NourmioHow to log ground beef after cooking and draining
Match a raw or cooked ground beef entry to the weight you measured. Compare USDA estimates for a 150 g portion of drained 90/10 crumbles.
If you weighed ground beef after browning and draining it, use a cooked crumbles entry that matches the original lean-to-fat ratio. If you only weighed it raw, use the package label or a matching raw entry. That gives you the calories before any drippings were discarded.
Match the entry to the beef on your scale
Suppose you brown 90/10 ground beef into crumbles, drain it and weigh out 150 g. USDA FoodData Central lists 230 kcal per 100 g for pan-browned crumbles from that blend. A 150 g serving comes to 345 kcal. The 90/10 describes the original blend, before cooking.
| Entry applied to the same 150 g cooked portion | Calories per 100 g | Calculated portion |
|---|---|---|
| Pan-browned 90/10 crumbles | 230 kcal | 345 kcal |
| Raw 90/10 ground beef, wrong entry for this weight | 176 kcal | 264 kcal |
Picking the raw entry would make this estimate 81 kcal lower. The table shows what happens when you change the lookup and keep the measured weight fixed. It does not show how many calories your batch lost during cooking.
Use the raw label if that is the weight you have
If you weighed the beef before cooking, use the serving weight on the package or a raw record for the same blend. That estimates what went into the pan. If you poured off drippings, the raw entry still includes the fat that went in. When you can weigh the crumbles after draining, use their cooked weight with a matching cooked entry. The same raw and cooked weight rule applies to other ingredients.
Account for the drippings once
In the USDA cooking study, researchers drained beef crumbles in a colander. A cooked crumbles entry is a useful estimate if your preparation is similar. If you made patties, kept the drippings or used a different blend, look for an entry that describes what you ate.
Comparing the raw and cooked weights shows how much lighter the meat is. Some of that weight can be water and some can be fat. The scale alone cannot tell you how much of each you lost. A cooked, drained entry already estimates the meat that remains. Subtracting the same drippings again would count the loss twice. If you added oil to the pan, account for that separately based on what went into the meal.
Save the blend, preparation and portion with your estimate. In Nourmio, you can enter the calories manually and keep the cooked weight with the entry.