Dry or cooked rice: how to log the weight you measured

Match the entry to the state you weighed

Rice takes up water during cooking. The cooked batch weighs more, so each 100 g contains less rice and has fewer calories than 100 g of the dry grain. In USDA FoodData Central, the specific dry long grain white rice entry has 365 kcal per 100 g, while its cooked counterpart has 130 kcal per 100 g. Those are two separate entries: one for dry rice and one for cooked rice. [1] [2]

Plain tap water has 0 kcal per 100 g, so the water raises the batch weight without adding calories. The batch's calories are spread across more cooked grams. [3] If you use a protein, fats and carbs guide, apply the same state matching to the grams you log.

What the scale reads	Entry to choose
Dry rice before cooking	Dry rice entry
Cooked rice on your plate	Cooked rice entry

When you weigh a dry portion

If you weigh rice before it goes in the pan, choose a dry entry and log that weight. If you weigh it after cooking, choose a cooked entry and enter the cooked grams. Do not take the dry entry's calories per 100 g and multiply them by cooked grams, because those grams include water that was not in the dry measurement.

For packaged rice, check the basis printed on the label and follow it. Use a dry weight only when the label describes the uncooked product; if it gives a different basis, make sure the weight you log uses that same basis. A label's serving size and the number on your scale need to describe the same state.

When an app entry is vague, check whether its name says dry or cooked, and whether it is plain rice or a prepared dish. This matters when you compare a bowl with a database entry: the rice may be the same variety, yet the amount of water in each measured 100 g differs.

Split one cooked batch across meal prep boxes

You can calculate each box from the dry batch calories and your actual cooked yield. This keeps the calculation tied to the rice you cooked, without assuming a fixed dry to cooked conversion.

1. Work out the batch calories: dry batch grams × dry kcal per 100 g ÷ 100. For the USDA long grain white rice entry, use 365 kcal per 100 g. [1]
2. Weigh the whole cooked batch after cooking and note its total weight.
3. For each box, multiply the batch calories by the box's cooked weight, then divide by the full cooked batch weight.

The calculation assumes the cooked rice is mixed evenly through the batch. If you add oil, butter or sauce, count those ingredients separately or include their calories in the batch total before splitting it.

Example, not advice: Kamil is 26, 178 cm, 78 kg and strength trains four times a week. He cooks 300 g of dry rice and gets 750 g cooked. At 365 kcal per 100 g dry rice, the batch has 300 × 365 ÷ 100 = 1,095 kcal. One box with 250 g cooked rice gets 1,095 × 250 ÷ 750 = 365 kcal. [1]

Check the entry name before logging

Before saving, check that the entry says dry or cooked to match your scale reading, and that it describes plain rice if your portion is plain. Add oil or sauces to the meal when you used them, since those ingredients add their own calories. Rice type and cooking method affect water uptake, so the USDA figures above describe those exact long grain white rice records. Do not use their dry or cooked value as a universal number for every variety or preparation. [1] [2]

You can type what you ate into CalXd, which estimates calories, protein, fats and carbs from text. Its AI results are marked as estimates and can be edited.