Ordered a food scale

celiah909

I ordered a food scale off Amazon. I swear it’s weird but I feel kinda nervous. I’m sure I’m underestimating calories/weight so it’ll be good to see what a serving actually looks like.

I’m most curious about weighing things I make- I prepare 99% of our dinners so I’m guessing you weigh each part out? How then do you know what’s a serving? Like if you make a big pot of soup, how do you decide how many servings are in there? Or determine how many grams it all is? Clearly I’m confusing myself

Archcurl

I recommend you look through the stickies. They contain a bault of information you are asking about

KateTii

I don't have to cook for a family, but I prepare big meals and then break down into portions. I use the recipe builder and add everything and then weigh the whole result as the number of servings.

So if I make a chicken bake, i'll weigh the dish it's cooked in (eg. 800g) and then weigh the total dish once cooked (800g + weight of food = 1800g) so I will then log it as 1000 servings of 1g. Then I can plate up what I want and see how much it is.

Poisonedpawn78

celiah909 wrote: »

I ordered a food scale off Amazon. I swear it’s weird but I feel kinda nervous. I’m sure I’m underestimating calories/weight so it’ll be good to see what a serving actually looks like.

I’m most curious about weighing things I make- I prepare 99% of our dinners so I’m guessing you weigh each part out? How then do you know what’s a serving? Like if you make a big pot of soup, how do you decide how many servings are in there? Or determine how many grams it all is? Clearly I’m confusing myself

You can choose yourself, Either you split it up based on calories (meal is 2000 total and 4 people are eating it, 500 calories each so 1 portion is 1/4 the total weight) or you can do the reverse and portion it out by weight/amount first then see the calories.

Either way if you input it into the recipe builder the math will be done for you if you know how many servings you want to use out of the recipe you built. The bonus is that once you have the recipe saved, you can always just pick that recipe and log the weight of your future portions even if they change.

celiah909

Archcurl wrote: »

I recommend you look through the stickies. They contain a bault of information you are asking about

Oh perfect! Will do- thanks

celiah909

Awesome- thanks everyone

Sunna_W

Like the poster stated above -- at first it is tedious until you build your favorites and recipe index. I also look for recipes on line that are similar to what I am making and import them - makes it a little easier. Once you import it you can change the qty and the item to suit your own meal / recipe.

Also, as a short cut, weigh the things that matter the most (calorie wise) like meat, cheese, fruit, carbs.

I also found that I could decrease the amount of rice and pasta as a side dish if I used only half and incorporated it into the recipe (after cooking it per directions). For example, I used to make a pot of spaghetti sauce and a whole box of pasta and then I would dole out the pasta and pour on the sauce. Now, I cook half the pasta (four servings) and then incorporate it into the sauce and let it sit for about 30 minutes. It swells with the sauce, it's not mushy, and I just eyeball 1/4 as a serving... That seems to work pretty well... you can do the same with rice for stir-frys...

Good luck on your journey!

sugaraddict4321

A lot of good advice re: recipes.

Also note that you can save "meals" in your diary. This can be handy if you eat similar things but maybe not always the same portions. You log all the items individually and then save as a meal.

Example: We like to eat a casserole with chicken, chorizo, peppers, onions, tomatoes and pasta. We use what we have on hand, so it's not always the same amounts each time. I have this saved as a meal instead of a recipe. That way I can copy the meal to my diary, and edit the proportions of each ingredient as needed.

That might be a bit neurotic for some, and probably the calorie difference isn't that dramatic, but just to let you know there's more than one way to track things you eat regularly.