ya. What do you do with things like rice, where it only tells you the serving size nutrition info for when its un-cooked? It would be PERFECT...except I eat my rice cooked. If a serving size is like 56g uncooked, is it still the same as cooking it first then measuring out the 56g? Sorry this stuff is really driving me up the wall, please anyone can offer suggestions for what they do in these situations? thanks a million

[EJFan]

you're always better off using the scale rather than the measuring cup. cups measure volume, scales measure mass... the nutritional information is based on mass... volume is indicated for schmucks like me who haven't gotten a scale yet.

as far as rice goes, 3/4 cup cooked is the same as 1/4 cup raw. multiply the raw measure by 3 to get the cooked measure... rice triples in volume when cooked (most of the ones i've used do at least) one cup raw + two cups water = three cups cooked.

[ReelBigFish]

hi everyone. I been counting cals for a while now, but i get so confused at times. Heres a few situations...

One thing I noticed is that the cans of food or individually wrapped meats NEVER contain the amount of weight as labeled. For instance, tuna. It's always about an ounce and a half less than the can claims it has. Same with the individually wrapped chicken meats (tyson) that i buy. Then I have to do some crazy off the wall division problem to get a possible nutrient breakdown...it scares me cus by how much cals am i wrong and cheating/hurting myself?
Also, foods that give serving sizes measured in cups AND grams/ounces. For instance, beans. it will say somethin like Serving size: .5 cup (40 grams.) So then i get half a cup, then put it on a scale, it weighs like 25 grams. Which do I go buy, half a cup, or the 40 gram measurement?
One more for ya. What do you do with things like rice, where it only tells you the serving size nutrition info for when its un-cooked? It would be PERFECT...except I eat my rice cooked. If a serving size is like 56g uncooked, is it still the same as cooking it first then measuring out the 56g? Sorry this stuff is really driving me up the wall, please anyone can offer suggestions for what they do in these situations? thanks a million

Don't stress so much on it. If your gaining too much weight too fast then back off some things and if ur not gaining add some more. Just go by what the package says, there is no need to get too obsessed about it.

[vypergts]

If its a typical scale it measures weight, mass is not dependant on gravity, I'm a nerd. :)

[EJFan]

If its a typical scale it measures weight, mass is not dependant on gravity, I'm a nerd. :)

yeah. you're right. i should've been more specific... i'm a bit of a nerd too and i think i let the whole population down. ;)

the point i REALLY wanted to make was that in measuring volume (unless it's a liquid) there's a lot of room for error depending on how the solids get arranged in the cup.

[tholian8]

A food scale is your best friend when calorie counting.

[Vido]

Tuna: use the info on the label. Any can I've seen says it weighs 170g, and then 120g when it's been drained. Base your calories off the 120g.

Rice: I don't see what the problem is. Measure the rice out before it's been cooked, and count the calories. This limits you from making rice for multiple days at a time if you want to stay accurate, but it's not that big a deal. Typically, rice will expand to 3 x the amount once cooked, so 1 cup uncooked rice yields 3 cups cooked rice.

[AzBboy]

thanks a lot for the info here folks, it does put me at a lot of ease.