Weighing food shock

Becky170467
Becky170467 Posts: 69 Member
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I don't usually bother weighing out cereal - but I'm not at work today so did. The bowl of Raisin Wheats I usually have & log as 40g is actually 70g!! Luckily still managed to lose despite this :)
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Replies

  • terricherry2
    terricherry2 Posts: 222 Member
    One of the most repeated phrases on MFP is "get digital scales and weigh everything". You don't appreciate why until you see something like that!
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    My shock when I first dieted a few years ago was what 75g of uncooked pasta looks like. Not very much!

    I weigh absolutely everything.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    Cereal is the worst! The box says a serving is 3/4 cup or whatever, which isn't nearly enough to fill you up, and with milk it's nearly 400 calories!!!! And you are still hungry. Give me yogurt any time.
  • Clawsal
    Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
    pinkteapot3 wrote: »
    My shock when I first dieted a few years ago was what 75g of uncooked pasta looks like. Not very much!

    I weigh absolutely everything.

    I love pasta, but almost never eat it now... because 75g is so little... (before counting I was easily eating 3 or 4 times that).

    And I also used to measure cereal with a cup, I was eating double what I thought I was eating!

    At least weighing food teaches us portion control.
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    edited February 2015
    I still have bolognese for dinner every couple of weeks. I've got used to 75g as a pasta portion when I'm losing. When I'm on maintenance I have 90g instead. Just to stress again to newbies - that's uncooked weight! It weighs more once cooked.

    I love my carbs so I still have the same curries, meat and spuds, bolognese etc as I've always eaten, just with a smaller portion of carbs. My dinners are always around 500-550 cals.

    Breakfast is 30g of bran flakes. Again, when you start out that's not much! You get used to it though. :)
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    Almond butter was eye opening for me. I thought I was eyeballing a tablespoon fairly well. Um... no.
  • crazykatlady_
    crazykatlady_ Posts: 46 Member
    Croutons. Ugh. Turns out you get maybe 6 a serving (if you're lucky). So glad I got my scale!
  • MaggieLoo79
    MaggieLoo79 Posts: 288 Member
    Fruit got me. Apparently, what I consider to be a small apple is large to everyone else. Yikes!
  • gongol07
    gongol07 Posts: 18 Member
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    Cereal is the worst! The box says a serving is 3/4 cup or whatever, which isn't nearly enough to fill you up, and with milk it's nearly 400 calories!!!! And you are still hungry. Give me yogurt any time.

    Yep, just can;t eat it now, it's not enough! Egg white omelette all the way!
  • Wiseandcurious
    Wiseandcurious Posts: 730 Member
    I actually try to get used to the smaller portions of carbs because hey, that will be my portion for life, no? But when my kid asks for homemade mac and cheese I still have to mentally prepare for how little of it my portion is ::sheds a tear for the old days' mac and cheese::
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    Chicken was my biggest reverse (happy) surprise. I did something like plan out a roast dinner and logged that I'd have 200g chicken. Started putting it on my plate and it was LOADS! Realised I was way off, had less than that, and freed up some cals for other things. :)
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Both pasta and rice is what surprised me.
  • eMka11
    eMka11 Posts: 106 Member
    I swapped sour cream with greek low fat yoghurt with plenty of mint/coriander/other herb.
    I was eating at least double portions of cereal, rice and pasta before I got scales.
  • suruda
    suruda Posts: 1,233 Member
    hmmmm, the comment about apples doesn't make me happy. I weigh my proteins and carbs but have been estimating my fruits and veggies. I better stop doing that...on the other hand, I don't think I got obese by overeating apples or brussel sprouts!
  • jellybaby84
    jellybaby84 Posts: 583 Member
    I know, it's scary isn't it! Particularly with fruit I find. I weigh most things but I'm never able to do everything (lunch at work etc) and I'm always confused re cooked and uncooked weight.

    I just make sure that my total is between 900 and 1000 cals and assume that, in reality, it's going to be near the 1200 mark. That way I don't have to worry.
  • ladybuggnorris
    ladybuggnorris Posts: 276 Member
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    Cereal is the worst! The box says a serving is 3/4 cup or whatever, which isn't nearly enough to fill you up, and with milk it's nearly 400 calories!!!! And you are still hungry. Give me yogurt any time.

    I second that comment. I eat 2 eggs, yogurt and grapefruit for breakfast every day. 350 calories and I am soooo full. I can't even fit in a morning snack.
  • AmazonMayan
    AmazonMayan Posts: 1,168 Member
    I was lucky with my cereal and found I could actually eat more than what I had been measuring out - Shredded Wheat N Bran. It is, however, 48g carbs for a serving of 1.25 cups - 59g I think. The portion size in relation to carbs/calories works for me to start my day along with eggs, milk, veggies, and sometimes meat.

    I don't even bother with cereal that says 3/4 cup is a serving lol. Drives me nuts.

    My good surprise was how much fish I could have...berries too. I love fruit and the berries help keep my calories in check.
  • JenniDaisy
    JenniDaisy Posts: 526 Member
    suruda wrote: »
    hmmmm, the comment about apples doesn't make me happy. I weigh my proteins and carbs but have been estimating my fruits and veggies. I better stop doing that...on the other hand, I don't think I got obese by overeating apples or brussel sprouts!

    I did!
  • ruggedshutter
    ruggedshutter Posts: 389 Member
    Wiseandcurious wrote: »
    I actually try to get used to the smaller portions of carbs because hey, that will be my portion for life, no? But when my kid asks for homemade mac and cheese I still have to mentally prepare for how little of it my portion is ::sheds a tear for the old days' mac and cheese::

    What? You mean a box of Mac N Cheese isn't a serving :'(
  • Wiseandcurious
    Wiseandcurious Posts: 730 Member
    ruggedshutter wrote: »
    Wiseandcurious wrote: »
    I actually try to get used to the smaller portions of carbs because hey, that will be my portion for life, no? But when my kid asks for homemade mac and cheese I still have to mentally prepare for how little of it my portion is ::sheds a tear for the old days' mac and cheese::

    What? You mean a box of Mac N Cheese isn't a serving :'(

    Life is hard :) Although, in my case - "a large overloaded plate" isn't a serving, cause I never had any that came in a box. It's so fast and easy to make from scratch, why at all bother?
  • pinkteapot3
    pinkteapot3 Posts: 157 Member
    Our dinner plates are larger than average, so putting MFP portions on one was an eye-opener!
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
    Pasta was the real eye opener for me. It make me sad how little a serving is. Also dry oatmeal, an ounce of nuts, and a 'serving' of my homemade coconut milk ice cream.
  • PrizePopple
    PrizePopple Posts: 3,133 Member
    suruda wrote: »
    hmmmm, the comment about apples doesn't make me happy. I weigh my proteins and carbs but have been estimating my fruits and veggies. I better stop doing that...on the other hand, I don't think I got obese by overeating apples or brussel sprouts!

    If you're underestimating your caloric intake by potentially hundreds of calories a day it doesn't matter if it's fruits and veggies or pizza and cake. Also, fruit is usually high in carbs because of naturally occurring sugars.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,944 Member
    pinkteapot3 wrote: »
    My shock when I first dieted a few years ago was what 75g of uncooked pasta looks like. Not very much!

    I weigh absolutely everything.

    Hmm.. we usually have 180 grams of pasta between the two of us. Yes, it's 90 grams per person, but it provides a filling meal with a tin of tomatoes with no additives, a tin of tuna in water, spices, a few chili flankes, tiny bit of sugar and a few capers for example. It's around 600kcal per person and fits my eating plan.
  • JEE2015
    JEE2015 Posts: 146 Member
    I weigh virtually everything and go to a couple of different calorie sites to see if nutrient counts are consistent as well. If I can't find the exact nutrient count of what I'm looking for I create my from that package and save in 'My Foods'. My question is , is how is it on say a national brand item like 'Progresso Light Chicken Vegi Rotini Soup' can have so many entries on not match what I bought? I get products will change in content but entries made only a few months ago are completely off from what I see on my can label??? Just sayin'...
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    Yup. I ended up just giving up pasta completely because the allotted amount is so tiny and I have few calories to work with as is. When I weighed it I was like, oh okay, 3 bites then? forget about it lol!
  • kristen6350
    kristen6350 Posts: 1,094 Member
    Cereal and Pasta were my big surprises. I weigh everything now (and get made fun of). Even veggies. Now, I was actually under estimating veggies, rice and meat before. Like say I'd say "well that is 5oz, when it's actually 3.5oz". So that was a fun realization!
  • JoanaMHill
    JoanaMHill Posts: 265 Member
    I was actually the reverse; a serving of Cheerios says one cup, but actually weighing it as opposed to measuring it out like that gives me way more. More for me, I guess :smiley:
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I cut some apple for my kids today and there was 1/3 left that didn't fit in their lunchbox, so I ate it (after weighing it). 40 calories for 1/3 of an apple...

    Pasta, nope, not happening, I can't just have one serving, but 3 ounces (dry) is fine now.

    Cheese still makes me cry (except shredded. That's a lot of cheese once it's shredded for some completely unknown reason).

    Butter, jelly, cream cheese etc... I always put way less than a serving on my toast/bagel. It's kinda odd.

    And I eat 2-3 servings of veggie at a time.

    I'm better at eyeballing but I'm still 30% off most of the time.
  • Codilee87
    Codilee87 Posts: 509 Member
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    Cereal is the worst! The box says a serving is 3/4 cup or whatever, which isn't nearly enough to fill you up, and with milk it's nearly 400 calories!!!! And you are still hungry. Give me yogurt any time.

    I had the exact opposite experience. Since getting my food scale I've discovered that I've been underestimating the amount of food I can have. I'm now eating larger portion of cereal, with more milk and much bigger servings of cheese than I had expected. Its kinda awesome :)
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