Just curious - do you eat the serving size or just whatever amount you want?

Sorchya

Wisconsin cheesehead here: be it grams or be it 1/4 cup, if I want that much cheese I will cut the calories elsewhere

We love our cheese! I would not eat that every day but it can be quite lovely and pairs well with fruit and salad (as well as a lot of other things....) It is also nice on portabella pizza rounds: Portabella caps with pizza sauce and veggies inside topped with a couple of tablespoons reduced fat mozzarella combined with shredded parmesan. Two make a lovely meal. I like minced onion,peppers, and mushrooms in mine.

barbecuesauce

One more thing to add to the serving size debate, what about the times when you can't really eat just one serving size? Am I to cut a corner off the bread to make it exactly 43 grams? Nah.

xcalygrl

I do the same thing. I measure out 28 grams of cheese, but I usually log it as 1/4 cup because that's how the entry was created. I also do that with PB. 2 tablespoons of my peanut butter is 32 grams. I measure out 32 grams, but I log it as the tablespoons.

For stuff that I eat more than the serving size, I'll log it as something like 1.5 servings. So for cheese, if I eat 42 grams, I log it as 1.5 of 1/4 cup servings. It's easier for me to keep things straight.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

ArdieAgain

I pretty much weigh everything. My brother gave me a fancy big beer which had 2 servings in the bottle (GLUTEN FREE!). So I logged it as 2, yup. I will give myself a serving and 1/2 (weighed again) of cereal because a single serving is too small some mornings. Scanning with the MFP phone app and then adjusting the serving size happens quite a bit at my house too.

karahm78

jemhh wrote: »

SLLRunner wrote: »

hartmamp wrote: »

I started to wonder this when I see all the critiques of folk's diaries... i.e., "it says you ate 1/4 cup of cheese, use a food scale!" Well I personally use a food scale, and know that 1/4 cup of cheese is 28g. So if I go to log it and I weighed out 28g, then I log the 1/4 cup if that's what comes up first.

But then I started to realize that I mostly aim for serving sizes because to me, it's just easier to log that way. Am I the only one that does this?

No, 1/4 cup of cheese is not always 28 grams.

Just like not all bananas are 110 calories either, and this thing about small, medium, large bananas is all in the perception.

I research to make sure I am using accurate entries and most of the time I log in grams, sometimes in ounces. I also weigh my food and never count on measuring cups/spoons for solid food because they are not accurate.

For me, it's much easier to weigh my food and ensure accurate entries, and it doesn't take any time at all.

Depending on my calorie allotment, I might eat more or less than the serving size. That's the beauty of weighing in grams--the serving size is very easy to adjust.

I took that to mean that the label on her cheese says something like Serving: 1/4 cup (28 g). So if she finds that cheese in the MFP database with the same nutrition info that is on her label, she measures 28 g and logs it. It might show up as 1/4 cup on her diary but she's actually weighed it out.

Another example, my cottage cheese comes up as Food Club - 4% milkfat cottage cheese large curd, 1/2 cup on MFP. The label on the package says the serving is 1/2 cup (114 g.) The nutrition info on MFP for Food Club - 4% milkfat cottage cheese large curd, 1/2 cup matches what is on my food label. So I measure my 114 g and log it.

This is exactly what I do.... some of mine appear to be by serving size but I did indeed weigh them. The nutritional info matches the label, so I didn't feel the need to add another entry to the bloated database that has it in grams. Some of my snacks say something like "16 chips (28g)" so I weight out the 28 grams and move on!

TheVirgoddess

I don't really pay much attention to serving sizes. I always just do grams.

peterjens

icck wrote: »

I tend to aim for portion sizes from packets (weight wise) as a base then decide if I want to add any more. Not necessarily for ease of logging, but just because I often find that the recommended serving is fine for me.

This exactly. I like to be able to visualize what a serving looks like. And if I am still hungry after eating the single portion (after waiting awhile) I will the decide if I want to have another (or half) serving.

gothchiq

humm.... I weigh things but portionwise I guess you could say the bottom line is I eat about half of what I'm actually hungry for. I've been doing this for over a year and to get to and not over my maintenance cals the portions of anything are SO tiny.... except for lettuce and green beans.

newfutures

Depends on what the food is. sometimes I find that a serving size is too much or just too much for that meal. like one of the rice side dishes I love says a serving is 1 cup. if that's all im eating then that's usually fine but if its part of a meal I will eat less because with the protein and the veggie 1 cup is just way too much. I will probably only eat .25 or .5 of a cup. most cereals have a .75 cup serving size. I almost always eat 1 cup. especially cereals like honey bran or lucky charms (yes lucky charms, no judging)

charlieandcarol

Here in Australia the serving size on a package, eg cereal, muesli (granola) bar etc has been getting manipulated by the companies that produce them, largely in the downsized direction for two reasons. One is that they are giving you less product but charging the same in the case of stuff like biscuits and muesli bars and other single portioned packaged items so it looks like they aren't putting their prices up (sneaky).

The other reason is that we have been gradually getting more requirements on the packaging labeling that requires them to display prominently how much % of your recommended daily calories, sugar and fat a serve is. So if they make a serve what a normal person would actually eat, in the case of many products this would look bad because of all the added sugar and fat but if they make the size of a served that which would satisfy a small child but are quoting percentages of daily intake for an adult, their product looks better and healthier (also sneaky).

They were just about to introduce a star system per serving, to be rated by an independent body taking into account all nutrients to counteract manufacturers claiming lollies are healthy to eat lots of because they are "99% fat free" but all the big companies put pressure on our weak government and they pulled out from doing it at the last minute.

Liftng4Lis

I eat whatever is going to fit into my calories or the meal I'm preparing size.

umblue

This is all very interesting. I'm very early in my fitness/weight loss journey and right now serving size is working for me; I round up always if I'm unsure - but I'm sure I will eventually have to spring for a scale to make sure I stay accurate.

ryaneli1209

I generally know ahead of time how many calories I want from that food, then I'll adjust slightly depending on serving size.

For example, I'll decide to eat 200 calories worth of cereal. If the label says 200 grams is 190 calories, then I'll go ahead and have that amount, instead of trying to do the math to reach exactly 200.

On the other hand, there are times I will do the opposite and eat what I know I'm hungry for, then just do the math and fit it into my macros, without even considering serving size ahead of time.

flaminica

barbecuesauce wrote: »

One more thing to add to the serving size debate, what about the times when you can't really eat just one serving size? Am I to cut a corner off the bread to make it exactly 43 grams? Nah.

I get this all the time. The bread package says "1 slice (24g): 120 calories" but the slice is 31g. If MFP offers 1g as a serving size I'll log it as 31x1g servings. If not I'll pull up my calculator and log it as 1.29 servings.

I'll cheat and re-use entries size and all if the calorie difference is trivial. Shallots - 32g vs 26g is... 3 calories? Whatever.

onthemesa

There are typically two columns for nutritional info, "per serving" and "per 100gm". I figure out how many calories 100gm is and determine my own serving size from there.

Soopatt

A lot of what I eat is packaged in single serving packages (I am eating ready made fresh food from Woolworths in South Africa that has been prepared to a certain pack size). If the pack says 200g - that is what I will log - I do not take it out the pack and weigh it without the packaging as I need to take it into work and eat it there on most days and leaving it as is, is much more convenient.

I watched a BBC documentary where they showed that pack sizes and nutritional information is reliable on average for reputable companies and this system has not caused any problems so far for me. Just to comfort myself I do take them out and weigh them occasionally.. sometimes things are a little less, some things are a little more - the average works out.

If I dish myself something out of a larger family pack I will weigh it and track the exact grams 206g or whatever, using the 206 x 1g servings option. I never use recommended serving sizes to determine how much I would have.

For some things, like the milk I have in coffee, I work it out carefully the first few times - I use between 46 and 52g of milk on average in a cup of coffee (I weighed each cup over a few days before and after adding milk) - and then I create an entry which works on that average. If you look in my diary you will see that I log my coffee as always having 50ml of full cream milk, but sometimes it has a teeny bit less or a teeny bit more. Sometimes it is low fat or fat free. When working out those averages I err on the side of caution.

Same goes for apples and eggs. I work it out in the beginning, choose an entry which is in line with my generous average and log it. It might look like I am choosing "medium apple", but a lot more went into it than that.

Setting it up this way makes it very easy over time to log.

Ioras88

I have no idea what 'serving size' is, neither in the US nor here in Austria.
I usually cook my meals myself since there's some things I can't digest properly (can cause: stomach pains, other TMI problems, feeling unwell for days). So, when I use a recipe that suggests it's for 4 people then I assume that when I put it in here on the website it knows to calculate a 1/4 of the recipe of 4 servings.

As with other stuff: I weight it. We use the metric system here so it's easy to simply put things on the scale when it's not a recipe of anything and enter the weight in grams. The only hard thing can be finding database entries where it lets me put things in grams.

CurlyCockney

Here in the UK the packets always state the serving size macros, as well as per 100g macros. I only use the 100g macros when I'm logging, and if the database doesn't show this I add the entry. I don't like using the 1g information because something might only show a "trace" at 1g (and not be entered into the database) but 100 x a "trace" might be more significant and won't show using that calculation. Admittedly, I can't think of a single thing that might apply to, but it's my foible :-P

Once I know the macros per 100g, I eat whatever fits into my allowance.

crispaholicshaz

ExRelaySprinter wrote: »

Here in the UK, the serving suggestion sizes can be so small.
For example, 40 grams is the suggested serving size for most Cereals.
That's like a portion for a small child! Lol
I tend to measure out my own servings.

I've always had same problem, but Aldi hoops are good get good bowl full, (30g serving) Choc, Multi grain, & Honey. Only 114 calories.. filled me up nearly till dinner.. And less than £1 a box....

barbecuesauce

umblue wrote: »

This is all very interesting. I'm very early in my fitness/weight loss journey and right now serving size is working for me; I round up always if I'm unsure - but I'm sure I will eventually have to spring for a scale to make sure I stay accurate.

If you have 100+ pounds to go and are logging fairly accurately with measuring cups, it might be a while before a scale is essential.

But if you stall (fail to lose weight for more than a few weeks), you know what to do. And if you still don't have it when you go from obese to overweight, make purchasing one your priority.

TheGoktor

What is a reasonable 'serving size' for a woman of 5'0" who works at a desk (for example) is not going to be anywhere near adequate for a man of 6'0" who digs ditches (for example), so isn't it better to make our own judgement, according to our own needs, and simply fit it into our daily allowance, rather than be ruled by an arbitrary number made up by a marketing department in order to give the illusion that their product is healthier than that of their competitors?

I have little idea what serving sizes for most foods are supposed to be anyway - approx. 99% of my entries are my own, taken from the USDA database. I always enter the serving size as 100g, that way the entry comes up as 100g, and it's really easy to just log a decimal, or a number of grams.



The only exception is when I'm calculating my own recipes, so a serving size may be a quarter or half, or a third of the dish I've made. But that's fine, I portion my dishes out, according to our needs, and everything that goes into my recipes has been weighed anyway.

Almost everything I eat is grown or made locally (fruit, veg, herbs, bread, cheese, milk, olive oil, passata, etc.), and not always packaged - that's just the way it is here in small towns in southern Italy. Even the wine we have here is produced at a vineyard an hour's walk away... it doesn't have a label, let alone a serving size!

When I do eat packaged foods, e.g. yoghurt, I either weigh out what I want to eat (if it's a large tub), or have one or two 125g cartons, depending on how hungry I am. For things like dried pasta, I weigh a dry portion - again, according to how hungry I am; it could be 50g, 75g, or 100g. I don't think I've ever looked on a packet to see if there's a recommended serving size!

berndanddana

I don't use a scale because I don't have one yet. I have been going by the serving size and logging that and so far that has been sufficient as I am losing weight