Food scale question

toe1226

My New Years gift to myself- food scale! I just read Diane the geeks old posts (great!) but still have some q?s- I'm sure they're out there somewhere in the stratosphere!

Do you weigh your pasta/rice/quinoa dry or cooked?

Do you weigh your chicken/meat raw or cooked?

Vegetables?

Let me know! Also- favourite scales under 20$ with zero, grams, and tare!

justrollme

Hello!

Dry. (Many packages will specify dry next to serving size.)

Raw.

Raw.

Favorite scale under $20 with Tare: Ozeri scale on Amazon.

jennamae102

I use this one, on sale for less than $12 on Amazon right now! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004164SRA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

KathyApplebaum

I usually make batches for several meals, so I weigh cooked. True, I can get some variation on the water weight, but it's more convenient when I'm pulling out some rice from the fridge to just weigh what I take. I find I take smaller portions that way, and I don't have to worry if my husband has pulled some from the container.

Not under $20, but I love my Cuisinart scale to death. $37 at amazon right now.

earlnabby

For the most part, you should weigh everything in its uncooked state (dry pasta, raw meat, etc). Cooking methods can affect the weight which can throw off the calorie count. For example: when you cook pasta, it absorbs water. The amount of time you cook it determines how much water it absorbs. Pasta cooked a couple of minutes longer will weigh more because it absorbed more water, although the calorie count has not changed.

Lourdesong

KathyApplebaum wrote: »

I usually make batches for several meals, so I weigh cooked. True, I can get some variation on the water weight, but it's more convenient when I'm pulling out some rice from the fridge to just weigh what I take. I find I take smaller portions that way, and I don't have to worry if my husband has pulled some from the container.

Not under $20, but I love my Cuisinart scale to death. $37 at amazon right now.

I use the recipe builder for big batches, input the dry weight of the amount of rice (or veggies or meat or beans) as an ingredient, then weigh the cooked weight at the end and put that number as the number of total servings for the recipe.

This way if I have 100g of cooked rice as my portion, I put in my diary 100 servings of my recipe for rice. And my husband can take whatever amount he likes. Also if I salted the water or used broth, that's all accounted for in the recipe.

Cooked anything in the database I tend to view like some random user-submitted recipe which lacks important details.

nordlead2005

I do the best I can without going crazy over it.

So, dry if possible, raw if possible. Otherwise I go with what I have. Sometimes weighing raw/dry is impossible, like when you are making a family meal. There are entries for many foods with both a dry/raw and cooked entry. Make sure you use the appropriate one.

My system works for me as I've consistently lost on my journey to 40lb down. I've stalled over the last 2-3 weeks but that is due to eating more on travel, holidays, and birthdays, not due to inaccuracy in weighing raw vs cooked.

While not the best scale, I use this one http://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Kitchen-Capacity-Stylish/dp/B003E7AZQA/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1449603874&sr=8-6&keywords=food+scale It is accurate and cheap (I tested mine up to 250g with nickles which are 5g each). The biggest problem with it is that large plates hide the display. I'm on my second one of these, the first was over 6 years old (it was a different brand, same scale) and for some reason just died in a weird fashion right after I replaced the batteries...

nordlead2005

Lourdesong wrote: »

KathyApplebaum wrote: »

I usually make batches for several meals, so I weigh cooked. True, I can get some variation on the water weight, but it's more convenient when I'm pulling out some rice from the fridge to just weigh what I take. I find I take smaller portions that way, and I don't have to worry if my husband has pulled some from the container.

Not under $20, but I love my Cuisinart scale to death. $37 at amazon right now.

I use the recipe builder for big batches, input the dry weight of the amount of rice (or veggies or meat or beans) as an ingredient, then weigh the cooked weight at the end and put that number as the number of total servings for the recipe.

This way if I have 100g of cooked rice as my portion, I put in my diary 100 servings of my recipe for rice. And my husband can take whatever amount he likes. Also if I salted the water or used broth, that's all accounted for in the recipe.

Cooked anything in the database I tend to view like some random user-submitted recipe which lacks important details.

You are ignoring that the water will evaporate over time and you'll be getting more calories than you think.

Honestly, the biggest thing with a scale is it keeps you honest. Even if you are off by 10% due to water weight that is a much smaller error than grabbing two big scoops and counting it as one "serving".

Lourdesong

nordlead2005 wrote: »

Lourdesong wrote: »

KathyApplebaum wrote: »

I usually make batches for several meals, so I weigh cooked. True, I can get some variation on the water weight, but it's more convenient when I'm pulling out some rice from the fridge to just weigh what I take. I find I take smaller portions that way, and I don't have to worry if my husband has pulled some from the container.

Not under $20, but I love my Cuisinart scale to death. $37 at amazon right now.

I use the recipe builder for big batches, input the dry weight of the amount of rice (or veggies or meat or beans) as an ingredient, then weigh the cooked weight at the end and put that number as the number of total servings for the recipe.

This way if I have 100g of cooked rice as my portion, I put in my diary 100 servings of my recipe for rice. And my husband can take whatever amount he likes. Also if I salted the water or used broth, that's all accounted for in the recipe.

Cooked anything in the database I tend to view like some random user-submitted recipe which lacks important details.

You are ignoring that the water will evaporate over time and you'll be getting more calories than you think.

Honestly, the biggest thing with a scale is it keeps you honest. Even if you are off by 10% due to water weight that is a much smaller error than grabbing two big scoops and counting it as one "serving".

I'm not ignoring water evaporation, I'm just going to deal with that margin of error in my own recipe rather than deal with it in some recipe from I-don't-know-who, who cooked their rice and weighed it in who-knows-what-fashion.