Food weighing

GeddesFit

do you weigh absolutely everything that goes into your mouth? I'm picking up a food scale this weekend as I'm finding that my pounds are starting to come off 1 at a time each week now and with 37 more pounds to lose ( currently 165lbs) I want to speed things up at least until I've got maybe 10-15 left to lose. I think I'm under guessing my portion sizes for some things especially cheese! If things are pre measured like chicken bacon for example would you weigh that ?

Liftng4Lis

Yes

kcn2bluesky

A scale made a difference for me! I started with about 20 pounds to lose, and dropped 5 or 6 pretty quickly just by reducing portion sizes of foods I was already eating and adding more vegetables, cutting back on wine, etc. At first I didn't think I needed a scale but I decided to give it a try just to see since there were so many advocates of using one here on MFP. I love using a scale! I measure out just about everything, and I've consistently dropped .5 pound average per week, which is right at my target for weight loss.

I really like the control I have over knowing how much I'm really eating, and how much I have left over if I want to have some ice cream or other treat. I also like strategizing on how to hit my macros each day.

Good luck to you!

Kalikel

I don't know what chicken bacon is, but I'd weigh it.

I weigh everything but spices and garlic. I do garlic by the clove and...well, I can't really weigh a pinch of cayenne pepper, anyway. It wouldn't register as a gram. Sometimes, I'll put all the spices in as 1g each, but not often. There's not really much point, IMO.

arditarose

When you're really trying to tighten things up, yes, take that bacon or whatever and put it on the scale. If the serving size per slice is listed as "x" grams, you'll find that a slice may really weigh much more than that.

I weigh everything but my spices as well. I go as far as weighing spinach and lettuce but I know many members use cups or eyeball that.

DeguelloTex

I weigh everything except mustard and spices.

I definitely weigh bacon.

ariamythe

I started out loose on the weighing, and since I had a lot to drop it didn't make a huge difference (the calorie deficit was still enough). As I've dropped weight, I've had to weigh more often to avoid stalling. I still don't weigh a lot of prepackaged things -- like a Kashi bar -- and with things like oatmeal I usually just rely on cup measure.

I'd say don't start trying to weigh everything; it's going to make it tedious and annoying while you're already trying to get in the habit of healthy eating, entering calories, etc. Build up is better than jump start for developing new habits.

KateTii

The only time I won't weigh something is if I intent to eat the entire container/packet/jar. Companies have strict systems in place to make sure their item isn't lighter/heavier than the listed weight by too much.

For example, I don't weigh the individual yogurt, pre-packaged serving of oats and the single serve ice-cream bar. BUT, if I was to get to a point where I wasn't losing weight and couldn't work out why, I would look at ways to tighten my logging and that would probably mean I would start weighing them.

ariamythe

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I definitely weigh bacon.

Nope. Bacon is actually exempt from all scrutiny, as it is ... well, it's bacon. Do not question bacon, just be thankful it is in your life. You should not anger bacon by weighing it.

ohmscheeks

No, I rarely weigh things. You should reply back in a few weeks to say whether your rate of loss increased.

DeguelloTex

ariamythe wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I definitely weigh bacon.

Nope. Bacon is actually exempt from all scrutiny, as it is ... well, it's bacon. Do not question bacon, just be thankful it is in your life. You should not anger bacon by weighing it.

But weighing it is how I know I can have more. It's a paradox.

arditarose

ariamythe wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I definitely weigh bacon.

Nope. Bacon is actually exempt from all scrutiny, as it is ... well, it's bacon. Do not question bacon, just be thankful it is in your life. You should not anger bacon by weighing it.

lol. I don't think I weigh it in maintenance actually. I'm like...maybe I was more active today than usual, it'll cancel out. We'll go with that. Ignorance is bliss.

ariamythe

DeguelloTex wrote: »

ariamythe wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I definitely weigh bacon.

Nope. Bacon is actually exempt from all scrutiny, as it is ... well, it's bacon. Do not question bacon, just be thankful it is in your life. You should not anger bacon by weighing it.

But weighing it is how I know I can have more. It's a paradox.

There's ALWAYS room for bacon.

Francl27

I weigh pretty much everything. That way if I'm not losing I know it's just a normal stall and not because I'm eating too much.

GeddesFit

ariamythe wrote: »

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I definitely weigh bacon.

Nope. Bacon is actually exempt from all scrutiny, as it is ... well, it's bacon. Do not question bacon, just be thankful it is in your life. You should not anger bacon by weighing it.

Loooooove it!!!! Hahah

GeddesFit

ariamythe wrote: »

I started out loose on the weighing, and since I had a lot to drop it didn't make a huge difference (the calorie deficit was still enough). As I've dropped weight, I've had to weigh more often to avoid stalling. I still don't weigh a lot of prepackaged things -- like a Kashi bar -- and with things like oatmeal I usually just rely on cup measure.

I'd say don't start trying to weigh everything; it's going to make it tedious and annoying while you're already trying to get in the habit of healthy eating, entering calories, etc. Build up is better than jump start for developing new habits.

I've been losing for almost 2 months now. Down 20 something pounds already with just eating healthy and logging plus working out 4 times a week. I'm just disappointed with the 1 pound a week. I still have 37 to go and want it to come off closer to 2 pounds a week at least for a little while longer. I feel like I'm kidding myself with my logging. I mean who the heck knows what 20g of cheese looks like lol maybe I'll add more cardio in my gym time

kshama2001

GeddesFit wrote: »

do you weigh absolutely everything that goes into your mouth? I'm picking up a food scale this weekend as I'm finding that my pounds are starting to come off 1 at a time each week now and with 37 more pounds to lose ( currently 165lbs) I want to speed things up at least until I've got maybe 10-15 left to lose. I think I'm under guessing my portion sizes for some things especially cheese! If things are pre measured like chicken bacon for example would you weigh that ?

I weigh premeasured things like sliced cheese for a while to see if I can trust that brand to be accurate.

In general, I weigh everything but spices and fresh herbs.

shadowfax_c11

Not absolutely everything. But I do weigh about 90% of what I eat. For my goals and energy usage I don't need to be so strict just now. Maybe that will change when I get closer to goal.