How to use a food scale?

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beatyfamily1
beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm planning on buying a food scale. I've never used one. Could someone explain the correct way to use it so I don't set myself up for failure. Like do I need to weigh each food or do I weight the entire meal? How do I know how many calories are in by the weight? Do you weigh condiments and sauces (liquids)? Give me the crash course please.

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  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    edited January 2016
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEHW0-eYJ7U
  • EleanorLynn1989
    EleanorLynn1989 Posts: 130 Member
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    I got my first food scale a few weeks ago and they're actually kind of fun. haha A lot of them have a tare feature - It allows you to subtract the weight of the dish and after you add each ingriedent. So like if I'm having cereal I use the grams setting, then I hit tare and I switch to the ml setting for the milk. It's really awesome.

    This is the one I have:

    http://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Professional-Digital-Tempered-18-Pound/dp/B006N0OIIG
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
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    @rainbowbow Thank you, but I don't have speakers on my computer.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
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    beatyfamily1 wrote: »
    @rainbowbow Thank you, but I don't have speakers on my computer.

    damn. haha, okay.

    So essentially any food scale you get should let you weigh in ounces, grams, lbs, etc. I usually measure in grams since that's what is accounted for on the packages for calorie information.

    When you are making a recipe you will want to weigh each ingredient before putting it in.

    You can weigh the ingredients on the scale itself or you can put them in a pot/bowl/plate/etc. When doing that you just need to tare the scale by pressing the tare button. It will set the weight to zero and then you can record the weight of each ingredient you add. I always tare when i'm adding another thing.

    An alternative method would be to measure what's going OUT of something. For example, you have a jar of peanut butter. Set the jar on, tare it. When you scoop out the peanut butter it will be a negative number with the amount you've taken out.

    Yes, weigh everything.

    On the back of packages it should say weight per 100 grams. OR weight in the "serving size".

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    If it's something like a veggie, you can find in the database how many calories are in it per gram.
  • beatyfamily1
    beatyfamily1 Posts: 257 Member
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    @rainbowbow Ok sounds simple enough. Thank you.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,089 Member
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    There's a thread on here that will walk you through it step by step. I can't remember but I may know someone that will know what thread I am referring to
    @diannethegeek can you please link this op to the thread that explains how to use a food scale ?
  • GsKiki
    GsKiki Posts: 392 Member
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    Weigh all of your food raw, before preparing, and add them all up when you cook. You can measure liquids on the scale or by mililiters, depending on the thickness.
    You can find all food calories in grams/oz online, and in MFP database.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    thorsmom01 wrote: »
    There's a thread on here that will walk you through it step by step. I can't remember but I may know someone that will know what thread I am referring to
    @diannethegeek can you please link this op to the thread that explains how to use a food scale ?

    Is this the one you're thinking of? http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1290491/how-and-why-to-use-a-digital-food-scale

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