Forum users describe several practical approaches including basing portions on raw ingredient totals, weighing the finished batch and dividing, or logging only cooked weights after draining. Many rely on a kitchen scale kept handy, tare out common dishes, and use apps to handle recipes or daily totals. Consistency matters more than perfect precision, and some offset estimates slightly to stay on target.
What this discussion establishesWhether to subtract removed grease or juices after cooking versus ignoring those losses
Still openWhich single method gives the most reliable long-term results
Nothing here is advice.
When preparing meals in batches for several days, what's the best way to log macros precisely? Meat sheds moisture while cooking and rice absorbs it, making cooked weights vary from raw. Should I base calculations on uncooked items and portion them out, or measure the entire cooked batch and divide? Which approach is simpler to maintain?
Pretty much all of that. I've seen lots of bodybuilding videos on the topic and they cover it well. I track activity with Oura and send it to MyFitnessPal, then adjust for cooked versus raw weight each time. No point logging an uncooked burger at 440 calories when it drops almost 2 oz from water and fat loss. Over time eating the same foods repeatedly gives a feel for the numbers, but the scale stays on the counter.
I log my intake but skip subtracting any grease I pour off later. The process needs to stay simple enough that I actually do it. For anyone new to tracking, keep a scale in the kitchen so it's always ready, and pick one or two usual plates or bowls. Tare the bowl on the scale so it reads zero, then add food. For meat I usually weigh it after cooking once extra liquid has drained.
That's close to my routine. I enter the whole recipe into Google Gemini, then weigh a single serving at mealtime and let it figure the calories and macros. Macrofactor does something similar and made things much easier. Previously I weighed every ingredient separately while assembling each meal and entered them one by one, which got tedious fast. Weighing one portion from a big batch is far simpler to keep doing.
You're making it more complicated than necessary. Being a little off is fine if you stay consistent. I cook all the chicken for the week using the package weight at purchase, then divide the total cooked amount by seven for the average daily portion.
I didn't do full meal prep but cooked a big batch and ate it across three or four meals. I just split the total calories evenly, so 1200 calories across four meals meant 300 each, and aimed to stay close. I also aimed a couple hundred calories under target to allow for measurement errors.
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