Measuring my cereal

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  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    fastingrabbit wrote: »
    Thank you for the example, grmckenzie. It confirms what people are saying about cereal and scales and so on.

    You're welcome. It was a huge eye opener for me.
  • jattardi
    jattardi Posts: 35 Member
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    Don't most cereals have a serving size with the according number of calories? I use a measuring bowl with the markings on the inside of the bowl. If I'm really hungry, but the serving size is 3/4 cup, I'll put in 1 1/2 cups and when I log it in MFP, just say I had 2 servings.
  • fastingrabbit
    fastingrabbit Posts: 90 Member
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    On this box, under "Nutrition Facts" it says just "Per 60 g" so I need to know how many grams I ate.

    And I just purchased a scale! I bought it on Amazon.ca: "Smart Weigh GLS20 Digital Glass Top Kitchen Scale."
    I got it in white.
  • texasleahgirl
    texasleahgirl Posts: 96 Member
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    And once you start baking using a food scale you will never go back to measuring cups and spoons again. So much easier using the tare function on your scale and throwing everything in the mixing bowl altogether at one time, less mess!
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    jattardi wrote: »
    Don't most cereals have a serving size with the according number of calories? I use a measuring bowl with the markings on the inside of the bowl. If I'm really hungry, but the serving size is 3/4 cup, I'll put in 1 1/2 cups and when I log it in MFP, just say I had 2 servings.

    May want to read the rest of the thread... measuring cereal by the cup is highly unreliable.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    jattardi wrote: »
    Don't most cereals have a serving size with the according number of calories? I use a measuring bowl with the markings on the inside of the bowl. If I'm really hungry, but the serving size is 3/4 cup, I'll put in 1 1/2 cups and when I log it in MFP, just say I had 2 servings.

    The point of my post is that 2/3rds of a cup is not 45 grams (more like 65g) and the calories are based on the grams, not the # of cups. So, in my case, going by cups I was eating 50% more calories then I thought. There seems to be a lot more leeway on the packaging with cups compared to grams.

    In contrast, Cheerios was correct in that the serving size in cups was what I weighed in grams.
  • sneezy576
    sneezy576 Posts: 3 Member
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    So what does everyone eat for breakfast or lunch? This is making me wonder what else I log wrong. Breakfast and lunch I am at work and I don't want to eat the same thing every day!
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    sneezy576 wrote: »
    So what does everyone eat for breakfast or lunch? This is making me wonder what else I log wrong. Breakfast and lunch I am at work and I don't want to eat the same thing every day!

    I'm the opposite. Breakfast is oatmeal and skim milk. 5 days a week. Weekends I mix it up.
    Lunch is 1/2 an individual lasagna from Costco (I found a whole one too much), a cup of baby carrots, a cup of snap peas and a banana. 4 times a week with Sushi 1 day. Half the time on weekends I skip lunch. Breakfast has been a bit bigger and later so I'm not hungry at lunch.

    Dinner for me is all over the map. My wife cooks dinner most nights and I eat what she makes. Just less than I used to.
  • daviddaw9948
    daviddaw9948 Posts: 11 Member
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    Top tip - buy a scale that uses the same compact 9V battery as a smoke alarm. Most use those tiny, flat batteries that cost a fortune to replace and last about 5 minutes.
  • Hearts_2015
    Hearts_2015 Posts: 12,031 Member
    edited November 2016
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    too late to the party! Glad to hear you got yourself a scale OP :smiley:
  • mamadon
    mamadon Posts: 1,422 Member
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    I used to be a big cereal and toast eater, but it's just not worth the calories for the little amount you get. Now I can eat eggs, toast and turkey bacon for the same or less calories. I do sometimes miss my giant bowl of cereal though, I mean who eats one serving???
  • neldabg
    neldabg Posts: 1,452 Member
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    daviddaw9948 wrote: »
    Top tip - buy a scale that uses the same compact 9V battery as a smoke alarm. Most use those tiny, flat batteries that cost a fortune to replace and last about 5 minutes.

    If by "tiny, flat batteries" you mean CR3032 batteries, those are SUPER cheap on Ebay and last a decent amount of time. Pro tip: When stuff is expensive in-stores, head over to the internet.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
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    mamadon wrote: »
    I used to be a big cereal and toast eater, but it's just not worth the calories for the little amount you get. Now I can eat eggs, toast and turkey bacon for the same or less calories. I do sometimes miss my giant bowl of cereal though, I mean who eats one serving???

    Lol! That's the thing... if I'm going to have a bowl of cereal, I want a *giant* bowl of cereal! Hard to believe we used to eat our giant bowls every day without batting an eye. :/
  • fastingrabbit
    fastingrabbit Posts: 90 Member
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    I've been using my scale!

    I think MFP would be close to impossible without it -- I didn't realize how essential it was. It's kind of fun, isn't it? Maybe the novelty will wear off, but for now, it's rather amusing.

    Tonight I added pasta, tared it and then added the cheese on top, so that I could enter both parts. It definitely slows down the entire eating process, however, and as a beginner, slows life down too, as I search for the foods that I'm eating. At one point, I tried writing down the weights until I had a chance to enter them, but that didn't work, because I didn't know where I was in terms of my calorie budget. and by the end of the day, the thought of painstakingly entering every item seemed overwhelming. I suppose you get faster at this as you go.

    Now I try to enter the data before I eat or else while I'm eating.

    The two biggest obstacles that I've run into are homemade meals, where I just try to approximate based on what other people have figured out, and eating out. Eating out is hard because I don't know how much the food weighs, and what's really in it.

    (I think it would be funny to ask the waiter -- I almost typed 'weighter' -- to bring me an empty plate. Would it look strange for me to whip out my scale and my calculator?)

    I am really loving the scale for cooking, as TexasLeahGirl said. It makes things so much easier and more entertaining.

    (And sorry for not responding when someone wondered aloud if "OP" got a scale. I didn't realize what OP stood for -- didn't know it was me!)

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