Food scale shock!
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I think I am one of the few who have been surprised at "normal serving portions" - in the opposite direction. Then again, I have never been a good eater of 'proper' food, but rather have my downfall with chocolate and cakes and muffins and and and
Finally, most of my calories are from the more vitamin-filled, blood-sugar-stabilizing, filling, protein-rich food I should be nourished on, but I still sometimes sigh as I am eating - because I'd rather have half a portion and 200 grams of chocolate. I'm a lazy eater, I think 
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I agree with @emmylootwo on the chips. Also on the opposite issue... I was leveling off my tablespoon of peanut butter for months. Then I decided to weight it one day and, WOW, all those months I was eating under 16g! That just isn't right in so many ways lol
Same. I use a food scale and I feel like it takes so much nut butter just to get to 32 grams! The portion size doesn't shock me at all; I think it's huge.2 -
@twistedwoman - I have attached a few Important Posts that have helped me. A few that I always refer back to are Logging Accurately and your Eating More Than You Think. They all relate back to scales and portion sizes.2
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I have seen very little difference between weighing and measuring. I even spent a couple days doing both so I could check.2
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And now you know. It's great that you've discovered this now. It'll save you in the future.
My shock was in seeing how much packaged foods varied. For example, one protein bar will weigh a range of 55-72 g with the nutrition label reading for a 60 g bar.
Pizza and pasta were happy shocks though. Perhaps it's because I never grab the biggest slice of pizza, but the slice I grab usually weighs less than the average slice.
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I usually use a food scale for everything but haven't been for hummus just because I felt like measuring using tablespoons couldn't be THAT far off. I decided to actually weigh it the other day and realized I've been eating twice as much as I thought I was eating, which is an extra 70 calories. It's not that much but I was shocked too!0
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booksandchocolate12 wrote: »Weigh a serving of peanut butter. You will weep.
A serving of my peanut butter is 32g (Great Value Creamy PB). I was shocked at how much it was. I would never put that much peanut butter on anything if I weren't trying to get the full serving. I can barely taste my blackberry jam--it's all just globs of peanut butter. I do eat a serving every day anyway because I don't get enough fat in my day without it, but I was just shocked in the opposite way with peanut butter.2 -
MultipleHigh5s wrote: »I have seen very little difference between weighing and measuring. I even spent a couple days doing both so I could check.
But everyone else does. I can't even find a slice of bread that matches the nutrition information. I'd love to know what you've been weighing.8 -
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The saddest thing in the entire universe is the size of one serving of cheese (1 oz, or 28 g). All that fat and calories for such a miniscule portion. sad, sad, sad21
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Remember that weights given on nutrition packages are weight raw unless otherwise specified i.e. 4 oz of meat cooked is really about 5.3 oz or so.0
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MissusMoon wrote: »MultipleHigh5s wrote: »I have seen very little difference between weighing and measuring. I even spent a couple days doing both so I could check.
But everyone else does. I can't even find a slice of bread that matches the nutrition information. I'd love to know what you've been weighing.
Not everyone.
There is very little difference for me between weighing, measuring, and even estimating. I use a scale now for convenience, but I lost 24.5 lbs in the 85 days before I started using a scale with a combination of measuring and estimating (.29 lbs/day). I've lost 37.4 lbs in the 163 days since then (.23 lbs/day). Given that my weighed/measured/estimated caloric intake has been relatively steady - and I have lost 62 lbs (because the same calories create a smaller deficit at a lower weight), that's about what I'd expect.
I weigh, measure, estimate meat, cheese, nuts, yogurt, nut butters, vegetables, etc. Pretty much everything but grains or grain-based food, since grains do not make my blood glucose happy. I still spot check my estimates (since I have to be able to trust them in circumstances when I don't have easy access to a scale or unobtrusive weighing). My estimates are within 2 grams on a 28 gram serving of cheese, typically less than a gram off for the same quantity of nuts, within 5 grams on a 50-100 gram serving of veggies. In other words, even my estimates are not far enough off to be statistically significant.3 -
UncaToddly wrote: »
Yes!!! When I need something very filling and/or I need some fiber, air popped popcorn with a few sprays of Pam Olive oil and lightly salted. A huge bowl for 165 calories (49.5 grams of popcorn kernels).0 -
booksandchocolate12 wrote: »Weigh a serving of peanut butter. You will weep.
Cheese makes me sad, every time.
OP, I'm glad you realized this. So many people think we are nuts when recommending a food scale when people are stalling on their losses.5 -
gebeziseva wrote: »For me nothing can beat the peanut butter shock! But I was shocked over cheese, mayo and fries too. A handful of fries 250cals... come on...
A serving of fries is puny and disappointing.
However, 50g of chips (crisps) is quite a lot for me. I usually settle for half the 'recommended' serving.0 -
The saddest thing in the entire universe is the size of one serving of cheese (1 oz, or 28 g). All that fat and calories for such a miniscule portion. sad, sad, sad
Yep ... this was one that had me in tears in the early days of my diet. I love cheese. I can easily put away many servings in one sitting ...3 -
The saddest thing in the entire universe is the size of one serving of cheese (1 oz, or 28 g). All that fat and calories for such a miniscule portion. sad, sad, sad
Yep ... this was one that had me in tears in the early days of my diet. I love cheese. I can easily put away many servings in one sitting ...
I cannot, repeat CANNOT, be trusted with cheese. *hangs head in shame*
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twistedwoman wrote: »I used food scales tonight for my dinner for the first time. I was horrified by how much I have been underestimating food!
I have now weighed out my cereal to take to work and my lunch and it looks pitiful!!! At least I know it's accurate!!
Cereal was a disappointment to me. One serving is 45 grams. 45 grams of cereal is a dusting on the bottom of the bowl. MY servings used to be a good 4 or 5 of those 45 gram servings. Probably a good thing I didn't eat cereal that often.0 -
Nuts were another disappointing surprise ... as this site shows ...
http://www.thekitchn.com/a-visual-guide-to-100-calories-of-nuts-snack-tips-from-the-kitchn-201778
I like cashews, but 100 calories of cashews is 13 cashews. When I ate them, I was easily eating 400-500 calories worth in one sitting and even that doesn't seem like that much.6 -
I agree with @emmylootwo on the chips. Also on the opposite issue... I was leveling off my tablespoon of peanut butter for months. Then I decided to weight it one day and, WOW, all those months I was eating under 16g! That just isn't right in so many ways lol
Same. I use a food scale and I feel like it takes so much nut butter just to get to 32 grams! The portion size doesn't shock me at all; I think it's huge.
Same here for all the nut butters - I've never used a lot - but it's still quite a bit less than 2 tbsp!0 -
Cheese is another one, especially cheddar... why does it have to be so dense!?3
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Not all bad news... *occasionally* you will be pleasantly surprised. I'm eating my favorite grilled chicken & veggie pizza from Papa Johns today, and the weight of each slice is often substantially under the serving size weight. I've encountered a few other things like that as well.
That sounds really tasty.0 -
I just bought a digital scale over the weekend. I had been using an old school scale. I was kinda worried when I went to measure my peanut butter, I have two tablespoons of it mixed in with a protein brownie at night. I was only two grams under what I normally measure out. I've always weighed and measured my food, however I was using cups and tablespoons to measure when recipes called for it. It makes sense to me now that I've read it many times not to do that, and I won't anymore unless it's a liquid. It is a pain to convert all that to grams though. Thank goodness for Siri!
I'm also curious about why I should be weighing everything in grams instead of ounces (I'm now weighing in grams)0 -
wolfgirl78 wrote: »I'm also curious about why I should be weighing everything in grams instead of ounces (I'm now weighing in grams)
Because that's the unit of measure most of the world uses.
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I remember first weighing my food and shocked at how little I'd put on, but how large the number was!
I used to just pour my cereal into a bowl and guess what 50g looked like. Then I started weighing out the 50g instead, holy crap.
Really opens your eyes, doesn't it?1 -
wolfgirl78 wrote: »I just bought a digital scale over the weekend. I had been using an old school scale. I was kinda worried when I went to measure my peanut butter, I have two tablespoons of it mixed in with a protein brownie at night. I was only two grams under what I normally measure out. I've always weighed and measured my food, however I was using cups and tablespoons to measure when recipes called for it. It makes sense to me now that I've read it many times not to do that, and I won't anymore unless it's a liquid. It is a pain to convert all that to grams though. Thank goodness for Siri!
I'm also curious about why I should be weighing everything in grams instead of ounces (I'm now weighing in grams)
One ounce is just over twenty eight grams - so if you only measure to the nearest ounce you could have quite a large error. This is important for energy dense foods, say oil is ~9cals/gram, that's 252cal/ounce. If my scale is only measuring to the nearest ounce it could easily be almost half an ounce extra or 125cals that I didn't realise I was having. If you measure to tenths of an ounce then you still have a bigger error than for gram measurement.
For liquids (based on mass of water), 1ml = 1gram or 1litre = 1kg, they joys of the metric system :-)
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A portion of cereal is horrendously small! Couldn't believe it the first time I weighed it out.
Yes, cereal was my biggest eye-opener! omg... sheesh. No more cold cereal for breakfast! It doesn't hold me long anyway, and I'm starving my mid-morning. I still love my cold cereal so I've started eating it as an afternoon snack sometimes. I have a smaller bowl, my "snack bowl", and I put milk and fruit on it. So I figure it's a pretty good snack health-wise, it's a smaller portion of cereal than what I was eating every day, and I don't have to give up my favorite cold cereal.
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frannyupnorth wrote: »
For liquids (based on mass of water), 1ml = 1gram or 1litre = 1kg, they joys of the metric system :-)
For water, yes. But that's it. Other liquids will be heavier.2 -
I've lost 20 pounds in 2 months eyeballing it but I always knew portion sizes were tiny.
I have always assumed that if I had what I considered a reasonable amount, it must've been at least 2 servings worth...if I'm satisfied, 3.
I do my best to overestimate CI and underestimate CO but I'm never 100% sure. I imagine weighing everything out must be comforting...I'm just not that person.
Cudos to the rest of you though for making it work.3 -
I remember being most shocked with peanut butter, cereal, and ice cream. Veggies I was actually surprised I could eat a lot more than I thought! Same with lean chicken and turkey.0
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