Calculate exactly how much raw meat you need to buy to end up with your desired cooked yield.
You will get approximately:
11.7
Cooked Yield
Note on Units: This calculator works with any weight unit (ounces, pounds, grams, kilograms). Simply enter the amount in your preferred unit, and the result will be in that exact same unit. Shrinkage percentages are USDA-based averages for standard cooking methods (grilling/roasting for steak, roasting for chicken and pork, pan-broiling for ground beef, pan-frying for bacon) — actual results vary with cooking method and doneness.
Last updated: August 2026
The Reality of Meat Shrinkage
Whether you're meal prepping for the week or buying groceries for a large barbecue, there's nothing worse than cooking your meat only to realize it shrank drastically in the pan. Our Meat Shrinkage Calculator uses protein-specific, research-based shrinkage rates to help you plan your grocery list with precision - in either direction, whether you're starting from a raw amount or working backward from a cooked target.
Why Does Meat Shrink?
Raw meat is mostly water and protein, with some fat depending on the cut. When exposed to heat, the proteins denature and tighten, acting like a sponge being wrung out. This pushes water out of the meat, causing it to evaporate or drip away. At the same time, any marbled fat melts and renders out - the fattier the cut, the more total weight is lost.
Worked Example
Say a recipe calls for 1 pound (16 oz) of cooked chicken breast. Select "I need a specific amount of cooked meat," choose Chicken Breast, and enter 16. At a 28% shrinkage rate, the calculator divides 16 by (1 − 0.28) = 0.72, giving you about 22.2 ounces— roughly 1.4 pounds — of raw chicken to buy.
Going the other direction, if you're starting with 1 pound of raw bacon, select "I have raw meat," choose Bacon, and enter 16. At a 69% shrinkage rate, that's 16 × (1 − 0.69) = about 5 ouncesof cooked bacon — which is why a pound of bacon disappears so fast at brunch.
Average Shrinkage Rates Used In This Calculator
Ground Beef / Burgers: ~27% shrinkage (typical 80/20 blend, pan-broiled). A quarter-pound raw burger (4 oz) will weigh a bit under 3 ounces after cooking.
Chicken Breast: ~28% shrinkage, roasted. Chicken is lean, but boneless/skinless breast still loses substantial water weight during cooking.
Steaks and Roasts: ~20% shrinkage on average. This varies by cut and doneness — a ribeye grilled to medium loses about 16%, while a well-done roast can lose noticeably more.
Pork Chops: ~20% shrinkage, roasted.
Bacon: ~69% shrinkage! Bacon is mostly fat and cures with added water, both of which cook out, leaving you with less than a third of the original weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends heavily on the protein: steaks and roasts lose the least (around 16-23%), ground beef and chicken breast lose roughly 27-28%, and bacon loses about 69% since it's mostly fat. There's no single 'meat shrinks 25%' rule that applies accurately across every protein.
Two things happen: heat causes the proteins in the meat to tighten and squeeze out water (like wringing a sponge), and any fat marbled through the meat melts and renders away. Leaner cuts lose mostly water; fattier cuts like bacon lose water and a large amount of fat.
Chicken breast loses about 28% of its weight when roasted. To end up with 16 ounces (1 pound) of cooked chicken breast, you need to start with approximately 22 ounces (about 1.4 pounds) of raw chicken.
Bacon is roughly 40-50% fat before cooking. As it fries, nearly all of that fat renders out into the pan along with water from the curing process, leaving behind mostly protein - about 31% of the original weight. If you're planning bacon for a crowd, budget for roughly 3 times your target cooked weight in raw bacon.
Ground beef has much more surface area exposed to heat than a solid cut, so moisture evaporates faster. It's also typically higher in fat (a standard 80/20 blend) than the lean muscle of most steaks, so more fat renders out during cooking.
Yes. A rare steak loses noticeably less weight than a well-done one, because less moisture and fat cook out at lower internal temperatures. This calculator uses a medium-doneness average for the 'Steak / Roast' category - expect a few percentage points more shrinkage if you routinely cook past medium.
Be consistent. Most nutrition labels and databases list raw weight, so weighing your meat raw and using the package label tends to be the most accurate approach. If you weigh after cooking, look up cooked-weight nutrition data separately rather than applying raw-meat numbers to a smaller cooked portion.
