Measuring leafy greens?

Morglez
Morglez Posts: 46 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I feel like this might be a silly question, but what's the best way to measure leafy greens? I have been putting fresh spinach in my smoothies, and I am a little confused about how to measure them. The serving options are either in cups, or other odd measurements that would be for liquids (like milliliters and fluid ounces). So I have been putting them in a 1 cup measuring cup. Is that an accurate way to measure them? I would prefer to weight them, but there isn't a serving option for solid weight, only liquid weight for some reason. It just seems weird measuring them in a cup since leaves take up a lot of "space" if that makes sense.

And yes, I know... there isn't a huge amount of calories in spinach to make that much of a difference. But I am trying to keep myself pretty strict with weighing and measuring so I don't start slacking. Don't judge me, it helps... :wink:

Thanks in advance! :smile:

Replies

  • JustSomeEm
    JustSomeEm Posts: 20,246 MFP Moderator
    Weigh them and use liquid weight?

    In for better answers than the one I gave. :)
  • mathandcats
    mathandcats Posts: 786 Member
    Weight is weight. If "liquid weight" means fluid ounces, that is a volume measurement.

    If the entry you are using doesn't have a grams option, search again. Try adding "usda" to the end if necessary.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Weigh in grams.
    There are usda entries in the MFP database in grams or go to the usda website. You might find that measuring in cups for greens is "close."
  • Lovee_Dove7
    Lovee_Dove7 Posts: 742 Member
    edited February 2016
    You're going to love a food scale. Weigh your food in grams, it makes dieting soooo much easier to figure out.
    Even though veggies are mostly low in cals, I like to weigh them anyway because I like to eat a certain amount daily.
  • CyberTone
    CyberTone Posts: 7,337 Member
    Add the word raw to most vegetables and fruit searches to bring up the MFP-entered food items that have multiple serving size choices, including grams.

    Tip:
    napa = Cabbage, chinese (pe-tsai), raw
    bok choy = Cabbage, chinese (pak-choi), raw

    5say6xfcc0ux.jpg
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
    When I'm really trying to pull myself together and lose, all leafy greens are weighed in grams on the food scale. If I'm eyeballing cups and trying to maintain and succeeding, I will stick with that.
  • Annr
    Annr Posts: 2,765 Member
    RodaRose wrote: »
    Weigh in grams.
    There are usda entries in the MFP database in grams or go to the usda website. You might find that measuring in cups for greens is "close."

    yep I do the same. In grams.
  • Morglez
    Morglez Posts: 46 Member
    edited February 2016
    Lovee_Dove7 wrote: »
    You're going to love a food scale. Weigh your food in grams, it makes dieting soooo much easier to figure out.
    Even though veggies are mostly low in cals, I like to weigh them anyway because I like to eat a certain amount daily.

    I do have a food scale, and I use it for almost everything. I normally weigh everything in grams, but when I scanned the bag, there wasn't an option for grams, ounces, etc. It was just cups and fluid weights. (It seems weird to me to weigh solid foods in fluid weights... I feel like it would be inaccurate.) I guess I need to get away from scanning things and just do searches. Thanks everyone!

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