How to Food Scale?

holly55555
holly55555 Posts: 306 Member
edited November 9 in Health and Weight Loss
I have never used a food scale, but I track my amounts by measuring everything as per the serving size on packaging.

I see a lot of people recommending food scales for tracking, but how does that correlate to MFP where a lot of measurements don't seem to be by weight?

Can someone explain this to me?

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    edited December 2014
    I weigh my food and divide it by the serving size, then when I input the entry I just change the serving I ate to that amount. Like I had Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. A serving is 3/4 cup or 28 grams. I ate 32 grams of it. 32/28 equals about 1.14 servings. So even if the entry I use goes by cups, I'm still putting in exactly what I ate.
  • FatFreeFrolicking
    FatFreeFrolicking Posts: 4,252 Member
    edited December 2014
    You can find foods weighed in grams or ounces in the food database.. you just have to look. Or you can create it yourself based on the calorie content and protein, fat, carb content from the USDA.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
    edited December 2014
    Even if the database entry doesn't have a grams option, if you know by the package what the weight in grams, you can still log it by the weight by how much by weight you ate vs what a serving size in weight it is.

    Of course if its a raw ingredient, just search the name of it with "USDA" and it should pop right up.
  • sympha01
    sympha01 Posts: 942 Member
    Not all food comes in packages.
  • PayneAS
    PayneAS Posts: 669 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    I weigh my food and divide it by the serving size, then when I input the entry I just change the serving I ate to that amount. Like I had Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. A serving is 3/4 cup or 28 grams. I ate 32 grams of it. 32/28 equals about 1.14 servings. So even if the entry I use goes by cups, I'm still putting in exactly what I ate.

    That's exactly what I do.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    I weigh my food and divide it by the serving size, then when I input the entry I just change the serving I ate to that amount. Like I had Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. A serving is 3/4 cup or 28 grams. I ate 32 grams of it. 32/28 equals about 1.14 servings. So even if the entry I use goes by cups, I'm still putting in exactly what I ate.

    Yup, this all the way. Weighing is far more accurate than measuring EXCEPT when it comes to liquids, then you should measure.
  • TopazCutie
    TopazCutie Posts: 386 Member
    AJ_G wrote: »
    malibu927 wrote: »
    I weigh my food and divide it by the serving size, then when I input the entry I just change the serving I ate to that amount. Like I had Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. A serving is 3/4 cup or 28 grams. I ate 32 grams of it. 32/28 equals about 1.14 servings. So even if the entry I use goes by cups, I'm still putting in exactly what I ate.

    Yup, this all the way. Weighing is far more accurate than measuring EXCEPT when it comes to liquids, then you should measure.

    +1
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I created my own database using weighted measurements.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Have you seen these two posts yet? I think they cover a lot of the basics of how to make the best use of the food database here:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    A food scale will tell you how much food weighs. It will not give you a significantly more accurate measure of the energy content of food.
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