Food scale

kissedbythesunshine

Sorry if this has been asked before but how exactly do you use the food scale? I plan to pick one up this weekend. I'm assuming (my little common sense lol) that you weigh the foods raw/uncooked. But how do you weigh recipes? For example, if I cook stew beef dinner for the family and eat some how can I accurately log that? Right now I'm just guessing at my foods which is the reason I'm going to get a scale.

acheben

When I'm cooking meals that make multiple servings, I use the recipe builder, either by importing a recipe from a website and tweaking it or by entering my own recipes.

While I'm making dinner, I'll weigh/measure the individual ingredients that go into the recipe (352g of white potato, 126g of onion, 453g of raw chicken breast, etc). Once everything is cooked, I'll weigh the cooked recipe and enter the weight (in grams) of the total cooked recipe as the serving size. That way, if I eat 237g of that recipe, I just add 237 servings to my diary.

M30834134

The principle is simple: you add up all your ingredients and then divide it by the number of serving in it.

So, let's say I make a Chicken Fajita with 300g of chicken breast (500 cal), 1 bell pepper (30 cal), and 1 onion (50cal). The total calories in my "creation" is 500+30+50=580. If I split that dish two ways - each portion will become 580/2=290 cal; 3 servings = 193 cal, etc.

ModernRock

1. Use Recipe builder on MFP so you only have to log the meal (instead of every ingredient) in the future. (You can go back and edit recipes and it will not change what you've previously logged, which is great. For example, if you substitute, add or remove an ingredient, or if you change the serving sizes.)

2. Add up calories of each ingredient using food scale as necessary. Learn to use the "zero" or "tare" feature so the scale shows "0" with an empty container. Ingredients are typically going to be weighed/measured raw.

3. Prepare food. (Don't forget to log oils/fats.)

4. Divide into equal servings. For some foods, this is as easy as cutting equal portions. More often, however, you will put a container on your scale, zero out the scale (so that it doesn't count the weight of the container), and then weigh the entire item. Divide the total weight by the number of desired servings. That gives you weight per serving. If it is a large item, then simply measure in two batches, add together, and divide by number of desired portions. You then remove the food, zero out the scale, and measure out each portion to serve or store. I like storing in single serving sized containers so the next time all I have to do is log and eat.

A few tips:

Tip 1. Once you've measured the entire dish and figured out the weight of each serving, keep it all on the scale and zero it out. If I have 100 gram servings, then all I have to do is remove 100 grams worth of food and my scale will show -100g. Another serving -200g, another -300g, and another -400g. If you are math impaired, zero the scale after removing each portion so it shows -100g for each of the 4 portions.

Tip 2. The zeroing out feature is especially handy for foods that you assemble and then eat, such as salads. Put bowl on scale and zero it out. Add lettuce and zero it out, then add tomatoes and zero it out, and so on.

angelexperiment

Another thing that's helpful is to measure your dish or measure cup then leave it on but zero it out that way you know is less mess and your dish is not included in the weight. Also a wide scale is helpful to measure many sized things.

I measure typically after cooking

angelexperiment

Oh if it's a recipe I measure my own portions first of each item

kissedbythesunshine

Thanks everyone. I understand now. I'm probably going to find out I've been eating much more than I thought.

Four_Leaf_Clover

A food scale is far and away the most important and eye opening tool in this journey (for me anyhow). I weigh everything solid (measuring cups for liquids).

tcaley4

Be sure to look for a digital one, that has the ability to measure in different units, I like to use grams the most. That is how most nutrition labels are listed on packages. As mentioned above, the tare function is a must. Here is the one I purchased on Amazon for $12.00.



Here is the link to it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004164SRA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here are some good guides to tracking:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1296011/calorie-counting-101/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale/p1

nichalsont

The Sharper Image digital food scale is what I have. It measures both grams and ounces (up to 2lbs). It is around $25 at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Domicinator

Yep--we just weigh everything and do all the math, and then save that recipe in MFP so we don't have to do it all again next time. Not only has the food scale opened my eyes to how much I was overeating, but has also shown me how much of a ripoff some brands of things can be.

For example--I eat a lot of greek yogurt so we buy it in 4 cup tubs. (1 cup is one serving). I have found that while Fage yogurt is by far the most expensive (and also the best tasting), they give you either the full 4 servings or sometimes even slightly more than that. If you buy Chobani, you rarely get the full 4 servings advertised on the container, even if you use a rubber spatula and meticulously scrape it all out. Oikos and some other types also tend to fall short.

There are also a lot of types of foods that consistently give you more than what it says you're paying for, and that's where the unintentional overeating happens if you take their word for it and eyeball everything.