Maybe a really dumb question about weighing food

supersocks117

I have been weighing everything I eat at home and at my mom's house that is solid (ie I don't weigh my coffee or liquid egg whites, I use measuring cups for those). This is where I eat most of my food and I am losing fine for right now. I'm wondering what you do when it isn't specified in what state the serving weight is: ie if a serving of frozen green beans is X grams to I weigh when frozen or cooked?

OldHobo

If you're following instructions or a recipe that says "X grams frozen green beans" weigh them frozen. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that the frozen vs. thawed weight is going to vary that much.
Cooked vs. precooked. Mostly precooked but use common sense under the circumstances.

kommodevaran

Not what you asked, but I weigh liqiuds too. Except oil.

Kalikel

I weigh frozen veggies while they're frozen. The calorie difference is slim to none, but I don't want to record eating more than I do because I'm watching micros and don't want those numbers artificially inflated. Fruits I weigh after they're thawed, since I always thaw them before I prepare or eat them.

Meat and breads are also thawed before I use them, so I use the thawed weights. Bread, though, I usually let cool before I put it in the freezer and have the original weight of the loaf on the wrapping, so I don't have to weigh the thawed loaf.

I don't know how most people do it, though. That's just how I do it.

supersocks117

kommodevaran wrote: »

Not what you asked, but I weigh liqiuds too. Except oil.

On what scale setting? Grams still or mL/floz? I wasn't sure so I continued using measuring cups (I pretty much only have a cup of black coffee, a T of creamer, and 2-3 T of salad dressing on the liquid part of my day, so maybe measuring cups are ok?)

Kalikel wrote: »

I weigh frozen veggies while they're frozen. The calorie difference is slim to none, but I don't want to record eating more than I do because I'm watching micros and don't want those numbers artificially inflated. Fruits I weigh after they're thawed, since I always thaw them before I prepare or eat them.

Meat and breads are also thawed before I use them, so I use the thawed weights. Bread, though, I usually let cool before I put it in the freezer and have the original weight of the loaf on the wrapping, so I don't have to weigh the thawed loaf.

I don't know how most people do it, though. That's just how I do it.

I'm not too worried about overestimating as I am not too concerned with my micros yet. So maybe I want to go with cooked?

OldHobo wrote: »

If you're following instructions or a recipe that says "X grams frozen green beans" weigh them frozen. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that the frozen vs. thawed weight is going to vary that much.
Cooked vs. precooked. Mostly precooked but use common sense under the circumstances.

Not a recipe, just eating them plain But we were looking at (for other examples) frozen pierogi or ravioli, frozen breadsticks, etc - that come frozen but are definitely meant to be eaten cooked. I more don't want to underestimate hugely, I guess if it was only a few calories either way it won't be a huge deal yet and I can adjust if I stop losing? I just want to keep a good eye for estimating portions in cups/oz for the few times we do eat out.

Francl27

I weigh frozen too, except those 'steam in a bag' veggies that drive me nuts because really, if I'm supposed to steam it in the bag, how in the world can I weigh it frozen? First world problems, I know, but annoying.

I weigh egg whites as well, and you definitely want to weigh salad dressing too... and never ever use the ml option, I don't even know how it's there, unless it's magical scales that somehow know what type of liquid is on it. Ugh.

For frozen pierogi etc, yeah, weigh it frozen too (annoying when you make more than one serving or when there is freezer burn on stuff though!).

Basically eating frozen food is a nightmare for people who make big batches at once.

kommodevaran

supersocks117 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

Not what you asked, but I weigh liqiuds too. Except oil.

On what scale setting? Grams still or mL/floz? I wasn't sure so I continued using measuring cups (I pretty much only have a cup of black coffee, a T of creamer, and 2-3 T of salad dressing on the liquid part of my day, so maybe measuring cups are ok?)

Just in grams. Everything I can put on the scales, can be used to contain what I want to weigh - that's why oils usually have to be measured in a measuring spoon; the frying pan is too heavy - but I can weigh the container and take out the wanted amount, which will be in negative on the display; I do that with peanut butter, for instance (and I learned it here on MFP!). All foods that I eat, including liquids, have calories per 100 grams stated on the label (or I look it up if it doesn't have a label). Measuring cups and spoons can be called for in recipes, though - I didin't think about that, as I rarely use recipes - the video linked below reminded me.

Francl27 wrote: »

I weigh egg whites as well, and you definitely want to weigh salad dressing too... and never ever use the ml option, I don't even know how it's there, unless it's magical scales that somehow know what type of liquid is on it. Ugh.

There are scales that claim to measure liquids, but unless it operates by you telling it what you put on it, and it calculates the volume from that, it will just treat everything as water, and that's not correct for anything but water and very similar liquids - and because 100 ml of water weighs 100 grams, you can easily do the "conversion" yourself. You can see it in this video demonstrating the Escali scale - the guy keeps saying "liquids", but the button says "Aqua".

supersocks117

kommodevaran wrote: »

supersocks117 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

Not what you asked, but I weigh liqiuds too. Except oil.

On what scale setting? Grams still or mL/floz? I wasn't sure so I continued using measuring cups (I pretty much only have a cup of black coffee, a T of creamer, and 2-3 T of salad dressing on the liquid part of my day, so maybe measuring cups are ok?)

Just in grams. Everything I can put on the scales, can be used to contain what I want to weigh - that's why oils usually have to be measured in a measuring spoon; the frying pan is too heavy - but I can weigh the container and take out the wanted amount, which will be in negative on the display; I do that with peanut butter, for instance (and I learned it here on MFP!). All foods that I eat, including liquids, have calories per 100 grams stated on the label (or I look it up if it doesn't have a label). Measuring cups and spoons can be called for in recipes, though - I didin't think about that, as I rarely use recipes - the video linked below reminded me.

Francl27 wrote: »

I weigh egg whites as well, and you definitely want to weigh salad dressing too... and never ever use the ml option, I don't even know how it's there, unless it's magical scales that somehow know what type of liquid is on it. Ugh.

There are scales that claim to measure liquids, but unless it operates by you telling it what you put on it, and it calculates the volume from that, it will just treat everything as water, and that's not correct for anything but water and very similar liquids - and because 100 ml of water weighs 100 grams, you can easily do the "conversion" yourself. You can see it in this video demonstrating the Escali scale - the guy keeps saying "liquids", but the button says "Aqua".

The nutrition listings didn't have grams as a choice so I went with fl oz for the coffee (unsweetened) and creamer (though I used the T to put it in the cup) Those both seemed spot on. I think it did let me do grams for the liquid eggs but the others I just made sure they were the same or smaller than the grams listed on the package,

OldHobo

I understand this is important, life and death for some. But lets keep it in perspective.

• The difference in the weight of water compared to oil is about 10%.
• Many scales, including mine, round to the nearest 2 grams or 1/8 ounce.
• The FDA allows for up to a 20% margin of error for the calorie counts of foods sold in the US.

Most of the time the difference in measuring oil versus weighing it is going to be within the limits of a rounding error. Don't sweat the small stuff.
I do what seems to make sense under the circumstances and if one of the circumstances is that the milk is about to boil over, or the sauce is going to break any second, I might just guess the weight of something.

supersocks117

OldHobo wrote: »

I understand this is important, life and death for some. But lets keep it in perspective.

• The difference in the weight of water compared to oil is about 10%.
• Many scales, including mine, round to the nearest 2 grams or 1/8 ounce.
• The FDA allows for up to a 20% margin of error for the calorie counts of foods sold in the US.

Most of the time the difference in measuring oil versus weighing it is going to be within the limits of a rounding error. Don't sweat the small stuff.
I do what seems to make sense under the circumstances and if one of the circumstances is that the milk is about to boil over, or the sauce is going to break any second, I might just guess the weight of something.

xP It's definitely NOT a big deal right now for me, just something we were wondering about - I'm losing weight as expected so my numbers must be "close enough" my only concern was when I get lighter they will need to be tighter to goal and a small margin of error might matter more. But for right now, just wondering what others do and still experimenting with the best way for me. I know for my creamer (one T once a day) a T is 35 calories, I weighed in fl oz 1 T and got fl oz that equaled 33 calories. So now I know not to worry too much about weighing my cream because it is basically right for a T from what I can tell. I weighed half a cup of quinoa/brown rice from a Wegmans steamer bag and got .65 of a serving instead of .5! So I will continue to weigh rice (although that was cooked, but how would you weigh it before you steam the bag?!?)

OldHobo

supersocks117 wrote: »

xP It's definitely NOT a big deal right now for me, just something we were wondering about - I'm losing weight as expected so my numbers must be "close enough" my only concern was when I get lighter they will need to be tighter to goal and a small margin of error might matter more. But for right now, just wondering what others do and still experimenting with the best way for me. I know for my creamer (one T once a day) a T is 35 calories, I weighed in fl oz 1 T and got fl oz that equaled 33 calories. So now I know not to worry too much about weighing my cream because it is basically right for a T from what I can tell. I weighed half a cup of quinoa/brown rice from a Wegmans steamer bag and got .65 of a serving instead of .5! So I will continue to weigh rice (although that was cooked, but how would you weigh it before you steam the bag?!?)

I apologise supersocks. Reading, and rereading, your post I confess I just don't understand. Maybe because I don't know what a Wegmans steamer bag is or how you would steam anything in a sealed plastic bag. Maybe because I don't get how a scale could tell you something weighs .65 of a serving.

I thought it was a question of units of mass vs. volume but now I confess to no clue whatsoever. Anyway, glad to hear it's no big deal.

supersocks117

OldHobo wrote: »

supersocks117 wrote: »

xP It's definitely NOT a big deal right now for me, just something we were wondering about - I'm losing weight as expected so my numbers must be "close enough" my only concern was when I get lighter they will need to be tighter to goal and a small margin of error might matter more. But for right now, just wondering what others do and still experimenting with the best way for me. I know for my creamer (one T once a day) a T is 35 calories, I weighed in fl oz 1 T and got fl oz that equaled 33 calories. So now I know not to worry too much about weighing my cream because it is basically right for a T from what I can tell. I weighed half a cup of quinoa/brown rice from a Wegmans steamer bag and got .65 of a serving instead of .5! So I will continue to weigh rice (although that was cooked, but how would you weigh it before you steam the bag?!?)

I apologise supersocks. Reading, and rereading, your post I confess I just don't understand. Maybe because I don't know what a Wegmans steamer bag is or how you would steam anything in a sealed plastic bag. Maybe because I don't get how a scale could tell you something weighs .65 of a serving.

I thought it was a question of units of mass vs. volume but now I confess to no clue whatsoever. Anyway, glad to hear it's no big deal.

Ah. I explained poorly. It was (for example) 65g out of a typical 100 g serving. But half a cup out of a full cup serving. So I go with weighing for solid food. The steamer bag is just how the rice comes packaged - you stick the whole bag in the microwave and run it and it comes out cooked. (like frozen veggies)

It's yummy if you happen to live near Wegmans I don't like the texture of quinoa typically, but I like this.