Commonly confused serving sizes (pasta, others?)
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Canned beans get me. I never know if a 130g serving is supposed to be beans only, or some of the liquid too - and if it's supposed to include some liquid, how much?! Typically a can of beans will specify 3.5 servings of 130g but if you drain it first and weigh just the beans you're lucky if there are 2.5 full servings by weight. But I consider the liquid to be waste (unless I'm making a soup or something) so I never know.
I've never cooked beans from dry before but I'm seriously considering learning how so that I don't have a brain explosion over it.0 -
I just did 3/4 of a cup of Honey Nut Cherrios. It weighed 32g (serving weight is 28).0
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CrabNebula wrote: »JenMaselli wrote: »SteampunkSongbird wrote: »People measuring any solid food with a cup confuses me. I see it a lot with cereal and fruit pieces especially.
Why would measuring out a cup of dry cereal be wrong? If the serving size listed is 3/4 of a cup or 1 cup or whatever, why would it be more accurate to weigh it? I use measuring cups for this type of thing. I do weigh fruit and log it in ounces.
I haven't found measuring cups to be all that inaccurate when you don't cheat and try to crush as much into it as you can. However, even your best honest efforts can be off by some grams that make a difference...in theory. In practice, I have lost 80+ lbs using only measuring cups and spoons up until about a month ago when I got a free scale from work. So I don't know how big of a difference it ultimately makes. YMMV.
To be fair, how much of a deficit your running will influence this. As your deficit gets smaller the little things start to add up. A half a pound a week goal is only a 250 deficit. The extra 50 cals here and there add up.0 -
Edamame in pods confuses me. For some packages, I'm not sure if the weight is with the pods or the beans only.0
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this thread is pointing out the confusing serving sizes but no one is posting what is the correct way to measure/weigh the serving sizes for different foods. if anyone can post a link to a reference it would be great.
I don't have a link...but typically, as posters have hinted at, calorie counts are for the raw product, so UNCOOKED fish, chicken, beef, pasta, rice, oatmeal.
You should weigh such products before you cook them.
Raw fruit...well just put it on your food scale and that would be how you measure that!
For popcorn, that DOES get confusing because sometimes the kernels either weigh more or less than the popped and that's just hard to figure. I opt for either single serve bags or microwaveable bags.
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It's not wrong so much as inaccurate. Almost all food is sold by weight, not volume. Nutrition information is calculated the same way. I suspect that servings are given in volume because most people don't have scales at home.JenMaselli wrote: »SteampunkSongbird wrote: »People measuring any solid food with a cup confuses me. I see it a lot with cereal and fruit pieces especially.
Why would measuring out a cup of dry cereal be wrong? If the serving size listed is 3/4 of a cup or 1 cup or whatever, why would it be more accurate to weigh it? I use measuring cups for this type of thing. I do weigh fruit and log it in ounces.
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Canned beans get me. I never know if a 130g serving is supposed to be beans only, or some of the liquid too - and if it's supposed to include some liquid, how much?! Typically a can of beans will specify 3.5 servings of 130g but if you drain it first and weigh just the beans you're lucky if there are 2.5 full servings by weight. But I consider the liquid to be waste (unless I'm making a soup or something) so I never know.
I've never cooked beans from dry before but I'm seriously considering learning how so that I don't have a brain explosion over it.
Yeah beans are the worst pain in the butt!
I don't really listen to serving sizes anyway. I use them to do the math but that's it... For me a serving of pasta is 3 ounces dry, not 2. 2 is a joke.0 -
Wow, didn't know bacon was measured cooked - that doesn't make much sense to me... I would prefer to treat it like any other meat, measure raw and if any fat escapes during cooking, that would just compensate for anything I may have underestimated - or go towards the fat content of the dish.
I agree about most of these, here is my take on some of them so far:
-popcorn - ideally make at home on the stove-top and measure the oil + weigh the grains. If I use microwave popcorn, usually (in Canada) it has grams and cups and I go by grams.
-canned tuna-for the type I use the drained weight, but going by either drained or not I get the same calorie content for the whole can, which is what I usually use.
-rice - most packages give both, I prefer dry because you never know how much it was cooked (water weight).
-volume vs weight for cereal etc - I prefer to weigh because I have noticed when I measure dry bulk foods with cups they compact a lot and I get more grams per cup than I am supposed to going by USDA/manufacturer's info.
-canned beans and fruit - I totally feel the pain and join the guy who was urging Health Canada to get their act together. Especially canned fruit which has a lot of (relatively calorie-dense) liquid - I'm still confused.
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Wiseandcurious wrote: »Wow, didn't know bacon was measured cooked - that doesn't make much sense to me... I would prefer to treat it like any other meat, measure raw and if any fat escapes during cooking, that would just compensate for anything I may have underestimated - or go towards the fat content of the dish.
I agree about most of these, here is my take on some of them so far:
-popcorn - ideally make at home on the stove-top and measure the oil + weigh the grains. If I use microwave popcorn, usually (in Canada) it has grams and cups and I go by grams.
-canned tuna-for the type I use the drained weight, but going by either drained or not I get the same calorie content for the whole can, which is what I usually use.
-rice - most packages give both, I prefer dry because you never know how much it was cooked (water weight).
-volume vs weight for cereal etc - I prefer to weigh because I have noticed when I measure dry bulk foods with cups they compact a lot and I get more grams per cup than I am supposed to going by USDA/manufacturer's info.
-canned beans and fruit - I totally feel the pain and join the guy who was urging Health Canada to get their act together. Especially canned fruit which has a lot of (relatively calorie-dense) liquid - I'm still confused.
My suspicion on the bacon is that it lets them put smaller numbers on the label. I think it's a pain, because then I have to measure and log the bacon grease separately - I'm keto, of course I'm using every drop of it!
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I am still confused about bacon. I get mine from a farm, so there's no package information (and the slices are big and fatty compared to lots of packaged bacon), and I used the USDA (no asterisk) calories for raw (458 calories/100 grams) which is a really depressing calories to cooked size number. So I rarely have bacon. But now I'm thinking I should try the cooked number and see if the raw doesn't account for the fat that typically gets lost. (Baked is listed as 548 calories/100 grams, but of course it shrinks a ton.)
Hmm.
I'm another who thinks 2 oz of pasta cooks up to a perfectly reasonable amount. I can usually eat just 1.5 oz and be happy, since I tend to make a sauce with lots of veggies too. The funny thing is that before I was dieting I'd always make more pasta than I really wanted (and usually overeat as a result), because I am so bad at judging cooked size. I think it's going to be far too little, but once cooked it isn't. For some reason I have a hard time keeping this in my mind the next time I make it.0 -
Timorous_Beastie wrote: »One Pop Tart should not be "a serving."
You're right!
THREE Pop Tarts should be a serving.
Well, in my world, anyway.
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »A dry two ounces of pasta does not cook up to be a plateful of pasta.
Maybe a Fiestaware salad plate, if it is a bigger pasta and you really overcook it. Maybe.
It's not a plateful for me, but boy howdy am I full after I've eaten it.
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TheVirgoddess wrote: »I just did 3/4 of a cup of Honey Nut Cherrios. It weighed 32g (serving weight is 28).
Ah. There it is.
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It's not wrong so much as inaccurate. Almost all food is sold by weight, not volume. Nutrition information is calculated the same way. I suspect that servings are given in volume because most people don't have scales at home.
Makes sense. The difference of a few grams isn't something I would stress about, but I can understand why someone would weigh it out versus measuring in a cup.0 -
TheVirgoddess wrote: »I wouldn't weigh it frozen. Just raw (thawed) or cooked.Do you buy the meat already frozen and then cook it while it's still frozen?
Most of the meat I buy raw then freeze, and cook it frozen.
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TheVirgoddess wrote: »I wouldn't weigh it frozen. Just raw (thawed) or cooked.Do you buy the meat already frozen and then cook it while it's still frozen?
Most of the meat I buy raw then freeze, and cook it frozen.
Weigh it before you freeze it, or just save the weight as marked on the label (depending where you buy it, it may not be accurate)0 -
This is just totally alien to me - practically every home in the UK has a pair of kitchen scales
I weigh everything to the gram if I'm in the house to do so. And a 15% diffence in calorie content scaled up across all my food (the 32g vs 28g cereal example from above) is enough to take someone out of maintenance!
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KateParker01 wrote: »JenMaselli wrote: »It's not wrong so much as inaccurate. Almost all food is sold by weight, not volume. Nutrition information is calculated the same way. I suspect that servings are given in volume because most people don't have scales at home.
Makes sense. The difference of a few grams isn't something I would stress about, but I can understand why someone would weigh it out versus measuring in a cup.
This is just totally alien to me - practically every home in the UK has a pair of kitchen scales I weigh everything to the gram if I'm in the house to do so. And a 15% diffence in calorie content scaled up across all my food (the 32g vs 28g cereal example from above) is enough to take someone out of maintenance!
I do have a kitchen scale and I weigh out a lot of the food that I eat. But no, I don't stress over a couple of grams here or there and I lost 30 lbs doing it this way. That is just ME, I wouldn't suggest that anyone else do it my way, but I have to have a balance between keeping myself at the weight I want and driving myself bonkers.0 -
Seems like too much of a hassle for me lol. It might be better to just weigh it frozen and over calculate than to under calculate (since I want to lose weight anyways).TheVirgoddess wrote: »I wouldn't weigh it frozen. Just raw (thawed) or cooked.Do you buy the meat already frozen and then cook it while it's still frozen?
Most of the meat I buy raw then freeze, and cook it frozen.
Weigh it before you freeze it, or just save the weight as marked on the label (depending where you buy it, it may not be accurate)
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Seems like too much of a hassle for me lol. It might be better to just weigh it frozen and over calculate than to under calculate (since I want to lose weight anyways).TheVirgoddess wrote: »I wouldn't weigh it frozen. Just raw (thawed) or cooked.Do you buy the meat already frozen and then cook it while it's still frozen?
Most of the meat I buy raw then freeze, and cook it frozen.
Weigh it before you freeze it, or just save the weight as marked on the label (depending where you buy it, it may not be accurate)
But aren't you thawing it before you cook it?
If so, why not just wait to weigh it until it's thawed? ETA: Oh, sorry. I didn't see that you cook it from frozen.
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Another possibility: don't your meat packages have the total weight (of the meat) in ounces and/or grams? If so, cut up your meat in as equal portions as you can, then divide the total weight by the amount of pieces and just make a note of that.
Or to make sure the total weight is accurate, weigh the whole slab yourself before cutting it up.
If you don't want to cut it up beforehand (i.e. roasts and the like), still do the weighing before you freeze. Then after you cook the meat, cut it up into as equal portions as you can. You still have your number to divide into the total weight that way.
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Actually 2 ounces of pasta is more than enough....cuz more meat!0
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The things I find tricky to weigh are:
- Tofu -- when you buy it, it's packaged with water. With the water still in it, the total weight for the package is much higher than what's on the label. Do I weigh it after I squeeze the water out? Doesn't everyone squeeze out a different amount of water?
- Apples -- I know I should weigh it, then go back after eating it and subtract the core, to get a true measure in grams. But usually I can't be bothered. So I just use an estimate for "1 medium" or "1 large" apple and leave it at that.
- Chicken on the bone -- it's a royal pain to subtract the uneaten bone afterwards, not knowing how much I actual ate until I do. It could throw my calories off by quite a bit.
- Chicken soup -- calories in cooked soup are NOT the same as the calories in the sum of their raw ingredients. Especially in something like a clear chicken soup broth, because the chicken and vegetables are strained out before eating, and the fat is skimmed multiple times during cooking. There doesn't seem to be any good way to even guesstimate at the calories.
I should mention that I'm not OCD enough to let any of these things really bother me all that much; I take an estimate and move on. But in the spirit of the thread, they're the ones I can think of.0 -
Semi-solids with a liquid measurement. I'm looking at ice cream and canned fruits/veggies.
ETA: I'm in Canada and most foods have gram weights, but the above items are half a cup/125 mL. Gimme grams, dammit! Stop making me do math, Health Canada! >:(
I'm also in Canada. Would it kill them to put the weight on ice cream? Has anyone at Health Canada every tried to squish ice cream into a half cup measurer (okay, 1 cup) and then scrap it out before it starts to melt?
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The things I find tricky to weigh are:
- Tofu -- when you buy it, it's packaged with water. With the water still in it, the total weight for the package is much higher than what's on the label. Do I weigh it after I squeeze the water out? Doesn't everyone squeeze out a different amount of water?
- Apples -- I know I should weigh it, then go back after eating it and subtract the core, to get a true measure in grams. But usually I can't be bothered. So I just use an estimate for "1 medium" or "1 large" apple and leave it at that.
- Chicken on the bone -- it's a royal pain to subtract the uneaten bone afterwards, not knowing how much I actual ate until I do. It could throw my calories off by quite a bit.
- Chicken soup -- calories in cooked soup are NOT the same as the calories in the sum of their raw ingredients. Especially in something like a clear chicken soup broth, because the chicken and vegetables are strained out before eating, and the fat is skimmed multiple times during cooking. There doesn't seem to be any good way to even guesstimate at the calories.
I should mention that I'm not OCD enough to let any of these things really bother me all that much; I take an estimate and move on. But in the spirit of the thread, they're the ones I can think of.
RE: chicken on the bone, honestly, I quit bothering to buy anything but boneless a long time ago for that reason. If for some reason I'm stuck (like when I buy a bunch at Costco and don't read the label closely enough), I'd rather debone it and weigh before I cook than deal with the magic math of cooking method + weigh the bones after I eat.0 -
The things I find tricky to weigh are:
- Tofu -- when you buy it, it's packaged with water. With the water still in it, the total weight for the package is much higher than what's on the label. Do I weigh it after I squeeze the water out? Doesn't everyone squeeze out a different amount of water?
- Apples -- I know I should weigh it, then go back after eating it and subtract the core, to get a true measure in grams. But usually I can't be bothered. So I just use an estimate for "1 medium" or "1 large" apple and leave it at that.
- Chicken on the bone -- it's a royal pain to subtract the uneaten bone afterwards, not knowing how much I actual ate until I do. It could throw my calories off by quite a bit.
- Chicken soup -- calories in cooked soup are NOT the same as the calories in the sum of their raw ingredients. Especially in something like a clear chicken soup broth, because the chicken and vegetables are strained out before eating, and the fat is skimmed multiple times during cooking. There doesn't seem to be any good way to even guesstimate at the calories.
I should mention that I'm not OCD enough to let any of these things really bother me all that much; I take an estimate and move on. But in the spirit of the thread, they're the ones I can think of.
I hear you about the apple core and chicken bones. Personally I decided to ignore them in the end and take the whole weight, because both apple cores and chicken bones are surprisingly light (yes, I checked <looks down embarrassed>).
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kitchensolo wrote: »Oatmeal: dry vs. wet, and any kind of fruit!
Oatmeal threw me off, too, for some reason. I made a cup dry, which would be four servings, but my brain got a little hysterical when I got to the wet part and I ended up making it into eight servings. Which annoys me because I'm having trouble netting over 1000 cals a day.
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The apple and chicken bones don't bother me. I vastly prefer bone-in chicken, but made my piece with pulling the chicken off the bone and weighing it before putting it on my plate (using cooked entries) long ago. It also makes slow cooking or braising excellent methods, since meat is already falling off the bones. Less accurate than weighing raw, but not enough to be an issue for me. Apples, well, I'm a weird person who hates biting into whole apples anyway, so I chop my apple into pieces, weigh, and eat. I also often eat bananas without the peel (although only if I am alone), although I am reasonably comfortable I can estimate the sizes well these days.
However, the soup thing is always a slight irritant and probably means I make soup less than I used to. Stews where you cook bone-in and remove the bones also drive me crazy.
I admit that I do a lot fewer one-pot meals or combined ingredient meals than I used to in favor of meals (including pasta) where it's easy to just weigh the components without creating a recipe and serving sizes. (Pasta sauces I usually half or quarter the whole, depending, which works okay.)0 -
azulvioleta6 wrote: »A dry two ounces of pasta does not cook up to be a plateful of pasta.
Maybe a Fiestaware salad plate, if it is a bigger pasta and you really overcook it. Maybe.
2oz (dry weight) pasta on a 9" plate (it's the spaghetti noodles on the right):
So yeah... doesn't fill up EVERY INCH of the plate... but that's seriously more than I usually ate per serving before I was measuring anything. Add some sauce/veggies/etc and it quickly becomes a HUGE meal...
(that's the '150 calorie' ronzoni spaghetti btw, which doesn't expand as much as the regular stuff)0 -
spoonyspork wrote: »azulvioleta6 wrote: »A dry two ounces of pasta does not cook up to be a plateful of pasta.
Maybe a Fiestaware salad plate, if it is a bigger pasta and you really overcook it. Maybe.
2oz (dry weight) pasta on a 9" plate (it's the spaghetti noodles on the right):
So yeah... doesn't fill up EVERY INCH of the plate... but that's seriously more than I usually ate per serving before I was measuring anything. Add some sauce/veggies/etc and it quickly becomes a HUGE meal...
(that's the '150 calorie' ronzoni spaghetti btw, which doesn't expand as much as the regular stuff)
I must be measuring wrong, cos when i weigh mine it comes out at about half of this amount!!0
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