Help! I am so confused about measuring...

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KeithWhiteJr
KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Last night when putting my lunch together, I got out my scale and measured everything, as I do every night. Today at work, someone asked about my salad dressing and pizza sauce. I mentioned my scale and he said that I cant get accurate measurements of salad dressing and sauce with my scale because those are fluid ounces and not regular ounces. Is that true? Is 1 oz of Italian dressing on my scale not the same as 1 fl oz of dressing? Which is more and am I eating more calories than I thought?
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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,897 Member
    edited May 2017
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    While fluid ounces are different than regular ounces, and which is more will depend on the particular food, assuming you're in the US, salad dressing and pizza sauce should have grams on the label. You do indeed measure grams (or solid ounces) on your scale. My salad dressing is 2T / 30 g = 150 calories.

    While I might use a measuring cup and fluid ounces for a thin liquid like milk using fluid ounces, I weigh thick fluids like salad dressing and sauces.
  • ValeriePlz
    ValeriePlz Posts: 517 Member
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    Fluid ounce is a measure of volume. Ounces and grams are measurements of weight / mass. One fluid ounce will weigh differently depending on how heavy / thick the liquid is.
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
    edited May 2017
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    While fluid ounces are different than regular ounces, and which is more will depend on the particular food, assuming you're in the US, salad dressing and pizza sauce should have grams on the label. You do indeed measure grams (or solid ounces) on your scale. My salad dressing is 2T / 30 g = 150 calories.

    While I might use a measuring cup and fluid ounces for a thin liquid like milk using fluid ounces, I weigh thick fluids like salad dressing and sauces.



    I am in the US, but, neither of them lists grams, which is why I used ounces.
  • YvetteK2015
    YvetteK2015 Posts: 653 Member
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    KeithWhiteJr wrote: »
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    While fluid ounces are different than regular ounces, and which is more will depend on the particular food, assuming you're in the US, salad dressing and pizza sauce should have grams on the label. You do indeed measure grams (or solid ounces) on your scale. My salad dressing is 2T / 30 g = 150 calories.

    While I might use a measuring cup and fluid ounces for a thin liquid like milk using fluid ounces, I weigh thick fluids like salad dressing and sauces.



    I am in the US, but, neither of them lists grams, which is why I used ounces.

    You can get cheap food scales that will measure: grams, fl.oz, oz, and ml. I make sure all my scales have those measurements.
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    Use a measuring spoon for liquids and your scale (in grams) for solids.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
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    Do you mean the scale does not use ounces, or the food label does not? Most US food labels list grams where 28 grams is approx 1 ounce.

    1 ounce fluid volume is not necessarily the same as 1 ounce by weight. It depends on the liquid. If the label lists milileters then use a spoon, and see how many grams it comes out to. It will probably not be far off 1 tbs = 15 ml. But some liquids are more dense, such as oils I believe.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    I'm looking at my bottle of Newman's Own Lite Italian...serving size 2 Tbsp (30g)...so if I weigh it out, I weigh out 30g.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
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    I think more to the point is why people feel the need to question your sauces and dressings. I'm sure your measurements/calculations are close enough. It will be within a few calories.

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    I checked all the sauces and dressings in my fridge and they all list grams. Personally, if a liquid doesn't list grams, I would measure it by measuring cup or spoon, because a fluid oz is NOT the same as a weighed oz. Although as long as your not using a ton of it, I doubt the calorie difference would be much at all.

    Having said that, I would tell your coworker to get his face out of your salad :wink:
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
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    StaciMarie1974 wrote: »
    Do you mean the scale does not use ounces, or the food label does not? Most US food labels list grams where 28 grams is approx 1 ounce.

    1 ounce fluid volume is not necessarily the same as 1 ounce by weight. It depends on the liquid. If the label lists milileters then use a spoon, and see how many grams it comes out to. It will probably not be far off 1 tbs = 15 ml. But some liquids are more dense, such as oils I believe.


    I have had 2 scales and neither of them had fluid ounces. I had no idea it wasnt the same lol
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm looking at my bottle of Newman's Own Lite Italian...serving size 2 Tbsp (30g)...so if I weigh it out, I weigh out 30g.


    It seems that I bought the only salad dressing on earth without grams on the label. :p
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
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    cmriverside wrote: »
    I think more to the point is why people feel the need to question your sauces and dressings. I'm sure your measurements/calculations are close enough. It will be within a few calories.


    Having lost 138 lbs, people ask me A LOT of questions lol. But I dont mind. Everyone at work has been very supportive.
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    I checked all the sauces and dressings in my fridge and they all list grams. Personally, if a liquid doesn't list grams, I would measure it by measuring cup or spoon, because a fluid oz is NOT the same as a weighed oz. Although as long as your not using a ton of it, I doubt the calorie difference would be much at all.

    Having said that, I would tell your coworker to get his face out of your salad :wink:

    Now I know for next time. I feel like a goof for not realizing!! :s
  • YvetteK2015
    YvetteK2015 Posts: 653 Member
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    I measure by what is stated on the back of the label. My lactaid milk gives calories according to ml, my coffee creamer by tbs and g...so I put my coffee cup on the scale and measure ml and g. Anything like a dressing or sauce is usually broken down by gram...so I go by gram.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,945 Member
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    KeithWhiteJr wrote: »
    cmriverside wrote: »
    I think more to the point is why people feel the need to question your sauces and dressings. I'm sure your measurements/calculations are close enough. It will be within a few calories.


    Having lost 138 lbs, people ask me A LOT of questions lol. But I dont mind. Everyone at work has been very supportive.

    well then - even more reason to just say, "2 TBL is a serving." That's what I used. ::shrug::
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm looking at my bottle of Newman's Own Lite Italian...serving size 2 Tbsp (30g)...so if I weigh it out, I weigh out 30g.

    all of my dressings have the same type of labeling.

    i dont find it hard at all ..... lol
  • KeithWhiteJr
    KeithWhiteJr Posts: 233 Member
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    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm looking at my bottle of Newman's Own Lite Italian...serving size 2 Tbsp (30g)...so if I weigh it out, I weigh out 30g.

    all of my dressings have the same type of labeling.

    i dont find it hard at all ..... lol



    It was only "hard" because I didn't realize fluid ounces and regular ounces were different.
  • vivelajackie
    vivelajackie Posts: 321 Member
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    With dressing, it offers a serving size in grams, which is easy on kitchen scales to correctly weigh. I'm actually thinking the majority of food things have a gram option, including your pizza sauce. If you want to go the ounce route, many scales will weigh in fluid ounces as well.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited May 2017
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    vivelajackie wrote: »
    With dressing, it offers a serving size in grams, which is easy on kitchen scales to correctly weigh. I'm actually thinking the majority of food things have a gram option, including your pizza sauce. If you want to go the ounce route, many scales will weigh in fluid ounces as well.

    They don't actually do that except for water and liquids with the density of water. Fluid ounces and ml are both measurements of volume rather than weight. If you "weigh" something in ml, all that happens is that the scale weighs it in grams and then gives that numerical value for ml. The instructions that come with the scale probably specify that the fl oz and ml measurements are only valid for water and liquids with a density close to water.

    For the sake of convenience, I do weight many liquids in small amounts. However, I keep in mind that the measurement is pretty close rather than accurate.
  • heiliskrimsli
    heiliskrimsli Posts: 735 Member
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    kimny72 wrote: »
    I checked all the sauces and dressings in my fridge and they all list grams. Personally, if a liquid doesn't list grams, I would measure it by measuring cup or spoon, because a fluid oz is NOT the same as a weighed oz. Although as long as your not using a ton of it, I doubt the calorie difference would be much at all.

    Having said that, I would tell your coworker to get his face out of your salad :wink:

    I have "mini measure" marked shot glasses that have mL, teaspoon, tablespoon and fluid ounce for this reason. Makes it easy to put 30 mL of milk in the iced coffee.

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