Food Scale Question

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deniseamerson05
deniseamerson05 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've seen so many posts about weighing foods and going by the grams, which I totally get. But, a lot of times when I look up a food (with a green check, of course) I don't see an option with grams.
For instance, I looked up jumbo eggs and the option I got was cups, fluid ounces and millilitres.
Fluid ounce is going to be different from solid food, correct?
What am I missing?
Also, I do have a food scale, although it's not digital. I'm ready to update mine, but want to make sure I know what I'm doing first - thanks!

Replies

  • Fitnessgirl0913
    Fitnessgirl0913 Posts: 481 Member
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    I have this exact same question! I also wanted to ask do you also use a food scale to measure out items like plain yogurt and peanut butter or are measuring cups and spoons sufficient for that?

    Sorry I don't have an answer I am just curious what people have to say! :)
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
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    It can be frustrating. Especially when google leads to and MFP entry that didn't come up in your search. There are some USDA databases that are good (don't have a link handy), otherwise I just google things to get the best estimate.

    On the scale, the digital ones are nice as you can put you plate on it, zero it, add chicken, record the number, zero it add rice, record the number zero it etc. Just make sure the one you get has a decent capacity, a tare function and you can read the weight with a plate sitting on it.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    deniseamerson05 wrote: »
    I've seen so many posts about weighing foods and going by the grams, which I totally get. But, a lot of times when I look up a food (with a green check, of course) I don't see an option with grams.
    For instance, I looked up jumbo eggs and the option I got was cups, fluid ounces and millilitres.
    Fluid ounce is going to be different from solid food, correct?
    What am I missing?
    Also, I do have a food scale, although it's not digital. I'm ready to update mine, but want to make sure I know what I'm doing first - thanks!

    Eggs are in the database with a number of measurement options?
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,598 Member
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    There are fluid ounces and there are weight ounces. You can usually press a button on your scale to switch between metric and imperial measurements. Many things are entered in the database multiple times, look for one that has the measurement options you need, provided it is accurate (check USDA database if unsure).
  • Meelisv
    Meelisv Posts: 235 Member
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    I eat eggs often, as an European I measure everything in grams. There are plenty of egg entries in database which have grams. An egg is an egg, doesn't matter if it's "jumbo" or "small" this is exactly where actual weight matters.

    Also, when buying a new digital scale, pick one which has 1 gram accuracy, some have accuracy steps of 5 grams.

    Always weigh very high calorie foods like peanut butter or oil as precisely as possible.
  • VeronicaA76
    VeronicaA76 Posts: 1,116 Member
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    livingleanlivingclean wrote: »
    Fitnessgirl0913 wrote: »
    I have this exact same question! I also wanted to ask do you also use a food scale to measure out items like plain yogurt and peanut butter or are measuring cups and spoons sufficient for that?

    Sorry I don't have an answer I am just curious what people have to say! :)

    Peanut butter is probably one of the most eye-opening things to weigh vs measure. It's solid.... Weigh it! To make it easy, put the jar on the scale, tare it, take out the grams you want - it will show as a negative number. Whatever is left on the knife/spoon once you have spread or mixed it is yours as you've accounted for every calorie :p

    Same for yoghurt - weigh it out of the container into your bowl.

    OP, there are usually many entries - find one or make one with a gram option.

    I weigh peanut butter by taring the spoon, then weighing the peanut butter on the spoon. One tablespoon of PB is approximately 16g (depending on consistency)
  • beaglady
    beaglady Posts: 1,362 Member
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    Here in the US, the USDA sets the required weight per dozen for eggs within a given size classification, such as Jumbo, Large, etc.

    Jumbo eggs weigh a maximum of 30 oz. per dozen, and a minimum of 29 oz. That means that the expected variation between weights of specific eggs in a dozen is 1/12 oz, which is less than 3 grams. The listed calories for a jumbo egg are 90, and based on the required weight, a jumbo egg, including shell, weighs between 68.7 and 70 grams. Even though I'm a fan of accurate measurements in general, a few grams difference in the weight of an egg would be a difference of 5 or less calories. Not something I'm going to concern myself with.

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