Just got a food shock...

RogerToo

Colorscheme wrote: »

No wonder I keep losing and gaining the same four pounds over and over again.

I log and weigh most things. I don't log condiments like ketchup or butter because I hardly use it except in very small amounts. So I would weigh my bagels and log it, but not the whipped butter I'd put on top. Or cream cheese.

However, I've been fed up with not making any progress so I thought it would be time to log and weigh everything.

So today I had a small pre-packaged pizza from Stew Leonard's. The label says it weighs 255 grams yet my food scale said it weighed 465 grams. That is a huge difference.

Since I make pizza at home from scratch, I was wondering how something that's pretty big could have the same amount of calories as my thin crush homemade pizza, as the pre-packaged pizza looks to be double the size.

I learned a very important lesson today. From now on I will be extremely diligent with weighing and logging.

And just to put it in perspective, the whole pizza according to the label says it's 520 calories. But with weighing it's actually 923 calories. So the label says one serving is 4 slices, but doing the math it's actually 7.

Hi
FWIW prepackaged foods must contain at least as much as the label shows or they will be in trouble with the weights and measures department. However if they are over it will cause no legal problems. Just look at liquids for example, they usually have slightly different levels showing on the ones where You can see the contents.

Good Luck
Roger

Colorscheme

RogerToo wrote: »

Colorscheme wrote: »

No wonder I keep losing and gaining the same four pounds over and over again.

I log and weigh most things. I don't log condiments like ketchup or butter because I hardly use it except in very small amounts. So I would weigh my bagels and log it, but not the whipped butter I'd put on top. Or cream cheese.

However, I've been fed up with not making any progress so I thought it would be time to log and weigh everything.

So today I had a small pre-packaged pizza from Stew Leonard's. The label says it weighs 255 grams yet my food scale said it weighed 465 grams. That is a huge difference.

Since I make pizza at home from scratch, I was wondering how something that's pretty big could have the same amount of calories as my thin crush homemade pizza, as the pre-packaged pizza looks to be double the size.

I learned a very important lesson today. From now on I will be extremely diligent with weighing and logging.

And just to put it in perspective, the whole pizza according to the label says it's 520 calories. But with weighing it's actually 923 calories. So the label says one serving is 4 slices, but doing the math it's actually 7.

Hi
FWIW prepackaged foods must contain at least as much as the label shows or they will be in trouble with the weights and measures department. However if they are over it will cause no legal problems. Just look at liquids for example, they usually have slightly different levels showing on the ones where You can see the contents.

Good Luck
Roger

Well I weighed my Dannon protein shake on my food scale and it was exactly 9.5 oz, same as the bottle says. But yeah, I learned from now on to weigh and measure everything that goes in my mouth. Hopefully I will start making progress.

beastmode_kitty

I started weight pre-packaged foods too, and you'd be amazed that the weight is off from what the package says.

gillie80

anyone in the UK had this trouble? am thinking i should just leave my scales on the counter from now on.

JeepHair77

rbfdac wrote: »

I weigh and measure everything, and was irritated that my sweet gerkins (sweet tiny pickles) were supposed to be 30 calories for 28g, then says "approximately 3 pickles". 1 pickle was 28 grams. I would have tripled my calories if I didn't have a scale and just used the label. I can't imagine if that happened with several foods all day long!

Keep at it, for sure!

This is so funny because I had this EXACT irritation last night! The serving size in grams says "approximately 2.5 pickles." But when I weighed it, one pickle was just under the serving size in grams.

I still ate 2 pickles. But weighing meant that I logged accurately.

kimny72

So true. I have found so many products where the number of servings per package is WAY off. I used to think, well it says two servings per package so if I split it in half I'm fine. Then I weigh one half and it's twice the weight it should be. Or half the weight it should be, I've been surprised by both extremes!

Francl27

emmaprocopiou wrote: »

It can definitely be depressing , but at least you can see why everyone says weigh everything.
All these little discrepancies add up and bang your deficit is gone, leaving you frustrated when looking at that scale number not moving.
I have been weighing for ages but I still can't eyeball a correct serving of butter, cheese, Mayo or hummus.

I can get close to 28g of cheese by eyeballing now. And every time I am sad about what a tiny amount it is LOL.

About the pickles, something similar happened to me not too long ago but I can't remember for the life of me what the product was...

The issue with packaged food is two fold though... First, stuff often weighs more than what a serving is, then on top of that they are allowed to be off by 30% or something... that's why people who weigh a lot of processed food can't lose weight - it's still CICO, it's just that there are more calories than you think in those packages.

Colorscheme

Francl27 wrote: »

emmaprocopiou wrote: »

It can definitely be depressing , but at least you can see why everyone says weigh everything.
All these little discrepancies add up and bang your deficit is gone, leaving you frustrated when looking at that scale number not moving.
I have been weighing for ages but I still can't eyeball a correct serving of butter, cheese, Mayo or hummus.

I can get close to 28g of cheese by eyeballing now. And every time I am sad about what a tiny amount it is LOL.

About the pickles, something similar happened to me not too long ago but I can't remember for the life of me what the product was...

The issue with packaged food is two fold though... First, stuff often weighs more than what a serving is, then on top of that they are allowed to be off by 30% or something... that's why people who weigh a lot of processed food can't lose weight - it's still CICO, it's just that there are more calories than you think in those packages.

I wish the FDA only allowed a small percentage. To have food be off by 20 percent per serving, and have it be legal is ridiculous. 5 percent, I can understand. Ten percent, ok. But more than that? not fair.

I measured my butter and I use a lot less than a serving size but I'm still reeling over the pizza. There's over a four hundred cal difference between the package weight and the true weight. Combine that with eating all my exercise cals back, no wonder I wasn't really making progress.

auddii

I agree with the recipe builder, it's a life saver. And if you log the recipe first, you know what you're getting into: do you need to make the cookies smaller than the recipe calls for to fit them into your day? Can you have 2 or 3?

godlikepoetyes

I record everything, every bite. Butter has a lot of calories and is mostly fat. Cream cheese, ditto. But something like ketchup has calories too and can add up as others have said. I count everything, even a ten calorie jello or 40 calorie popsicle. And all my veggies and fruits. There are no free foods for me.

Colorscheme

godlikepoetyes wrote: »

I record everything, every bite. Butter has a lot of calories and is mostly fat. Cream cheese, ditto. But something like ketchup has calories too and can add up as others have said. I count everything, even a ten calorie jello or 40 calorie popsicle. And all my veggies and fruits. There are no free foods for me.

Well I used whipped butter and whipped cream cheese, and I started measuring those. I also use it sparingly, that alone isn't enough to cause weight gain or losing the same amount of weight. I rarely use ketchup too. It's the pre-packaged stuff that apparently has been the culprit.

But yeah, I've started weighing and logging my butter and such as a result.

OyGeeBiv

Colorscheme wrote: »

Well I used whipped butter and whipped cream cheese, and I started measuring those. I also use it sparingly, that alone isn't enough to cause weight gain or losing the same amount of weight. I rarely use ketchup too. It's the pre-packaged stuff that apparently has been the culprit.

But yeah, I've started weighing and logging my butter and such as a result.

100 grams of whipped butter has the same amount of calories and fat as 100 grams of solid butter (717 calories). That's why weighing is better than measuring spoons and cups.

Colorscheme

64crayons wrote: »

Colorscheme wrote: »

Well I used whipped butter and whipped cream cheese, and I started measuring those. I also use it sparingly, that alone isn't enough to cause weight gain or losing the same amount of weight. I rarely use ketchup too. It's the pre-packaged stuff that apparently has been the culprit.

But yeah, I've started weighing and logging my butter and such as a result.

100 grams of whipped butter has the same amount of calories and fat as 100 grams of solid butter (717 calories). That's why weighing is better than measuring spoons and cups.

I weigh my butter now. And it's not really about the calories. In a previous answer, I said I used whipped butter because it's easier to spread and less dense texture wise than regular butter.