Anyone here NOT use a food scale?

haileighdevries1

afatpersonwholikesfood wrote: »

chaoticdreams wrote: »

lug one about when I go out on the town.

I'm not picking on you specifically, but this is another example of something that pops up in food scale threads a lot. Why do people think that food scale users are carrying scales around with them? Have you seen people do this? Do people who use measuring cups but eschew scales keep a set of tablespoons and measuring cups in their purses? The only people I know who carry digital scales around are not weighing food on them.

Again, I am not saying that scales are a requirement for losing or that OP has to use one, but I don't get all the weirdness around them.

Just applauding this for one second.... Okay done. Continue.

samhennings

afatpersonwholikesfood wrote: »

tristen_leigh wrote: »

It's hard to understand the anxiety if you haven't struggled with disordered eating.

I was hospitalized for bulimic behavior, among other things, when I was 18. I would think logging and counting calories and weighing yourself on a regular scale on a regular basis would be more of an issue than measuring the food that you are already counting and logging. It's not just those who have had ED behavior - there are plenty of people who post about food scales with no mention of ED issues who have a very negative perception of them.

I have no history of ED issues or anything like it, and I loathe the idea of measuring everything.

I should say, up front, if it works for you thats fantastic, Im happy for anyone who finds what works for them.

For me? I wouldnt last a week. My mind works against me with things like that, as soon as I added something that made it more of a chore to keep up with my head will just abandon the idea.

Keeping it "casual" and doing things conveniently, use the barcode, eye ball, lazy math, meant I kept up with the lifestyle.

Weighing and measuring would have ensured I stopped pretty darn quickly.

I lost the 22lbs I wanted, at a consistent rate, and have been broadly maintaining since. My weight has gone up a bit but thats due to going to the gym and lifting, which I wasnt before. So Im comfortable.

Yes, absolutely, being as accurate as possible would likely have meant I lost the weight faster, but Im happy I got to where I wanted to be in a more relaxed manner.


Incidentally, the one thing I do weigh is Museli. Id happy eat a whole bowl of the stuff but reading the box made me realise that was at least 2 portions! So that was the one exception.

samhennings

christinev297 wrote: »

For those that don't use a scale, what does your diary look like?
since most recipes use grams and cups, do you just guess and hope you're close enough?

If its anything pre-packaged Ill scan the barcode, maybe have to guesstimate how much of it I had.

Yesterday I had an egg and bacon sandwich, so I searched "egg and bacon sandwich" and then looked at the average amount of calories from the results. Then I just picked one at the higher end, I try to be conservative in the selections.

parfia

Nearly 50lbs down and haven't had to resort to a food scale as yet and also eyeball things - I totally get why people use them but I have OCD and to enter another ritual into my daily life would be asking for trouble

FitCurves1818

I don't use one and I've been steadily losing at what my MFP goals are set for. It's pretty easy to determine calorie count from packaged items. I'm not really concerned about overeating fruits and vegetables and meats I've used the deck of cards/palm of hand eyeballing method to determine size or just divide the package weight by the number of servings. I know it's not exact but neither are my exercise calories. I probably overestimate my intake, underestimate my burn and leave 25-50% of my exercise calories as a buffer so the inaccuracies probably wipe each other out but ymmv.

tahn1000

i have a scale and initially i used it intermittently on and off. then while i was plateauing (for days) i started wondering about why (as you do) and i started measuring to make sure i was recording accurately. i found out i was consuming 2-3 times as much of my cereal as was a recommended serving and most days i had two breakfasts because i start my day early. i was devastated. learned my lesson. if things at home (the only place i use it) aren't already in serving portions, i measure.

srujana_kanneganti

I didn't for my first 40 pounds of loss.

When I started to use my scale I realized I tend to slightly overestimate my consumption, but otherwise was in ballpark. So I don't feel frequent need to use it.