So I'm not supposed to be using a measuring cup
jessiesue2
Posts: 14 Member
When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?
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It\s just more accurate.......and you'll also find that 8 ounces of puffed wheat is actually 14 cups not 1.
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Food scale over measure every time...0
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I use grams to weigh, it's more accurate, especially for odd shaped or lumpy foods (like cereal). For low calorie foods it's less important, but things like oil, nut butters, cheese, etc it's necessary to be accurate.0
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Definitely weigh any solids, measure any liquids. Especially weigh foods that are very calorie dense like peanut butter. It's much more accurate. Before I started weighing, I just used to use a measuring cup. Once I got my scale, I decided to compare, using cereal as my example. It turns out that by measuring out a cup of cereal, I was actually eating more than a serving. In some cases, with some foods, I was eating less than a serving and wasting my perfectly good calories.0
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Most items have the weight in grams listed after the volume measurement. My cereals say 3/4 cup (55 grams) and similar. Also, many of the MFP entries have grams as an option, so you can use those rather than ones that only list cups.
Also, volume measurements are not equivalent to weight*, so you wouldn't want to weigh out 8 ounces something to equal a cup.
All that said, when I first started I measured using cups/tbsps., etc. and was able to maintain my deficit (though I must note that it was large enough to absorb any inconsistencies). As I neared maintenance I started weighing more and more things because there is less margin of error in a small deficit or maintenance.
*Except for grams to ml for water
ETA: 1/4 cup of shredded cheese it generally one ounce by weight. And I still don't weigh butter.0 -
Most foods have the weight in grams listed beside the cups, tablespoons, or whatever else they list. Grams are definitely more accurate and precise than volume for solids. Think of how much cereal you can fit in a 1 cup measuring cup if you take the whole pieces from the top of the box, as opposed to the crumbs and broken bits from the bottom of the box. They are very different amounts.0
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I use stick butter and get the amount from the measurement lines on the paper wrapping. Shredded cheese I weigh because I am sure I could pack a lot of cheese into a measuring cup.
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I don't weigh often. Because I look at the serving amounts. Like for example...if I buy a 180gram block of cheese. A serving of cheese is 30grams. So 180 ÷ 30 =6 servings in that block. I then divide the cheese into 6 before storing. Easy.0
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I weigh whatever is solid because even if you have a line to cut on, or a number to divide by, the likelihood of making a perfect cut or gauging perfectly the size of each portion is nil. Will you be off a ton by doing that? Maybe not, but a little here and a little there adds up.
Liquids I'll measure more often than weigh but I'm trying to get myself int he habit of measuring everything because I've seen just how big of a difference it makes in my calorie counts. Even if you think it wouldn't, like taking 1/6th of something.0 -
Weigh solids. In the case of shredded cheese, you can scoop half a cup of shredded cheese, or you can pack it down, or do anything in between and it's all ostensibly half a cup but the packed could be double the weight of the scooped.
Weigh everything but liquid, especially calorie dense foods that can be packed down in a cup.0 -
I weigh everything I possibly can. Measuring cups are a surefire route to overestimating.0
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jessiesue2 wrote: »When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?
WHOA! In your example you'd only weigh out 8 ounces instead of a cup if the serving size was both 1 cup AND 8 ounces!
Read the weight for the serving size on the package and calculate from that. For best accuracy weigh all solids and use measuring cups for liquids. So the butter and cheese is best to weigh. Especially the cheese! As has been said You can fit so much more or less shredded anything into 1/4 a cup depending on how tight you pack it.
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Weigh if you can, because it will be more accurate.
If you're in a hurry/don't have scales to hand, measuring with cups/tablespoons etc. is still much better than not measuring at all.
I weigh pasta, rice, meat, vegetables, etc. and use a teaspoons/tablespoons to measure cooking oils etc and cup measures for other liquids like milk, wine, etc.
There are some things (curry paste, tomato puree, salad dressing) that I'll use a tablespoon for if I'm feeling lazy or weigh if I'm super-motivated.
I don't always bother weighing super low-calorie items (eg: salad leaves). I have weighed them occasionally so have a rough idea of what a handful weighs, and if the difference is only going to be 5 calories or so I don't think it's a big deal.0 -
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jessiesue2 wrote: »When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?
Volume ounces is not the same as weight ounces. Use the grams serving they give you on the box...
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If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write 0
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If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write
No. Seriously, how do you fit broccoli, carrots, grapes, apples, croutons etc accurately in a cup? Quite sure a cup of croutons (a serving is 2 tablespoons I believe, how in the world do you fit a crouton in a tablespoon anyway) will be quite different from what the correct serving weight is.0 -
This is something I really need to focus on, weighing rather than measuring my food. This morning for example, I have typically always measured my cereal to 1 cup. Which comes out to about 1.2 servings. I figure I will weigh it since I am in no rush. I took the 1 cup of cereal and it weighed WAY more than the 1 serving of 30gs. It actually came out closer to 60gs! So this entire time, I have been tracking by putting in 1.2 servings..only to find out that this whole time I should have just been putting in 2 servings of 30gs.
It is really frustrating, but I am coming to find that weighing the food and measuring are NOT the same. Go with weighing as much as possible...measure as an alternative.0 -
If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write
I'm lazy. I prefer the food scale because there are less dishes to wash afterward. Bowl on the scale, hit the tare button, plop as much of one ingredient as I want in, write it down, tare again, plop in second ingredient, etc. One bowl to wash and I don't have to round up all those cups and spoons for each ingredient.
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I never used a scale for my weightloss but I am a cheapskate and didn't want to waste money.
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jessiesue2 wrote: »When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?
Volume ounces is not the same as weight ounces. Use the grams serving they give you on the box...
Came in to say this. I don't know why you'd use measuring cups to measure anything besides fluid ounces. That's what their intent is for. For example, this recipe calls for 4 ounces of milk, well pull out the measuring cup for that.
What if you had steak or, heaven forbid, potato chips? How do you fit those in a measuring cup?
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This point was brought home to me this morning when what I would have logged as a 60 calorie cup of grapes weighed out to be a 116 calorie 173 gram serving of grapes.
Weigh for accuracy folks.
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Measuring cups are for liquids.
Scale for solids.
Seriously for those folks that say the scale is too expensive - $20ish? I bet you spend that on other worthless stuff every week... Too hard - way easier than dragging out a dozen measuring cups and spoons. Not necessary - well if what you're doing is working then fine, but if you swear you're doing everything right and not losing it is usually due to inaccurate logging.0 -
<~~~ food scale. 100%!0
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I agree with the importance of weighing for accuracy, but if you're losing weight with rough estimates, and you find that easier and more sustainable, that's cool too. I do a mix of weighing and tablespooning for higher calorie foods/liquids, but just randomly throw in veggies and log it as '1 large carrot' or 1/2 a medium bell pepper.
However, if your weight loss stalls, and you don't weigh your food, IMO it is much easier to start weighing than assuming you have to reduce your calories by 200 and go to the gym more often.0 -
diannethegeek wrote: »If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write
I'm lazy. I prefer the food scale because there are less dishes to wash afterward. Bowl on the scale, hit the tare button, plop as much of one ingredient as I want in, write it down, tare again, plop in second ingredient, etc. One bowl to wash and I don't have to round up all those cups and spoons for each ingredient.
What is the "tare" button? My scale just has a button for "on" and one to change from oz to g.0 -
OneGoodBean wrote: »diannethegeek wrote: »If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write
I'm lazy. I prefer the food scale because there are less dishes to wash afterward. Bowl on the scale, hit the tare button, plop as much of one ingredient as I want in, write it down, tare again, plop in second ingredient, etc. One bowl to wash and I don't have to round up all those cups and spoons for each ingredient.
What is the "tare" button? My scale just has a button for "on" and one to change from oz to g.
A tare button resets the scale to zero. If you don't have one you could get the same effect by turning it off and on again without removing your dish so that the scale doesn't take into account the weight already on it.
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diannethegeek wrote: »
A tare button resets the scale to zero. If you don't have one you could get the same effect by turning it off and on again without removing your dish so that the scale doesn't take into account the weight already on it.
Oh, that's what my "on" button does. haha I didn't know it had a name. :P0
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