Weighing food vs measuring food...

amyoung78

Hi everyone.
I was just wondering how everyone gets their serving sizes.
Do you all use measuring cups / spoons or do you use food scales?
I am big on using measuring utensils but also have a food scale and considering busting that out and start using it.
Any thoughts on this?

queenliz99

It is more accurate to use a food scale.

festerw

Weighing everything you can will give you the most accurate calorie count.

KetoneKaren

weigh. I even weigh fats (oils) rather than use spoons.

RoxieDawn

You have one and do not use it yet with MFP?

zyxst

Scale for solids, liquid cups and spoons for fluids (unless there's a weight given for said fluid, then I weigh it).

PixelPuff

Weighing. When packages say '1 cup', it also has a weight listed usually, like 113g, etc.

musicfan68

You haven't read many threads yet, have you?

kgirlhart

The food scale is much more accurate. I only use spoons and cups for liquids.

fr33sia12

I'm in the UK so we don't use cups for measuring (not until everyone went American) so I've always used food scales even for liquids.

AnnPT77

Not only is weighing food more accurate, once you learn the tricks, it's also easier and quicker than measuring, and requires less washing up!

Here's how:

• Assembling a salad in a bowl, a stew in a pan, sandwich on a plate? Put the bowl/pan/plate on the scale, zero, add an ingredient, note the weight, zero, add the next ingredient, note the weight . . . .
• Using something from a carton or jar, or cutting a slice from a hunk of cheese? Put the container or chunk on the scale, zero, take out portion, note the negative value (it's the amount you took out).
• Eating a whole apple, banana, unhulled strawberries, corn on the cob? Weigh the ready-to-eat food, eat the yummy parts, weigh the core/hulls/peel, subtract & note.
• I like to keep a few clean plastic yogurt-tub lids around to weigh small items, like a handful of nuts or chopped hardboiled eggs or something. Drop the lid on the scale, zero, add item, note weight, eat or use - just a quick rinse of the lid under the faucet & you're done.

Give yourself a few days to make it routine, then you'll find it takes nearly no time at all. Plus no measuring spoons/cups to scrape out, or wash, except when you need to measure liquids . . . and you can weigh some of them, too.

Alluminati

Weigh solids and measure liquids.

mkakids

Watch this:

https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk

srecupid

I use a food scale if anything it's one less thing to wash because I can just use the same bowl as I'm going to eat out of

Wynterbourne

Weigh.

Neanbean13

Yesss weight. Diff measurements in diff countries

savithny

Once you learn the "tare as you go" method (described above; zero the scale before each ingredient addition), the scale is SO MUCH EASIER.

Protip: Find some UK recipes that give all amounts by weight, and just cook with the scale. It's quick and more accurate!

Francl27

Food scale is more accurate, easier to use, and less dishes. I can't even imagine why anyone would use measuring cups.

diannethegeek

I find my food scale easier, faster, and I have fewer dishes to wash at the end of the day. Plus, who doesn't want to feel like a mad scientist in the morning?

CasperNaegle

scale everywhere I can!

BiggDaddy58

I don't weigh much of my food at all..it depends on where you're at in your journey I suppose.

I had the "advantage" (if you can call being morbidly obese an advantage) of weighing 308# , so weight would come off, if I simply cut down on calorie intake and increased the calories burned.

I have done that..today is day 153/ exactly 5 months into my lifestyle change. I weigh the few foods I have to..chicken breast, steaks, fried potatoes..but other than that..

I don't weigh any food. I have a nice scale..just not that big of a need. (Again..it all depends on where you are at in your journey and your goals)

I have dropped 71 pounds in 5 months. My weigh in was today. I use whatever the package says the calories are. I look up my fruit online..I use those calories.

I try and overestimate calories if I am not sure..and I try and underestimate the calories burned. I lift light weights in the morning and afternoon...two sets each/ of five different exercises. I don't log any of those calories as calories burned.

IMO..this is simply a tool. Make it too complicated and ..well..losing weight is hard enough.

A food scale , I am sure is far more accurate. I just don't find it necessary.

YMMV

Need2Exerc1se

I eyeball it. But I've been cooking for a long time so my eyeballs are pretty accurate.

Need2Exerc1se

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Weigh.

LOL Agree it might be a good idea to weigh if you can't see that one of those cups is not full.

lacherylnash

I was just recently in wal greens, they have the perfect soultion, they have a set of looks like tupperware it is colored coded, and I think it was neat, cause it will ensure you have all the colors on one plate, I am going to get mines today... because I have gained back all 14 pounds that I lost so I am doing something way wrong..

Ready2Rock206

If you want accuracy and less mess then use the scale. If you like lots of dishes and a rough estimating of what you're eating then use the measuring cups.

bemyyfriend0918

Yea definitely use the scale for stricter accuracy. It took some getting used to, but now I even weigh peanut butter instead of taking out two tablespoons...you'd be surprised at the difference

b3achy

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Weigh.

I have long been bothered by this example of why to use a food scale, and I think I've finally figured out why it bugs me so much. We all know and, I think, can agree that the package labeling can be suspect and 'off', but how do we know for sure which part of the labeling/packaging is wrong?

Everyone seems to want to assume that the grams is correct, and the measure of 1 cup on the label is somehow wrong...but at the risk of heresy, who's to say the cup measurement isn't right and the grams is what is wrong on the labeling? Maybe the 56 grams is actually much less than 200 calories, and it should be labeled 81 grams to equal 200 calories instead? Anyway, that is probably a better topic discussed in the debate forums rather than hijacking this thread, but I feel like it needs to be put out there as food for thought. The challenge is we really don't know which one is correct in this case, and which one is going to be the bad measure of the food for the product label.

Also, not all packaging is so far off as this example...I've been having a fun experiment measuring stuff on my scale, and I find that thus far, most of my prepackaged food is weighing less than the single serving size rather than more. I did find one item out of about 5 single serving items weighed thus far where the package serving was more. In all cases, the single serving package was 'off', but in most cases it was in my favor of I'm overestimating my calories by going with a serving size which would create a larger deficit than what I'm logging. Maybe I'm just lucky. Does that mean you blindly trust all the packaging? No! It is a good habit to weigh everything, but it's just not as dire as some of these outlier examples that get posted.

I have to agree with the consensus that once you start using a scale, it does make some measurements easier, and I tend toward using the scale more regularly now. But I still don't buy into the general attitude that I have seen here that measuring cups and spoons are so bad (of course, you have to how use them properly, and what to use them for). Are some things better measured by weight? Of course. But measuring cups and spoons have their place in the kitchen as valid measures of appropriate food (else, we might as well throw out all our recipes that use them).

cwolfman13

I use either/or depending on the particular food item.

Francl27

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Weigh.

LOL Agree it might be a good idea to weigh if you can't see that one of those cups is not full.

Yeah but... that one cup is 289 calories. Cooked pasta is supposedly 200 calories a cup... hence why eyeballing doesn't cut it.

Wynterbourne

b3achy wrote: »

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Weigh.

I have long been bothered by this example of why to use a food scale, and I think I've finally figured out why it bugs me so much. We all know and, I think, can agree that the package labeling can be suspect and 'off', but how do we know for sure which part of the labeling/packaging is wrong?

Everyone seems to want to assume that the grams is correct, and the measure of 1 cup on the label is somehow wrong...but at the risk of heresy, who's to say the cup measurement isn't right and the grams is what is wrong on the labeling? Maybe the 56 grams is actually much less than 200 calories, and it should be labeled 81 grams to equal 200 calories instead? Anyway, that is probably a better topic discussed in the debate forums rather than hijacking this thread, but I feel like it needs to be put out there as food for thought. The challenge is we really don't know which one is correct in this case, and which one is going to be the bad measure of the food for the product label.

Also, not all packaging is so far off as this example...I've been having a fun experiment measuring stuff on my scale, and I find that thus far, most of my prepackaged food is weighing less than the single serving size rather than more. I did find one item out of about 5 single serving items weighed thus far where the package serving was more. In all cases, the single serving package was 'off', but in most cases it was in my favor of I'm overestimating my calories by going with a serving size which would create a larger deficit than what I'm logging. Maybe I'm just lucky. Does that mean you blindly trust all the packaging? No! It is a good habit to weigh everything, but it's just not as dire as some of these outlier examples that get posted.

I have to agree with the consensus that once you start using a scale, it does make some measurements easier, and I tend toward using the scale more regularly now. But I still don't buy into the general attitude that I have seen here that measuring cups and spoons are so bad (of course, you have to how use them properly, and what to use them for). Are some things better measured by weight? Of course. But measuring cups and spoons have their place in the kitchen as valid measures of appropriate food (else, we might as well throw out all our recipes that use them).

Because weight is always the same. 56g (in this example) is always 56g. Nothing will change that. It is consistent and immutable. However, I can rearrange, shake, crush, using smaller pieces, etc of those noodles (or other item) and get them to "fill" the cup. I can make a dozen different volumes of the same exact item appear to equal one cup. There is no consistency. That's why weight is the measurement you assume is correct.

Wynterbourne

Francl27 wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

Wynterbourne wrote: »

Weigh.

LOL Agree it might be a good idea to weigh if you can't see that one of those cups is not full.

Yeah but... that one cup is 289 calories. Cooked pasta is supposedly 200 calories a cup... hence why eyeballing doesn't cut it.

That measurement on the package of noodles say 1cup (56g) dry equals 200 calories. That's not for cooked. And both those images contain dry pasta. If one measurement was supposed to be cooked and one dry it would indicate that on the package. I've seen it once or twice.