Dont have a food scale ...?

mommabenefield

I dont have a food scale to check my meat portions, im pretty good at guessing the portion sizes of everything else i eat in fact i probably over estimate on some to be on the safe side...


what do you do to guess your meat portions?

chubaway

I have a fool scale, but something I do is to guess the weight before I actually weigh it. So now I'm getting more and more accurate.

Also, before I enter a food into MFP I estimate the calories. I'm getting better and better at this too.

I think a food scale is important though; as important as measuring cups and spoons.

magerum

I bought a food scale. <$20 It really makes a world of difference. The old rule of thumb is a deck of cards sized piece of meat is about 4 oz.

rosemaryhon

I dont have a food scale to check my meat portions, im pretty good at guessing the portion sizes of everything else i eat in fact i probably over estimate on some to be on the safe side...


what do you do to guess your meat portions?

I now have a food scale, but when I first began here I read helpful tips that made sense to me: a 3 oz protein portion was about the size of a deck of cards or checkbook.

Also, FYI ~ one half of a cup of cooked rice or pasta is roughly the size of a tennis ball, or half the size of a baseball. One portion of a bagel is about the size of a hockey puck. One cup of salad is approximately the size of a baseball or a clenched fist. One half of a cup of cauliflower is around half of a baseball, or the size of a light bulb. Two tablespoons of butter or peanut butter are similar in size to a ping pong ball.

I think it's a good thing to be able to eye ball our food for a good guesstimate. Turns out when I got my scale I had been over estimating. To be honest I don't use my scale that much and it doesn't seem to be an issue for me.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-some-equivalents-to-portion-sizes.htm#slideshow

weightedfootsteps

I heard of the deck of cards size to equal 4 ounces...also the palm of your hand. Do you know how many times I've wished for bigger hands?...LOL

cmcollins001

I use my food scale almost more than I use my TV these days. Once I got it, I realized really quick that all my estimations were way off.

bcattoes

I don't have a food scale either. Whenever possible I use cup measurements because I'm really good at eyeballing those. Otherwise I guess. For non-fish meats like beef, pork and chicken a piece about the size of a deck of cards is about 3 oz, which is about 90 grams. So if you can visualize a deck of cards...

Also, the total weight of the meat or fish should be on whatever package it came in, so you could go by that. If you eat 1/4 of an 1.4 lb roast, that would be 5.6 oz (or 159 g) of meat. If it's just one steak or fillet, then you should be able to use the weight on the pkg.

(1 oz = 28.3495 gm)

AlabasterVerve

I use the weight that's marked on the package. You don't need to be accurate to count calories, just consistent.

jofjltncb6

I bought a food scale. <$20 It really makes a world of difference. The old rule of thumb is a deck of cards sized piece of meat is about 4 oz.

^this

Collect aluminum cans alongside the road, mow a neighbor's yard, or have a garage sale to save up enough money if that's what it takes to buy one of these remarkably useful yet relatively inexpensive tools. Not having one (and as a result, miscalculating calories in) can be (and IMHO often is) the number one problem for MFPers.

shannashannabobana

what do you do to guess your meat portions?

I either guess or calculate based on how much meat I bought and how many servings I made out of it (ie, I made a halibut steak the other day that was .7 lbs, so I converted to oz's, I bought a pound of meat and made 4 burgers, etc...)

This is probably not perfect, but I just eyeball it.

laserturkey

I use a food scale for everything I possibly can. It's really, really worth the small investment to get one.