Can you honestly judge your portion sizes and how long did it take you?

Sued0nim

So after 9 months of weighing and conscientiously logging this morning I free-poured my eggwhites into the bowl I've used every morning to see if I could adequately judge portion size without looking at the scale.

aiming for 80 - 100g, I actually poured 126g (I appreciate that with eggwhites that means diddly-squat)

so it seems I've still not quite got it

if you judge portion sizes how long did it take you to train yourself to do it somewhat accurately

ndj1979

sometimes I am spot on and sometimes I am waaayyyy off

marissafit06

Of certain things I can. Meat is easy for me to eyeball, but not pasta or cheese. I'm okay with veggies and fruit from weighing out smoothie ingredients.

cbhubbybubble

ndj1979 wrote: »

sometimes I am spot on and sometimes I am waaayyyy off

This is me, too. The one thing I can judge well is peanut butter...I'm usually within a fraction of a gram for what a tbsp weighs. I've been weighing and measuring my food for a year and I'm still not confident enough to eyeball everything.

dammitjanet0161

cbhubbybubble wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

sometimes I am spot on and sometimes I am waaayyyy off

This is me, too. The one thing I can judge well is peanut butter...I'm usually within a fraction of a gram for what a tbsp weighs. I've been weighing and measuring my food for a year and I'm still not confident enough to eyeball everything.

I've been logging and weighing a year and everything gets weighed, but I'm the same with peanut butter, it's my superpower! (sadly I now eke it out by the teaspoon, as overdoing the tablespoons of nut butter as snacks are one of the reasons I ended up needing MFP in the first place).

Randomly, I'm usually within 5g of guessing a sweet potato's weight too, but normal white potatoes always amaze me how heavy they are for the size!

PeachyCarol

cbhubbybubble wrote: »

ndj1979 wrote: »

sometimes I am spot on and sometimes I am waaayyyy off

This is me, too. The one thing I can judge well is peanut butter...I'm usually within a fraction of a gram for what a tbsp weighs. I've been weighing and measuring my food for a year and I'm still not confident enough to eyeball everything.

Oddly enough, nut butter is the only thing I'm good with too. I'm absolutely terrible with everything else.

Sued0nim

I'm good with grated cheese

I often wonder if there is some kind of school hypnosis programme in the States that indoctrinates you all into loving Peanut Butter?

KrunchyMama

I'm pretty good at eyeballing now, and if I'm way off then I've usually over-estimated instead of under-estimated.

For dry goods I've learned that my normal handful = 1/4c, and for scooping foods a heaping table spoon = 1/4c, so I use that as my baseline when I'm not around my scale.

Azexas

I'm pretty good with shredded cheese and my lunch meat, but everything else I usually weigh...just in case

jemhh

I'm pretty good. I still measure a lot but I try to guess what it will be and I'm usually pretty close.

TimothyFish

I can eyeball it after seeing the correct portion size once.

Leana088

Took me 2,5 years. I'm mostly a bit under on my estimations versus over.

kazminchu

I'm spot on with peanut butter too, I wonder why so many people are?

Francl27

I still can't, honestly, and I've been at it for 2 years! Maybe I could eyeball cheese crumbs and shredded cheese, but if I mess up by even 5g, that's 20 extra calories, so I'd rather just weigh it anyway. I do ok with cooked beef and chicken. I still get shocked at how a small piece of cheese can be 44g.

WeddedBliss1992

i am usually pretty close, such as with a glass of milk i can usually judge oz pretty accurately. i think measuring and weighing everything helped with that. i think it helps to be able to at least give a somewhat accurate measure by "eyeballing it" in case i'm away from my scale.

dammitjanet0161

rabbitjb wrote: »

I'm good with grated cheese

I often wonder if there is some kind of school hypnosis programme in the States that indoctrinates you all into loving Peanut Butter?

English here and a relative newcomer to the stuff. Prefer almond butter. Healthy living bloggers hypnotised me into liking the stuff.

asdowe13

Certain things yes.....Like cheese, and PB, and liquids(milk, juice, pop)

Other things - NO

supermysza

More or less. If in doubt, overestimate. Though it may be better to leave guessing to "safe" foods like vegetables where 20g one way or the other is like 10 kcal.

tomatoey

Yes. I can't remember, maybe a year? It's funny, I'll put in a number sometimes and a voice inside goes "nope, wrong, add .5 a whatever".

I used and use measuring cups (everyone will say it's bad, lol, but whatever, it worked well enough to help me lose 50 lbs) + math from packaging. E.g. I'll use a given amount of ground beef (say it says 400 grams on the package) and decide it's worth 4 portions. I divide that up and store each portion separately. Or I'll chop up an onion and use the measuring cup to scoop it into the pan. So I'm constantly feeling and seeing and using proportions, using the cups. I wonder if that makes a difference (for me).

(when weight:volume isn't obvious, I google e.g. "how much is 0.5 cup ground beef in grams")

Lounmoun

I have eyeballed portions and then checked weight or measurements and I am usually pretty close.
I don't think it took very long to figure out portion sizes but I also cook a lot so I have been used to seeing measurements of food for years.

vismal

I've been doing it for several years. I can usually get pretty close but occasionally I'm way off. Because actually weighing only takes seconds, I still do it every day to avoid the variance.