Math and food

MamaColie2015
MamaColie2015 Posts: 18 Member
edited November 27 in Food and Nutrition
Hi all. So after a productive day of refilling my fridge with some better food choices I attempted to log my food intake from my day. I'm running into a problem figuring out how many servings I had when it comes to stuff though. I feel pretty stupid trying to figure it out and am reminded what a critical life skill math truly is. Can someone help me?

I ate 2/3 cup of cooked oatmeal. The serving size is 1/4 cup. How do I form the equation to figure out how much I consumed? Same thing with my milk I added to the oatmeal, it was .5 oz /1 Tbl of a cup of milk.

And be gentle with me please, I'm super embarrassed I don't know how to do this on my own.

Replies

  • amietest
    amietest Posts: 57 Member
    Oatmeal .67 cup you ate. .25 cup is a serving. .67 / .25 = 2.67 servings. Or the other way. (2/3)/(1/4)=(2/3)*(4/1)=(2×4)/3=2.67
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Use a scale and weigh your food - much easier and more accurate!
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,097 Member
    There should be an entry for whatever percentage fat milk you used that offers a variety of serving units (cup, fluid ounces, tablespoons, milliliters, grams). Use that one (which is based on USDA figures), and enter it as 0.5 fluid ounce or 1Tbsp.
  • jacklifts
    jacklifts Posts: 396 Member
    If you're looking at the package, the serving size is for the uncooked oatmeal, which is different from the cooked oatmeal you ate. The math is easiest if you use a scale to weigh the food. For example, my oatmeal says on the label:

    Serving size: 1/3 cup dry (40g)

    So I weigh out 80g for example, for 2 serving sizes, then cook it. I put that serving size into MFP.

    If I add one cup of milk, then I also add the calories from 1 cup of milk separately.
    If I add 0.5 oz of milk, then I divide 0.5oz by 1 cup (8oz), or 0.5/8 = 0.06 servings, and that's what I put in to MFP.

    Sometimes you have to guess. If I have to guess, I just arbitrarily add 1.5 servings of whatever I'm eating if I scooped myself what looks like one serving without weighing it.
  • MamaColie2015
    MamaColie2015 Posts: 18 Member
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    Use a scale and weigh your food - much easier and more accurate!

    Thank you. I will try that. Why do you think it's easier and more accurate?
  • MamaColie2015
    MamaColie2015 Posts: 18 Member
    amietest wrote: »
    Oatmeal .67 cup you ate. .25 cup is a serving. .67 / .25 = 2.67 servings. Or the other way. (2/3)/(1/4)=(2/3)*(4/1)=(2×4)/3=2.67

    Thanks for breaking it down for me.
  • alexnzrv
    alexnzrv Posts: 1 Member
    amietest wrote: »
    Oatmeal .67 cup you ate.

    Is that Yoda speaking?
  • Ifitfits
    Ifitfits Posts: 46 Member
    Scale will save your brain much stress :)
  • MamaColie2015
    MamaColie2015 Posts: 18 Member
    It does stress me so. ;)
    I should enroll in a math class. It'd do me good.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    You need a digital food scale..about $10... And you should weigh your food and log before eating it ..just keep the scale on the side, it becomes an easy habit

    Never choose an entry that says servings ...chances are it's incorrect...always log by grams..there are lots of inaccurate entries on MFP...always double check ..if it's a recipe build it yourself in the recipe builder

    It does get easier as you build up recent and frequent foods

    Don't use cups..they are inaccurate

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY&feature=youtu.be
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
    MamaColie2015 wrote: »
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    Use a scale and weigh your food - much easier and more accurate!

    Thank you. I will try that. Why do you think it's easier and more accurate?

    For this, we're going to venture a bit outside of math here and into the realm of one of its applications: physics. A cup is a unit of volume; that is, how big something is, and grams are a unit of mass (how much matter something has). When you measure your food with volume, it's not quite as accurate as measuring by mass. To illustrate this, imagine something like broccoli. If you want to measure a cup of it, you might put one big floret in the cup and think you're done. But what if you cut it up into fine pieces and really cram them in? Suddenly, they won't fill the cup anymore, and you'll need more florets to do so. The cup (volume) hasn't changed, but the mass of broccoli has! So, the cup may measure several different things, but the food scale will see each little difference.

    That said, feel free to use volume measures like the cup with liquids. The reasoning behind why it's okay for liquids but not solids involves density, which relates mass and volume. I can explain if you like, but in the meantime use a food scale for everything, with cups being suitable for liquids.
  • MamaColie2015
    MamaColie2015 Posts: 18 Member
    I really appreciate your detailed response. It makes perfect sense!
  • itsthehumidity
    itsthehumidity Posts: 351 Member
    There will certainly be times when you have to do some algebra, so I'll also answer your original question in a way that I think is more intuitive than just more math.

    Let's simplify the problem by first getting rid of fractions, so the concept is more clear. Let's also assume you measured out dry oatmeal (rather than cooked) so we're not comparing different things. All right, so imagine the serving is 1 cup and you ate 2. You ate 2 servings. Similarly:

    A serving is 1 cup and you ate 3. You ate 3 servings, or
    A serving is 1.5 cups and you ate 3. You ate 2 servings, or
    A serving is 2 cups and you ate 10. You ate 5 servings.

    The pattern is to divide what you ate by the serving size to get the number of servings. If you ate 10 cups and a serving is 2, you had 10/2 = 5 servings.

    So, now let's do the same thing but substitute in your original numbers.

    A serving is 1/4 cup and you ate 2/3 cup. 2/3 of a cup divided by 1/4 cup involves a bit of a twist because we're dividing fractions (rather than integers). If you need help on this, look up dividing fractions. But in this case, (2/3)/(1/4) = (2/3)x(4/1) = 8/3, or equivalently 2 and 2/3 servings (2.67).

    As you can see the other people answering were able to do this in one step, e.g. .67/.25, which is the same thing. But math alone is useless without the concepts that drive it. I hope that helps. Let me know if you want clarification or further explanation.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    itsthehumidity wrote: »
    MamaColie2015 wrote: »
    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    Use a scale and weigh your food - much easier and more accurate!

    Thank you. I will try that. Why do you think it's easier and more accurate?

    For this, we're going to venture a bit outside of math here and into the realm of one of its applications: physics. A cup is a unit of volume; that is, how big something is, and grams are a unit of mass (how much matter something has). When you measure your food with volume, it's not quite as accurate as measuring by mass. To illustrate this, imagine something like broccoli. If you want to measure a cup of it, you might put one big floret in the cup and think you're done. But what if you cut it up into fine pieces and really cram them in? Suddenly, they won't fill the cup anymore, and you'll need more florets to do so. The cup (volume) hasn't changed, but the mass of broccoli has! So, the cup may measure several different things, but the food scale will see each little difference.

    That said, feel free to use volume measures like the cup with liquids. The reasoning behind why it's okay for liquids but not solids involves density, which relates mass and volume. I can explain if you like, but in the meantime use a food scale for everything, with cups being suitable for liquids.

    Good and easy explanation. Thanks. OP, weighing is the best thing you can do for accuracy. You weigh yourself on a scale, don't you? You wouldn't try craming yourself into a bushel basket to measure yourself.
  • GsKiki
    GsKiki Posts: 392 Member
    I always use scale with my food and it helped a lot. I also write down recipes I use alot so I do not have to calculate everytime, just weigh it. It was a bit harder in the begining, but once you get into it, it's really easy.
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    GsKiki wrote: »
    I always use scale with my food and it helped a lot. I also write down recipes I use alot so I do not have to calculate everytime, just weigh it. It was a bit harder in the begining, but once you get into it, it's really easy.

    Why not just use the recipe builder on your food diary?
  • GsKiki
    GsKiki Posts: 392 Member
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »
    GsKiki wrote: »
    I always use scale with my food and it helped a lot. I also write down recipes I use alot so I do not have to calculate everytime, just weigh it. It was a bit harder in the begining, but once you get into it, it's really easy.

    Why not just use the recipe builder on your food diary?

    I forgot to mention I do use MFP for most of my recipes, it's very easy to input stuff and gives you all nutritional values. :)
  • amyr271
    amyr271 Posts: 343 Member
    alexnzrv wrote: »
    amietest wrote: »
    Oatmeal .67 cup you ate.

    Is that Yoda speaking?

    How has no one else commented on this :D I like you.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    amyr271 wrote: »
    alexnzrv wrote: »
    amietest wrote: »
    Oatmeal .67 cup you ate.

    Is that Yoda speaking?

    How has no one else commented on this :D I like you.

    I immediately went to stalk his profile after reading it :)
  • chupacabramamma
    chupacabramamma Posts: 5 Member
    Hi! I'm new, feeding me, 2 other adults, and four children in age from 20 months up to 12 years. The serving size conundrum had me tweaked for a few days, so here's what I'm doing.

    1. When using pre-packaged ingredients (I entered my first recipe on here - "Cheesy Chorizo Scramble" for example) I enter the weight listed on the package. (a tube of chorizo goo is 9 oz.)
    2. I then entered the number of eggs I needed. (16 large eggs. one adult is weight lifting, and the 12 year old is a boy who's started fitness/weight training, whose parents are in the neighborhood of 6' tall, so he's growing almost daily and never not hungry. We buy eggs by the case, supplemented by our farm chooks.)
    3. I weighed cheese on the digital scale - 3 oz.
    4. I weighed the finished cooked meal - 36 oz.
    5. I entered the "serving size" as 36.
    6. I weigh out the portions for whoever is tracking their intake; then grab my calculator and multiply.

    The only caveat here is to always double-check weights on your pre-packaged ingredients, because corporations are constantly "downsizing" to keep their profit margins where they want them. Anyone here notice that a can of tuna is now 5 oz? When I was a kid, those cans (U.S. market) were 8 oz. As recently as five years ago, they were 6.5 oz cans. But the price isn't much different.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    MamaColie2015 wrote: »
    HI ate 2/3 cup of cooked oatmeal. The serving size is 1/4 cup. How do I form the equation to figure out how much I consumed? Same thing with my milk I added to the oatmeal, it was .5 oz /1 Tbl of a cup of milk.

    As someone else noted, the serving size is for dry oatmeal, so it's going to be an estimate anyway. Weighing dry oatmeal is the best way to go, with measuring it second best.

    I think oatmeal about doubles when cooked, so you ate about 1/3 cup dry or 1.32 of a serving (determined by dividing .33 by .25).

    You should be able to find a milk entry with tablespoons, but there are 16 tablespoons in a cup, so you ate .0625 of a cup.
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