Who *actually* measures and weighs everything?

sunman00

every one of my 52lb's lost were the result of measuring & weighing everything, crucial in my view; been maintaining for 6 months now & no loner need to, you kind of know what's going in

missjones513

I mainly weigh snacks, meats, pasta and sometimes canned foods, especially if I plan on draining the juice from whatever.

bulbadoof

I just ballpark it when I'm not alone. I don't like drawing attention to the fact that I'm counting calories. People seem to like to comment on it, and I'd rather they didn't.

Lounmoun

I don't really.
I cook a lot so I have a pretty good idea what 1/2 cup or 1T of something really looks like.
Occasionally, I will weigh or measure something like baby carrots or spinach because it is harder to judge. After I've weighed it one time, I have a pretty good idea what a serving of those looks like.

I think if you are pretty familiar with actual serving sizes or cook a lot you can eyeball stuff but if you aren't then you should probably weigh or measure for awhile.

oycarter

I know weight and measuring is important...but it drives me crazy. It's very difficult for me.

segacs

I don't actually find it that difficult. But one thing that does drive me crazy is that so many of the foods in the database are in US and not metric measurements. I know, I know, most users on the site are American. But as a Canadian, I don't know nor do I care about ounces and cups, and would prefer to see things in millilitres and grams. The conversions aren't intuitive for me, so it's just sort of frustrating to keep having to calculate conversions.

This is more of a rant about countries *coughs* USA that don't adopt the ridiculously simple metric system, and not a rant about MFP. But just putting that out there.

lemurcat12

segacs wrote: »

I don't actually find it that difficult. But one thing that does drive me crazy is that so many of the foods in the database are in US and not metric measurements.

I'm in the US, but log nearly everything in grams, so I know the better entries in the database generally have 100 gram options (those are the non-asterisk'd ones that I believe are from the USDA).

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segacs

Yeah I use those when I can find them, too. But I would *love* the ability to filter results in the database to display only those that are entered in grams.

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sjeannot

I do when I cook. I have my food scale, measuring cups for liquid and powder and use all of them when I am cooking for accuracy. Seems a little bit much but . . .

Timshel_

NakeshiaBeard wrote: »

How many of you *actually* measure and weigh everything you eat?

When I was first starting I did a lot of weighing and measuring. I found my mental calculation were sometimes VERy far off from the actual numbers. After about a year though I have a good idea of what is what and how much is how much. I don't have a huge range of foods so the only time I do measure or weigh anymore is if it is something different from the norm.

stealthq

At home, nearly everything.

I take some shortcuts - if I buy a bag full of apples, they're generally really close to the same size. I'll pick a large-ish one, core it, and weigh it. Then use that measurement for all of the rest of the apples. If I make a recipe, I'll weigh so I have the right calories for the total, but I don't weigh the servings. I'm the only one eating the dish, I know it'll average out in the end.

Out and about it's not feasible. I mean, who cares if I have 300g of lasagna if I have no idea how it was made? And I'm not going to piss off friends and family by nagging them for details about how they made dinner unless I legitimately want the recipe. I just take my best guess and run with it. It's been successful for me so far.

Azexas

I weight probably 98% of what I eat. If I am at my boyfriend's parent's house I tend eyeball instead of weigh it out.

llUndecidedll

I don't because I don't own a food scale. I keep saying I'm going to get one, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I will get one eventually because I'm starting to cook more.

I have had some good progress without using a food scale, though.

earlnabby

I weigh almost everything and measure out the rest. The only things I eyeball are leafy greens and the only things I count are eggs and cherry tomatoes.

89Madeline

I do, whenever I'm at home. I weigh everything I cook myself. It's actually not a big problem at all. It's quick and easy. I also eat a lot of portioned controlled/pre packaged things, so I know what I'm putting in my body. Same goes for lunch, to go foods...

However, when I'm abroad for work and eat out a lot I don't, it's simply not possible. I try to estimate and order plates without sauces etc.

BarbieAS

Same as most, anything that I make and/or eat at home gets weighed. And I even keep a little portable food scale at my desk at work so that if I get stuck and have to buy lunch or a snack out during the day, as long as no one is around I can weigh what I'm eating. Obviously, at a restaurant or at a friend's house or whatnot it doesn't happen, but as long as that's the exception for meals rather than the rule, I'm sure thing will work out just fine.

kwiatrtdy

I do, but for a lot of things I judge it by how much of a packet of something I've eaten. Like for lunch I have crackers with 1/4 tub of humus on. Even if I'm not completely accurate with how much I spoon out each day, it still evens out across 4 days.

lemurcat12

segacs wrote: »

Yeah I use those when I can find them, too. But I would *love* the ability to filter results in the database to display only those that are entered in grams.

I'd just love the ability to filter to get only the non-asterisk'd entries (which would give you the gram options). It seems to have gotten more difficult since the recent changes, too.

KylaDenay

For the most part I do. I have come to realize how off many prepackaged items are. Now it is important to weigh EVERYTHING.

rioricorick

I have weighed everything for the 4 years I have been dieting. Especially at restaurants where they don't even give you their estimates of the calories in their food.
One thing this site could add that would save me and many other LOTS of time (at work especially!!!) is to add a "calories per gram" attribute to the foods. I throw the food on the scale on my desk, enter the grams, and boom! all done! Instead I find myself wading through website after website searching for how much one "serving" actually weighs.
When I put in a food myself, I list the number of calories for 100 grams. When I eat some amount of that food, it takes me maybe 5 seconds to make my log entry. When someone gives me a slice of cake, I weigh the cake, then find that just about every listing for cake states the number of calories for "one serving". If that serving is 50 grams, or 500 grams, who knows??? This issue really need to be addressed. For example, on calorie count, EVERY food is listed in multiple ways to include grams. I switched because that site was becoming very slow and many times not even loading from my work computer. Oh and MFP's ability to scan barcodes from a smartphone! Love it!!

Mexicanbigfoot

I measure most things (minus restaurant portions and other special situations) I have found that I grossly misjudge portion sizes when I try to eyeball them.

girlviernes

I weigh let's say 95% of what is practical to weigh. 5% of the time I am lazy and eyeball. I have two food scales, one for home and one for work. I usually don't weigh pre-portioned foods (like sausage). I probably should weigh pre-portioned more and maybe will do so down the line if I have a harder time losing weight.

cwolfman13

For a time I did...I can eyeball most things pretty accurately now, but it was pretty important for me in learning portion control in the beginning.

I still weigh certain things now...spaghetti comes to mind. I can't eyeball a serving of dry spaghetti.

rioricorick

segacs wrote: »

I don't actually find it that difficult. But one thing that does drive me crazy is that so many of the foods in the database are in US and not metric measurements. I know, I know, most users on the site are American. But as a Canadian, I don't know nor do I care about ounces and cups, and would prefer to see things in millilitres and grams. The conversions aren't intuitive for me, so it's just sort of frustrating to keep having to calculate conversions.

This is more of a rant about countries *coughs* USA that don't adopt the ridiculously simple metric system, and not a rant about MFP. But just putting that out there.

I couldn't agree more. I taught Physics for two years and using the metric system greatly simplified things for me and the students. Plus my desktop scale does not weight things in tablespoons! Fun fact: here in Arizona, Interstate 19 from Nogales to Tucson is labeled in kilometers!! It is great because when you're driving the numbers increase / decrease at a faster rate and you feel like you're really movin'!! Every now and then people complain and there is all this talk about changing it to miles. And not to my surprise since the gov't would be doing the work it would cost taxpayers over $5,000,000 to take down the signs and put up signs labeled in miles! I mean really, where are they having the signs made, and are they made out of gold?

lemurcat12

Whole foods have a gram option (these are the non-asterisked ones, which should be easier to find). Packaged items are usually listed as they are on the package, and restaurant items as the restaurant has them. Beyond that, nothing is going to be remotely accurate anyway--certainly not someone else's homemade recipe unless we can see the recipe--so you either guess or create a recipe yourself. I mean, I guess it would be nice to see the variation of calories for a particular size piece of cake so as to estimate better, but there's a tremendous range depending on what you put in the cake.

girlviernes

It would be really nice to have functionality built in that would automatically provide an oz option from grams or vice versa. You could even set your preference to metric or imperial and it would default to your preference.

ksuh999

brittanyoneill37 wrote: »

MsHarryWinston wrote: »

I do. Not EVERYTHING but most things. Like, I don't weigh bananas, I just bloody well refuse to do it. Or apples. I just can't. But most everything else.

I never used to weigh bananas either and assumed they were all around 150g I bought a banana today and it was 212g so I was off 62g and it does make quite a big difference if you're trying to lose weight

That's incredible. I've never gotten a banana that weighed more than 105 grams.

segacs

girlviernes wrote: »

It would be really nice to have functionality built in that would automatically provide an oz option from grams or vice versa. You could even set your preference to metric or imperial and it would default to your preference.

Yes, this!