weighing food

angelahammon
angelahammon Posts: 114 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I have tried in the past to loose wight using MFP and weighed every grain of food and regularly exercised and it really did work , i got relaxed and weighed my food less and the weight is piling back on, this morning i weighed how much i would normally have for my breakfast cereal and it was double what i thought , iv been guessing how much my food weighs and yep that is one reason why I'm putting weight on , so my advice is really weigh your food, it really is easy to think how much your food weighs but in reality its not!!

Replies

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    Portion size creep really is a thing! Well done for stepping in. I've stopped weighing my food, however I do a few weighing food days every now and then to see that my estimates are still ok. Plus I step on the scales every morning for a long-term trend.
  • hamlet1222
    hamlet1222 Posts: 459 Member
    It is a pain weighing everything all the time. My advice is to weigh things just one day a week, and use your own judgment the other days. The weekly 'weighing' day will catch any portion creep before it becomes a problem.

    Some other rules of thumb I've read about are a portion not being more than a handful, also looking at the meal and thinking if you couldn't eat the same again in two hours then it's too much
  • cosmonew
    cosmonew Posts: 513 Member
    I find weighing is easier than using measuring cups. I have a scale with a TARE feature that zeros out the bowl you use. works great.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    hamlet1222 wrote: »
    It is a pain weighing everything all the time. My advice is to weigh things just one day a week, and use your own judgment the other days. The weekly 'weighing' day will catch any portion creep before it becomes a problem.

    Some other rules of thumb I've read about are a portion not being more than a handful, also looking at the meal and thinking if you couldn't eat the same again in two hours then it's too much

    I've never found weighing foods to be a pain. And since I'm awful at eyeballing portions anyway, I'll stick to it every day.
  • evesmom2
    evesmom2 Posts: 231 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    hamlet1222 wrote: »
    It is a pain weighing everything all the time. My advice is to weigh things just one day a week, and use your own judgment the other days. The weekly 'weighing' day will catch any portion creep before it becomes a problem.

    Some other rules of thumb I've read about are a portion not being more than a handful, also looking at the meal and thinking if you couldn't eat the same again in two hours then it's too much

    I've never found weighing foods to be a pain. And since I'm awful at eyeballing portions anyway, I'll stick to it every day.

    I weigh everything too....I don't trust myself eyeballing any portions
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
    I'm fairly good at eyeballing but find it makes me less anxious if I just weigh it. I hate guessing. I'll probably be doing this forever lol!
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    If there were to be a time I relaxed on weighing foods, it would only be for low calorie foods like my salads. Every day I make a salad and it's amazing how similar the portion sizes are so I know I could easily guess that. I wouldn't guess higher calorie foods.
  • Vegplotter
    Vegplotter Posts: 265 Member
    I think weigh yourself every day is probably the best tip for maintenance. Then get to know what a 100cal portion of your favourite high fat foods looks like (and weighs). I also weigh 5g butter every so often to make sure that isn't creeping up.
    I've put my husband onto portion counting (he'd never do calories) and he's taken to it like a duck to water. But it's my home made system, where everything relates back to food groups as well as calories. This means if Mike has a sandwich at the museum or a pizza out with his chums he can simply circle the correct number of 100 calorie dots.
  • srecupid
    srecupid Posts: 660 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    hamlet1222 wrote: »
    It is a pain weighing everything all the time. My advice is to weigh things just one day a week, and use your own judgment the other days. The weekly 'weighing' day will catch any portion creep before it becomes a problem.

    Some other rules of thumb I've read about are a portion not being more than a handful, also looking at the meal and thinking if you couldn't eat the same again in two hours then it's too much

    I've never found weighing foods to be a pain. And since I'm awful at eyeballing portions anyway, I'll stick to it every day.

    It's not a pain at all for things going in a bowl already like cereal. It's just a matter of turning on the scale with the bowl already on top. Sane with a lot of other stuff like chips. If I don't portion out chips I'll eat the entire bag. It takes like 5 seconds to put a bowl on the scale and toss a handful in and record the number. It's worth doing for peace of mind and sometimes you get to eat more which is great
  • Queenmunchy
    Queenmunchy Posts: 3,380 Member
    I batch cook and freeze portions so I have everything logged into MFP and just choose that meal when I eat it. For other things, like salads or whatever I don't have a problem using a kitchen scale. It's been over 10 years and I still use mine for just about everything.
  • strongerbytheday
    strongerbytheday Posts: 116 Member
    My kitchen scale is one of my favorite, easy to use tools!

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