Raw to cooked weight calculator

Published by Vancko Systems Ltd · Last updated 13 September 2026 · Editorial policy

Weigh your meat raw or cooked — this converts between the two. A chicken breast loses about a quarter of its weight on the grill, bacon loses seventy per cent, and a water-added ham loses almost nothing. Pick the cut and the method and you get the real figure, not a flat multiplier.

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Why cooked meat can be lighter than the label suggests

Two things leave the pan: water and fat. Water is most of it, which is why cooked meat reads higher per 100 g — the remaining meat is more concentrated. But fat leaves too, and it takes calories with it. USDA's own figures put the fat loss at about a third for high-fat mince and well over a quarter for bacon. So the portion on your plate can carry fewer calories than the raw weight suggested, even though the number per 100 g went up. Almost no calorie chart mentions this.

Common questions

Should I weigh meat raw or cooked?

Raw is the more reliable habit, because the cooked weight depends on how hard you cooked it. Whichever you choose, use the matching figure: raw weight with raw calories, cooked weight with cooked calories. Mixing the two is the most common way people miscount a meal.

How much does chicken breast shrink when cooked?

About a quarter. USDA figures put a grilled skinless breast at roughly 74 per cent of its raw weight and a roasted one at about 70 per cent, so 200 g raw lands near 140 to 148 g cooked.

Why does cooked meat have more calories per 100 g?

Because water has gone. The same protein and most of the fat now sit in less weight, so the concentration rises. It does not mean the meal got more fattening — you are simply holding less of it.

Does the cooking method really change the answer?

Yes, and by more than people expect. The same bacon is 32 per cent of its raw weight baked and 29 per cent microwaved. Braising and stewing lose more than roasting for most cuts, because the meat is in liquid for longer.

Is there one multiplier I can just use?

Three quarters is the rough rule people repeat, and for a plain grilled steak or chicken breast it is close. It is badly wrong at the edges: bacon is nearer three tenths, and a water-added ham barely moves at all.

Does this work for fish?

Yes, for 91 fish and seafood entries, though these come from the derived layer rather than the USDA yield tables, which cover only red meat and poultry. Most fish holds its weight better than red meat.

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How this calculator works

Cooking yield is the cooked weight as a percentage of the raw weight. To go from raw to cooked, multiply by the yield; to go back, divide by it. Yields vary with heat, time and how much fat you drain, so treat the figure as the middle of a range rather than an exact number. Protein barely changes during cooking, which is what makes the derived layer possible. 163 rows are measured cooking yields published by the USDA. The remaining 470 are derived from the protein concentration of the raw and cooked records for the same cut, a method that reproduced the measured figures to within about four percentage points across 221 overlapping cuts. Each row says which it is.

Sources

  1. USDA Agricultural Research Service — Cooking Yields for Meat and Poultry (Release 2). ars.usda.gov
  2. USDA FoodData Central — composition of raw and cooked foods. fdc.nal.usda.gov

This is general information, not medical or food-safety advice. Cooking yield says nothing about whether meat is safely cooked through — use a thermometer for that.