Weighing food shock

SergeantSausage

LOL. When I started weighing it turns out what I viewed as a standard "serving" of most items was 4 to 6 times the serving size published on the label. At least you were under two times a standard serving.

I still do this, but it's hard to go wrong with six servings of broccoli, or 4 servings of peas (instead of 4 servings of Oreos an 6 servings of Chef Boyardi) ... especially when logged and accounted for both strictly and appropriately.

I had a definite eye-opener after using scales in the kitchen..

JPW1990

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!

Someone in the Confessions thread mentioned a tv show, Weighing Up the Enemy. I looked it up the other night, and on one episode, there was a guy who was vegitarian, so convinced that he just had to cut out saltier things and use fruit as snacks. He didn't count calories or weigh anything. When they checked in a week later, he was eating 4000 calories a day, and about 1000 of it was from bananas.

EmmaFitzwilliam

My scale has pretty much been my lifeline, especially for treats. I buy the family packs of frozen tortellini, then weigh out *half* servings into snack bags and freeze those. If I have a low calorie day, or if I deliberately plan carefully I can have a few bites of pasta with a tiny bit of pesto. That's how I've managed to make this a lifestyle change. I plan on weighing out my food until I'm no longer in control of my dietary choices.

SingRunTing

Francl27 wrote: »

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.

I'm like this with peanut butter. Most people on here talk about how little two tablespoons of peanut butter is when you weigh it out. But I always have to add more to my plate just to get to one tablespoon (in grams). I love peanut butter, but I just have never eaten a lot at any given time.

melodyesch

I LOVE my food scale and it makes things so much clearer. I get a TON more vegetables than I thought I did and I'm able to make the decision to not have pasta or cheese since I don't care that much about and it's not worth giving up that many calories for it.

But as another poster mentions, sour cream makes me sad. I was really UNDERESTIMATING that.

JEE2015

Here's a question.... How many of you go by ounces or by grams? I've found, oddly, it's easier for me to go by grams.

earlnabby

JEE2015 wrote: »

Here's a question.... How many of you go by ounces or by grams? I've found, oddly, it's easier for me to go by grams.

I always go by grams. It is much easier and I think more accurate. It also is very easy to convert (28 grams per ounce). I may log something like cheese in ounces but I still weigh it in grams.

EmmaFitzwilliam

I go by whatever portion on the label is easier to measure. Often, that's grams. (i.e., 2T, or 28 grams. 1/2 cup, or 85 grams. 3/4cup, or 31 grams). Meats, loose vegetables, I tend to weigh in ounces, but not always.

BWBTrish

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 can tell you that i always lived and ate pretty healthy.

I used to live the country life, with a garden full of own fruits veggies etc.
Diary i got or swapped with my own made fresh products with the neighbor whole sold fresh cheeses and milks.
Eggs... i had my own 10 chickens
Meats i had a freezer full of fresh butchered pork and beef (lol had an arrangement with another neighbor who bought with closed wallet from me and paid in pork or beef)

I made my own jam, peanut butters, butters, bread ,mayonnaise etc.
I sold a lot of my goods ( every 14 days people came to pick up their ordered baskets with fresh picket fruit and vegetables) So you have a bit the idea of the amount of food i had.

Still i ended up at 260 pounds....... So yes i ate healthy...but TOO MUCH!
After an injury i became totally sedentary and kept eating what i did before, and walla there are your pounds flying on in no-time.

JPW1990

JEE2015 wrote: »

Here's a question.... How many of you go by ounces or by grams? I've found, oddly, it's easier for me to go by grams.

Grams for me, too. I never measure things out to exact serving sizes, like I've seen some people mention they try to hit exactly 1oz or 1T when they measure. I put in how much I want and record in grams, whether that works out to 1.1 servings or .83 servings. Ounces feels like it is rounding way too much in comparison.

Clawsal

JEE2015 wrote: »

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'...

It also depends on the country... lots of brands are present in different countries but the food is not exactly the same. I know that because usually entries from the US (like Kellog's, Lay's, Oreos, Mcdonalds) don't match what I see in the packaging here (Switzerland).

Clawsal

JEE2015 wrote: »

Here's a question.... How many of you go by ounces or by grams? I've found, oddly, it's easier for me to go by grams.

Grams. Grams make sense. 1000 g =1 kg = 1 liter of water. You can weigh yourself and your food and your drinks with the same unit of measure. I always have to use a converter for pounds and ounces.

MamaRiss

JEE2015 wrote: »

Here's a question.... How many of you go by ounces or by grams? I've found, oddly, it's easier for me to go by grams.

Almost always grams. I only do ounces if there is no gram serving size in the MFP database, and some veggies like broccoli, I usually do in ounces because I'm not as strict with them

BWBTrish

Clawsal wrote: »

JEE2015 wrote: »

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'...

It also depends on the country... lots of brands are present in different countries but the food is not exactly the same. I know that because usually entries from the US (like Kellog's, Lay's, Oreos, Mcdonalds) don't match what I see in the packaging here (Switzerland).

oh i agree on that one
The companies have to adjust to the countries regulations and laws.

I have never eaten so salty and sugary foods as in the US

Was kinda funny the mayonnaise here has a lot of salt. The first time i made salad here it was too salty and i had something like ..huh??? i didn't add that much salt and pepper. Till i tasted the mayonnaise separated and just couldn't believe how salty it was on its own.

In Holland you have yogurt without sugar for example. Here there is at least 6% sugar in the normal plain yogurt.

so yes it can be very different from country to country.

HeySwoleSister

I'm another one that tends to underestimate when I eyeball. I think this is because I never really dieted or documented what I ate until I was about 28 and had to do it as part of my childbirth preparation. I did Bradley classes, which involves a pretty daunting list of daily MINIMUMS for portions of various food groups, plus 100+ grams of protein per day. I was struggling with hyperemesis and desperately overestimated every meal...(God, that slice of turkey was a serving, right? Please say yes. I'll puke if I eat more....)

Now that I'm trying to lose some lard, it's nice to be an underestimator.

karyabc

i still remember the first time that i weighed pasta oh lorddddddd

ana3067

Only read a few posts, but surprised that some people find it hard to eat ONLY 75g of dry pasta... I typically eat ~50-60g max for a single serving and I find that it's actually a pretty good serving. ANd I used to fill my plate with pasta. But I also eat rice and corn pasta so IDK if that makes a difference for weight and serving size recs. 85g is usually the serving size on the box and it's like 350 cals maybe?