One thing that I make for dinner for my family once a week is burritos. It is fairly easy to make, it is pretty affordable, and always a fan favorite. As I have written about before on this website, burritos are one of my favorite foods, and I have figured out a way to make healthy-enough burritos to be able to eat them while on a calorie deficit diet.
I prepare various things for my burritos, one of which is 93% lean ground beef. I prepare one pound of it as part of my burrito prep, and there inevitably always seems to be a decent amount of it left over. As one of my meals the following day, I typically eat leftover ground beef with Lay’s-brand baked ‘original’ potato chips. Those types of chips seem to be the lowest calorie chips in my area at 120 calories per serving (about 18 chips).
A common Google search for me on those days is ‘how many cups is one serving of ground beef?’ If you look at the average package of ground beef, it lists the serving size in ounces, which, if you have a scale, is OK. However, I have measuring cups more readily available than I do a food scale, so I have often looked for the cup-to-ounce equivalent. I have found a wide range of answers in Google results, from 1/4 of a cup to 1.5 cups.
Today I busted out my food scale and weighed one cup of cooked ground beef, and it was right at about 4 ounces (112-ish grams), which is one serving. My scale is an old-fashioned one with a pointer that moves left to right, and it is not a digital scale, so my measurement is not exact. But, it was close enough for me to know that a 4 ounce serving of cooked 93% lean ground beef is about one cup.
I assumed that if I was constantly looking for this specific answer that there are probably others out there looking for the same info, so I figured I would share it in an article on this site. It also helps make it easy for me to personally refer back to if I forget 😉
If you are going to use ground beef for something, I recommend always using 93% lean ground beef if possible. It wasn’t until recently that I took the time to look at the nutritional facts of ground beef, and the difference in calories and fat between less-lean ground beef and 93% lean ground beef is wild.
80% lean ground beef is 280 calories per serving with 22 grams of fat. Comparatively, 93% lean ground beef is 170 calories per serving with 8 grams of fat. I find that if I am seasoning the beef with taco seasoning, I don’t really notice the difference in taste between the two, for what that is worth.
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