Food Scale

erinliz

My food scale came in the mail yesterday and I just started using it today. I think it's going to make a huge difference for me. Any tips for me?

lynn_glenmont

Change the units to grams (a gram is smaller than an ounce, so your weighing will be more accurate).

Assuming that green bowl isn't permanently attached to the scale, you don't need to use it.

If you're fixing something you're not going to cook afterwards (e.g., salad; sandwich; cold cereal; fruit and cheese; a plate of food from larger containers, such as your protein, vegetables, any other sides), just put the plate or bowl you're going to be eating from on the scale, hit tare (resets to zero), and add each food or ingredients one at a time, logging or recording the weight of each thing to log later, hitting the tare button, repeat with other foods or ingredients. Voila, you've only used one dish, instead of dirtying up a lot of different dishes to measure things.

If you're fixing something you are going to cook afterwards (e.g., weighing ingredients for a stir-fry, soup, casserole, or weighing raw meat, poultry or fish that you're going to cook), do whatever seems sensible in terms of the recipe, minimizing dishes, and avoiding cross-contamination of food. For example, if I'm doing a stir-fry, any veggies that are going to cook for the same amount of time can go in one prep container. Even though I'm cooking everything, I prefer to have the raw meat, poultry, or seafood in its own separate container.

Weigh all solids. You can measure liquids by volume (cups, fluid ounces, tablespoons, teaspoons, milliliters) if you prefer.

Weigh only the portion you eat. E.g., if you don't eat the core of an apple, weigh if after you're done and subtract it from the total weight (or if you like to slice your apples, just weigh the slices).

Weighing is only half the battle. You also have to make sure you are using accurate and appropriate entries.

Accurate means that when possible you've compared the entries to the manufacturer's label, information from the manufacturer's or restaurant's website, or USDA nutrient database entries (especially helpful for raw produce and basic meat, poultry and fish that the producer hasn't brined or added breading or sauces to) (http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods). If you don't have any information to check the entry against, look for one that has lots of user verifications. If you have information and can't find an accurate entry, you can create your own or edit an existing one.

Appropriate means that if you're weighing your steak raw, you find an entry for that particular cut of steak raw. If you're weighing it cooked, find an entry for cooked. It's generally better to weigh food raw, because depending on the food and how you cook it, the weight will change, and if you like food more or less done than was assumed by the lab workers who got the data for the entry, your food may not change in weight by the same amount as theirs. But if you only have nutrition information for the food when it's cooked, then weight it cooked.

When weighing things for which you're inclined to lick the spoon when you're done serving it (e.g., peanut butter, jelly, ice cream, for me yogurt and cream cheese), put the container of food (e.g., the peanut butter jar) on the scale, hit tare, dish up, and return the container to the scale to find out how much you used. Ignore the negative sign. (Alternatively, you can leave the jar or whatever on the scale as you dish up if you're trying to hit some specific number of grams because that's all you're allowing yourself to have right now.)

Turn the scale off when you're done if it doesn't turn off automatically to save power.

Wipe it down with a damp sponge or towel when it gets dirty.

smf4ever

Use it.. and keep using it... I have been using mine for 2 years.. and still.. get surprised that my "guessing" on what some foods weigh.. is REALLY off compared to reality..

ModernRock

Learn to use the tare button. For example , a serving of butter is easier to measure if you put the container on the scale, zero it out, and then remove butter until it reads the (negative) weight of a serving.

Pro tip 2. Put your plate/bowl on the scale and zero it out after each ingredient. Saves you from dirtying extra containers.

That's the scale I use every day and I've lost 39 pounds since September.

Lasmartchika

Read this

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale/p1