Help with portion sizes
FuriousFurian
Posts: 51 Member
Being a geek I enjoy logging calories, looking at pie charts and histrograms, using the barcode scanner on my smartphone, etc. Hence I am losing weight. All great fun. However when it comes to home-cooked meals I am having trouble gauging portion sizes. To be frank, I wouldn't know what 100 grams looked like if it came up and hit me in the face.
Does anyone know of any good resources on the internet regarding estimating these amounts? I am finding conflicting information wherever I look.
Many thanks!
Does anyone know of any good resources on the internet regarding estimating these amounts? I am finding conflicting information wherever I look.
Many thanks!
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Replies
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You gotta weigh it. 100g is different depending on the type of food and its constituent parts. I was surprised by how heavy mac & cheese is on a scale. If you are eating with family and the serving is already dished up, weigh your food and weigh a regular plate that does not have food on it and subtract. Don't try to eye-ball things - that is never a reliable method.
You might hear things like "100g is the size of a fist", but the problem with that is that everyone has a different sized fist! 100g is less than you think, always. That is what I find. The average baked potato is 200 to 250g, for example. The average tiny single serving yoghurt is 100g - light, fluffy yoghurt. A chicken breast or a steak is NEVER 100g, unless you cut into half, or even in quarters.
Don't leave your success to guesswork.0 -
I don't know how helpful this will be but I follow chris poells choose more lose more and following his measures has got my portions under wraps. Now here goes he does an fist palm and rhumb meadure but I found out what it equates to.
carbs for women is 1/2 cup 1 cup for men.
Think brown rice, 1 pbc bread, quinoa etc.
2 cups veggies
meat is 4 0z for women 8 oz for men or 1/2 cup to 1 cup for yogurt, cottage cheese
fats are 1 tbsp
these are per meal. And fats are only on low carb days and should not be consumed with carbs. This is on his plan mind you. But it really helped me
think a deck of cards for chicken and a checkbook for fish.0 -
angelexperiment wrote: »I don't know how helpful this will be but I follow chris poells choose more lose more and following his measures has got my portions under wraps. Now here goes he does an fist palm and rhumb meadure but I found out what it equates to.
carbs for women is 1/2 cup 1 cup for men.
Think brown rice, 1 pbc bread, quinoa etc.
2 cups veggies
meat is 4 0z for women 8 oz for men or 1/2 cup to 1 cup for yogurt, cottage cheese
fats are 1 tbsp
these are per meal. And fats are only on low carb days and should not be consumed with carbs. This is on his plan mind you. But it really helped me
think a deck of cards for chicken and a checkbook for fish.
Also I do fruit at 1/2 cup or 1/3 cup.
abd try to stick to 1 serv of anything. Soup is usually 2 servings! So for soup its usually 1 cup.0 -
To estimate weight, you need a food scale, no other way. There is a reason cooks use scales, especially in recipes where weight of ingredients really matters, usually baking or confectionery. Even after years of making the same recipe, it is very hard if not impossible to just guess accurately weight.0
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I can't gauge home cooking when I haven't done the cooking. I just close my eyes, eat as little as I can, and smile and compliment a lot. Nobody notices that you aren't eating very much when you're oohing and aahing over their food.0
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Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
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ok thanks for help
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The only way to know how much is 100g is to use a food scale. There are quick ways to estimate how big your portion sizes ought to be (meat should be the size of the palm of your hand, without your fingers, starchy carbs should be the size of your fist), but that won't tell you what 100g is. What it will tell you is how much more than a serving restaurants are giving you and if you don't really care to know the weight of your food, it works pretty well for eyeballing your portion sizes.0
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snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
That is, if you want to take a food scale to your dinner party.0 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
Esp for food you cook...
Use recipe builder here for your recipes (I have over 12 pages of them)
And the more you use a food scale the better you do get at guaging portion sizes when you are away from home.
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I won't say Food Scale since it has been said enough.........uh oh...........well, when I am out away from the scale and in doubt of what to eat I go by the old school pack of cards size. I used this for years and it has helped, each portion should be about the size of a deck of cards, to weed out the smart A$$ES , No NOT spread out lol but a solid deck still in the carton0
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snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
Esp for food you cook...
Use recipe builder here for your recipes (I have over 12 pages of them)
And the more you use a food scale the better you do get at guaging portion sizes when you are away from home.
Works well when you are cooking your own food. Not so good when you go to Mom's house for dinner.0 -
mikemannion687 wrote: »ok thanks for help
And it'll play right into your geekiness! I actually like guessing how much something weighs before I put it on the scale. I'm slowly getting better! LOL.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
That is, if you want to take a food scale to your dinner party.
I'd hazard a guess that at least 95% of food eaten weekly *isn't* consumed at a dinner party. 0 -
for your home cooking - i saw this tip on another thread, tried it and loved it. i use the recipe builder as 1 serving size, then when i'm finished cooking i weight the entire thing (make sure to weigh your pot first!).
you have to create a food afterwards with the calories, etc from the recipe, but then you can just weight out whatever portion you are going to eat and add it to your journal that way. it's a little more work up front but easier to log in the end, no guessing how much 1 of 6 servings is, etc. or if you want to eat less of something for a lunch and then more for a dinner.
(edited for spelling ) 0 -
snickerscharlie wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
That is, if you want to take a food scale to your dinner party.
I'd hazard a guess that at least 95% of food eaten weekly *isn't* consumed at a dinner party.
or at mom's house...unless your my son in which case he doesn't care how many calories it has.0 -
SkinnyGirlCarrie wrote: »for your home cooking - i saw this tip on another thread, tried it and loved it. i use the recipe builder as 1 serving size, then when i'm finished cooking i weight the entire thing (make sure to weigh your pot first!).
you have to create a food afterwards with the calories, etc from the recipe, but then you can just weight out whatever portion you are going to eat and add it to your journal that way. it's a little more work up front but easier to log in the end, no guessing how much 1 of 6 servings is, etc. or if you want to eat less of something for a lunch and then more for a dinner.
(edited for spelling )
You can also just put the weight of the whole thing as servings and then log it, 1 serving being 1g. Makes it easier to adjust if you change the recipe slightly.0 -
SkinnyGirlCarrie wrote: »for your home cooking - i saw this tip on another thread, tried it and loved it. i use the recipe builder as 1 serving size, then when i'm finished cooking i weight the entire thing (make sure to weigh your pot first!).
you have to create a food afterwards with the calories, etc from the recipe, but then you can just weight out whatever portion you are going to eat and add it to your journal that way. it's a little more work up front but easier to log in the end, no guessing how much 1 of 6 servings is, etc. or if you want to eat less of something for a lunch and then more for a dinner.
(edited for spelling )
What? Why don't you just divide the total weight by the number of 100g portions in it and log that as a "serving" then you can use the recipe and take any amount
You absolutely don't need to log it as a separate food - it's logged in your recipes - just switch tabs to log it when you go to your food diary0 -
angelexperiment wrote: »I don't know how helpful this will be but I follow chris poells choose more lose more and following his measures has got my portions under wraps. Now here goes he does an fist palm and rhumb meadure but I found out what it equates to.
carbs for women is 1/2 cup 1 cup for men.
Think brown rice, 1 pbc bread, quinoa etc.
2 cups veggies
meat is 4 0z for women 8 oz for men or 1/2 cup to 1 cup for yogurt, cottage cheese
fats are 1 tbsp
these are per meal. And fats are only on low carb days and should not be consumed with carbs. This is on his plan mind you. But it really helped me
think a deck of cards for chicken and a checkbook for fish.
Why would I as a 5'8 female get to eat fewer carbs than a 5'8 man and half as much protein?0 -
That wasn't what the OP was asking.snickerscharlie wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
That is, if you want to take a food scale to your dinner party.
I'd hazard a guess that at least 95% of food eaten weekly *isn't* consumed at a dinner party.
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atypicalsmith wrote: »That wasn't what the OP was asking.snickerscharlie wrote: »atypicalsmith wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
That is, if you want to take a food scale to your dinner party.
I'd hazard a guess that at least 95% of food eaten weekly *isn't* consumed at a dinner party.
you brought up the dinner parties...not snickers...missed that too.0 -
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SkinnyGirlCarrie wrote: »for your home cooking - i saw this tip on another thread, tried it and loved it. i use the recipe builder as 1 serving size, then when i'm finished cooking i weight the entire thing (make sure to weigh your pot first!).
you have to create a food afterwards with the calories, etc from the recipe, but then you can just weight out whatever portion you are going to eat and add it to your journal that way. it's a little more work up front but easier to log in the end, no guessing how much 1 of 6 servings is, etc. or if you want to eat less of something for a lunch and then more for a dinner.
(edited for spelling )
What? Why don't you just divide the total weight by the number of 100g portions in it and log that as a "serving" then you can use the recipe and take any amount
You absolutely don't need to log it as a separate food - it's logged in your recipes - just switch tabs to log it when you go to your food diary
Because (unfortunately) you can only log a recipe as whole portions. So if you make a recipe which weighs 450g you would have to say either 4 portions or 5 portions, not 4.5 100g portions.0 -
mikemannion687 wrote: »Being a geek I enjoy logging calories, looking at pie charts and histrograms, using the barcode scanner on my smartphone, etc. Hence I am losing weight. All great fun. However when it comes to home-cooked meals I am having trouble gauging portion sizes. To be frank, I wouldn't know what 100 grams looked like if it came up and hit me in the face.
Does anyone know of any good resources on the internet regarding estimating these amounts? I am finding conflicting information wherever I look.
Many thanks!
If you're a geek, you'll enjoy a scale. Get a digital one with a tare function.
You'll also find out that 100g can be really variable. I keep trying to learn how to eyeball my apples, because I don't always have access to a scale... but sometimes very big apples weigh less than I think, and very small ones weigh more because they vary in density.
And just in case it isn't clear -- 100g is used a lot in the database because it's easy, I assume. (If I eat 120g of yoghurt, I can say 1.2 servings of 100g. If I eat 88g, it's 0.88 servings.) But 100g is not actually "the" portion size for most foods, so don't limit yourself to it.0 -
atypicalsmith wrote: »snickerscharlie wrote: »Just buy a food scale. They aren't expensive and then there's no more guesswork.
Esp for food you cook...
Use recipe builder here for your recipes (I have over 12 pages of them)
And the more you use a food scale the better you do get at guaging portion sizes when you are away from home.
Works well when you are cooking your own food. Not so good when you go to Mom's house for dinner.
Mom's been making me cook at her house for years. My old spring scale is there. Sometimes I bring my digital scale.
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put it on a food scale. thats how you know. do it long enough, and you get really good at eyeballing (but even then, weigh!)
when eating at other peoples homes, or out, that skill you gained by weighing all your food at home helps a LOT.0 -
This is all great advice, thanks to everyone for replying! 0
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HelensBeads wrote: »SkinnyGirlCarrie wrote: »for your home cooking - i saw this tip on another thread, tried it and loved it. i use the recipe builder as 1 serving size, then when i'm finished cooking i weight the entire thing (make sure to weigh your pot first!).
you have to create a food afterwards with the calories, etc from the recipe, but then you can just weight out whatever portion you are going to eat and add it to your journal that way. it's a little more work up front but easier to log in the end, no guessing how much 1 of 6 servings is, etc. or if you want to eat less of something for a lunch and then more for a dinner.
(edited for spelling )
What? Why don't you just divide the total weight by the number of 100g portions in it and log that as a "serving" then you can use the recipe and take any amount
You absolutely don't need to log it as a separate food - it's logged in your recipes - just switch tabs to log it when you go to your food diary
Because (unfortunately) you can only log a recipe as whole portions. So if you make a recipe which weighs 450g you would have to say either 4 portions or 5 portions, not 4.5 100g portions.
so log it as 5 and take a minor calorie hit
it doesn't matter in the scheme of things
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