Biggest eye opener from weighing food

slaite1

for me it was oatmeal! The portion was always so big and suddenly-not so much. I still get angry looking at my "1/2 cup" portion that is really about a 1/3 cup

Plus I miss gluttonous amounts of peanut butter

JoRumbles

I still have the gluttonous amount of peanut butter- I just spread it on one slice of toast rather than attempting to get 20g to stretch to two slices.

kindrabbit

It was fruit for me. Who knew apples had so many calories?

slaite1

Apples for me too! I go out of my way to buy the super small ones so that I can continue to eat multiple apples a day.

On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of berries you can eat for the calories

sushiandtea

I need to weigh peanut butter and get it right... it's the one thing I don't want to weight. I'm still stubbornly remaining ignorant that 1 heaped tbsp is 30g (and approx ~200 calories).

I can eyeball some things correctly (I'm usually only 2-3 grams out with meat, oats and rice) but I was shocked at how little cereal 30g is.

Machka9

For me it was pears. I was a bit taken aback when I saw how many calories they had! I've always thought of them as mostly water.

pinkteapot3

Everything for me. We have oversized dinner plates and correct portions look tiny.

I saw a headline about a study which had found that people who are overweight underestimate what they're eating for more than people of a healthy weight (not surprising but looked like an interesting read). Can't find it anywhere now!

peterjens

One ounce of cheddar cheese is quite small. I used to slice off a thick slice of cheese to nibble on while preparing a meal using cheese. No more.

And who eats just one ounce of tortilla chips or potato chips?

Jgasmic

My biggest shock was my weighed out avocado had half as many calories as the generic avocado I previously used to log. That was exciting!

blktngldhrt

Nuts. 170+ calories for less than a handful.

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

Same as the avocado one, but with potatoes. They don't have a lot of calories per 100g, but the ones I used to buy and log as 1 medium were definitely not medium. Most of them were bigger than the "large" database entry too.

Cereal and ice cream were my big ones. I had been warned about peanut butter. Although I wasn't too happy about cashews either. Oh, and I used to get those frozen sweet potato fries and count out 12 pieces of whatever. The first time I weighed them I think that counting out the pieces made a difference of something like 30%.

Recently I weighed a coffee cake muffin that had 150 calories more than the label claimed.

snowflake930

The weight of actual portion sizes in general, were a shock to me. I am pretty sure that many people are unaware of this.

mzjenn2u

RICE! and any pasta...crazy how many cals in such small sizes. ive gotten used to it now though but it still sucks

flinx1241

Nuts, peanut butter, apples - All good answers.
Always surprised by how much fruit weighs (strawberries, for example).

markzak26

So many things! But the biggest eye opener was basmati rice. I weighed out 100grams and thought "WTF" I probably used to eat 600grams, maybe even more before logging food.

Jazznit

I just posted about this! I noticed that a lot of the resources I researched about portion sizes were about comparing them to a deck of cards etc.
I just want a page that says meat = 4oz. I want to get this right this time around. So frustrated. I feel like calorie counting is half the battle.

kristen6350

Cereal. 3/4 cups (which is the serving size for most cereals) is practically nothing. It's really sad.

misheri90

Cereal portions. I knew I ate more than the recommended portion but seeing 40g weighed out was depressing.

pinkteapot3

markzak26 wrote: »

So many things! But the biggest eye opener was basmati rice. I weighed out 100grams and thought "WTF" I probably used to eat 600grams, maybe even more before logging food.

I'm sure you've got it right, but people should be careful of the difference between raw and cooked weight with rice and pasta.

70g raw (dried) weight = about 210g cooked weight, as it absorbs water.

So it can be easy to massively under or overeat!

pinkteapot3

Jazznit wrote: »

I just posted about this! I noticed that a lot of the resources I researched about portion sizes were about comparing them to a deck of cards etc.
I just want a page that says meat = 4oz. I want to get this right this time around. So frustrated. I feel like calorie counting is half the battle.

I don't think there's a 'correct' portion. You'll find your portion sizes as you start logging. Eg when I planned my first day that included roast chicken for dinner, I logged 150g of meat. I started weighing it onto my plate and went 'Woah!' It was a lot of meat. I now have 100-125g.

There's trial and error when you start out as you need to balance your cals between breakfast, lunch, dinner, then decide how many to have as protein and carbs in a meal. You'll tweak your amounts of each as you get going.

Also, your portion size will vary depending on how many cals a day you're allowed. Someone on a 1,800 cal limit will eat different quantities to someone on a 1,200 cal limit.

Jazznit

Thanks!

HeySwoleSister

I'm the one weirdo in the world who always guesses I'm eating more than I am. Weighing taught me that my "full" servings of meat were more like half a serving.

On the upside, one ounce of cheese is quite a bit when you shred or thinly slice it!

many_splendored

I was pleasantly surprised that a 60 g serving of ice cream is still pretty generous.

briandap1

Jgasmic wrote: »

My biggest shock was my weighed out avocado had half as many calories as the generic avocado I previously used to log. That was exciting!

Same here. I would just use MFP and estimate if it was a cup, half cup, or something around there. Though at work I don't have my scale with me, so I Googled if there was a calculation for figuring out how much flash was in an average avocado. Apparently 60-70% of an avocados weight is the flesh, so weight it before you leave home, take 70% of that (to be safe) and it's pretty accurate.

I weighed on last night pre- and post-cutting and it was 68%.

briandap1

Another food I had to do some research and testing on was steel cut oatmeal. Serving size is 1/4 cup dry, but how much is that wet? I make 2 cups of oatmeal with 8 cups of water in a crock pot every 8 days or so. It yields me 8 cups plus a little extra, so now I know 1/2 a cup is about 1 cup cooked. Before this I was only eating half a cup wet, not thinking about the water absorption.

michellemybelll

misheri90 wrote: »

Cereal portions. I knew I ate more than the recommended portion but seeing 40g weighed out was depressing.

this. it is literally impossible for me to eat one serving of honey nut cheerios. lol

Wiseandcurious

In general, grains and cereals turned out to weigh more per volume than I thought (I think part of the issue is that they compact easily in a measuring utensil like a cup so you inadvertently get more than they used in lab conditions to determine the portion).

Next was some fruit like apples, pears, large bananas.

Biggest shock in the end was nuts

On the flip side, berries especially blueberries, raspberries were a pleasant surprise.

But mostly, portions as a whole turned out to be a lot smaller than I imagined. Which shouldn't have surprised me, in retrospect, because weight gain

Francl27

Cheese. That tiny piece is 200 calories??
Chocolate... half a bite is 30 calories.
Pasta, rice and bread too.

Veggies actually too. I always thought they were very low calories. Turns out you can't have that many carrots (IMO) for 50 calories. And a big bag of veggies is still 100 calories.

Liftng4Lis

Pasta and nuts.

suruda

I was pleasantly surprised by chicken breast...3 oz is quite a lot. And I have to agree that when cheese is thinly sliced an ounce goes pretty far!

krissyreminisce

briandap1 wrote: »

Another food I had to do some research and testing on was steel cut oatmeal. Serving size is 1/4 cup dry, but how much is that wet? I make 2 cups of oatmeal with 8 cups of water in a crock pot every 8 days or so. It yields me 8 cups plus a little extra, so now I know 1/2 a cup is about 1 cup cooked. Before this I was only eating half a cup wet, not thinking about the water absorption.

This is helpful for me to know! I just started eating steel cut oats for breakfast and made one cup of dry oats for the week and then wasn't sure how much wet I should eat. I've been portioning out 2 ounces wet.

It seems that might not be correct or enough.