You don't use a food scale?

quiksylver296

We have many new members who have been around for about three weeks now. And there are lots of posts saying "I've been doing this for three weeks and haven't lost any weight!" Many responses to those threads tell the member to use a food scale. This video illustrates why a food scale is such a powerful tool for most people's weight loss. (Although I wish it used peanut butter instead of oatmeal. )

https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk

If anyone has any other infographics or videos that are pro-food scale, add 'em!

pinuplove

Just wanted to let you know it's your fault I ate peanut butter yesterday 33 grams, weighed and spread over one slice of deliciously nutrient void (apparently, according to some people) plain white sandwich bread.

Also, bump back to Page 1.

shadow2soul

Another video that shows why weighing food is helpful:
https://youtu.be/vjKPIcI51lU

diannethegeek

This video too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

diannethegeek

This image is about plate sizes, but I think it demonstrates how bad our eyeballing can be sometimes:

Jeepfreak81

We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low

brendanwhite84

Anecdote: during my most recent slow (+250 kcal/day) bulk I got lazy and stopped weighing peanuts I ate daily at work, just eyeballing the portions. Based on my change in body composition and the speed of the bulk I would estimate I put on an extra 1-2 lbs of body fat due to having discontinued weighing for just that one (very calorie-dense) staple of my diet.

davepollack

I utilize a food scale for everything thats solid but it brings up another question. When it comes to liquids, do you all trust a liquid measuring cup? Since most liquids do not give weight but fl oz.

W8WarI

I also know that the popular consensus, here's to just measure liquids; however I weigh them as well because the thicker the liquid, the greater the surface tension {the amount the liquid's able to accumulate, above the measuring cup/spoon; without spilling over} & thus' plausibly many uncounted calories, depending upon the caloric density of a specific liquid; if not otherwise weighed!

Plus I also account, for "zero" calorie items because while it's unlikely to consume enough calories of 1 specific no calorie product, it's realistic that consuming enough servings of a variety of zero calorie items'll regularly put 1; over their caloric limit!

shandy82165

Jeepfreak81 wrote: »

We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low

You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.

quiksylver296

davepollack wrote: »

I utilize a food scale for everything thats solid but it brings up another question. When it comes to liquids, do you all trust a liquid measuring cup? Since most liquids do not give weight but fl oz.

I weigh liquids, personally. I know "they" say to use measuring cups for liquids, but it hasn't affected my weight loss at all and I'd rather not wash a measuring cup. So, I just put my coffee cup on the scale and weigh my creamer (or whatever). If my weight loss ever stalls, that is one thing I know I can tighten up on.

davepollack

quiksylver296 wrote: »

davepollack wrote: »

I utilize a food scale for everything thats solid but it brings up another question. When it comes to liquids, do you all trust a liquid measuring cup? Since most liquids do not give weight but fl oz.

I weigh liquids, personally. I know "they" say to use measuring cups for liquids, but it hasn't affected my weight loss at all and I'd rather not wash a measuring cup. So, I just put my coffee cup on the scale and weigh my creamer (or whatever). If my weight loss ever stalls, that is one thing I know I can tighten up on.

This may seem like a silly question but, if 1 tbsp (15 fl oz) is a serving of creamer, how much would it weigh? or how would you know. I know that 1 oz of water weighs 1oz of weight but other liquids have different densities. Thanks in advance.

aeloine

Very on topic today.

quiksylver296

davepollack wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

davepollack wrote: »

I utilize a food scale for everything thats solid but it brings up another question. When it comes to liquids, do you all trust a liquid measuring cup? Since most liquids do not give weight but fl oz.

I weigh liquids, personally. I know "they" say to use measuring cups for liquids, but it hasn't affected my weight loss at all and I'd rather not wash a measuring cup. So, I just put my coffee cup on the scale and weigh my creamer (or whatever). If my weight loss ever stalls, that is one thing I know I can tighten up on.

This may seem like a silly question but, if 1 tbsp (15 fl oz) is a serving of creamer, how much would it weigh? or how would you know. I know that 1 oz of water weighs 1oz of weight but other liquids have different densities. Thanks in advance.

My creamer says 15 ml, and my scale does ml. Also, when I toggle between grams and ml, it's always the same number so I just do grams.

tcunbeliever

1 T = 0.5 oz

assuming you have a scale with at least one decimal for ounces, you should be able to weigh that

If not, you would need to weigh a full ounce and then only use half, maybe?

diannethegeek

davepollack wrote: »

quiksylver296 wrote: »

davepollack wrote: »

I utilize a food scale for everything thats solid but it brings up another question. When it comes to liquids, do you all trust a liquid measuring cup? Since most liquids do not give weight but fl oz.

I weigh liquids, personally. I know "they" say to use measuring cups for liquids, but it hasn't affected my weight loss at all and I'd rather not wash a measuring cup. So, I just put my coffee cup on the scale and weigh my creamer (or whatever). If my weight loss ever stalls, that is one thing I know I can tighten up on.

This may seem like a silly question but, if 1 tbsp (15 fl oz) is a serving of creamer, how much would it weigh? or how would you know. I know that 1 oz of water weighs 1oz of weight but other liquids have different densities. Thanks in advance.

Not the person you're asking, but I use liquid creamer and I weigh it on the food scale. The first thing I did was measure out a serving with measuring spoons and drop it on the scale to see how close it was. For the creamer I use, it's close enough to water that 1 fl oz = 1 oz. I won't weigh all liquids this way since I know some won't have the same density as water, but for some common ones I test them out and see how they weigh just because I find the food scale so much easier for food prep.

quiksylver296

pinuplove wrote: »

Just wanted to let you know it's your fault I ate peanut butter yesterday 33 grams, weighed and spread over one slice of deliciously nutrient void (apparently, according to some people) plain white sandwich bread.

Also, bump back to Page 1.

You filthy eater, you! White bread! For shame!*






*total sarcasm

davepollack

Thank you all again for the info. Never thought about weighing liquids. Will need to start doing that.

dlhatch67

I weigh my calorie-dense foods and use measuring cups for my liquids. For example, today at bfast, I weighed my shredded wheat at 70g and my banana was 120g, but I measured one cup of milk. At lunch, I made a salad, but the only ingredients I actually weighed were the feta cheese and avocado. I can eyeball my cucumber, tomatoes, spinach, and kale. They don't add very many calories to my lunch. And even if I'm slightly off, it takes too much time to prepare the salad if I weigh them too.
Honestly, you can get carried away with all this weighing, and if you've been doing it for months, it will get tedious. If it becomes a fixation, there's a chance you won't enjoy eating out from time to time or sharing a meal at someone else's house.
Don't let it rule you.
If you do a reasonable job of logging your food (and weighing the high calorie stuff) and you don't eat back ALL your exercise calories, you probably won't need to worry about being a few grams off here and there. The only problem I can see is if you maximize your calorie allotment every day without weighing anything and you also overestimate your exercise.

Momepro

shandy82165 wrote: »

Jeepfreak81 wrote: »

We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low

You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.

On those, I generally figure if I eat them often enough it will probably average out, but if I don't, best to weigh.

diannethegeek

Since it comes up so often, if you're looking to buy a food scale you don't need anything fancy. A friend of mine bought hers on eBay for $8. Mine cost about $20, but I didn't shop around and just bought what I could at Target. You want a scale that has a tare button (they all should) and can switch between ounces and grams easily. If you're cooking big pots of food for a family or weekly batches, then the ability to weigh heavy loads will be nice (11 pounds is a common upper limit for food scales). Other than that, get the cheap one unless you have very specialized needs.

JeromeBarry1

When I began 2 years ago, I did not have a food scale.
When I began 2 years ago, I learned that using measuring cups was prone to getting more than the intended amount.
When I began 2 years ago, I decided that my vegetables would be a portion of 1/2 cup. Knowing that I'd be over-guessing if I used a 1/2 cup measure, I used a 1/3 cup measure.
When I got a scale 2 years ago, I measured how much beans were in a 1/3 cup measure.

Now when I want beans, I measure 78 grams.

fat_engineer

I use a food scale for every thing

yweight2020

Lesson learned going to do my best to measure everything on my scale

LivingtheLeanDream

Glad someone did a post about this, hopefully all the panicking newbies will read it.

quiksylver296

sexysizeme wrote: »

Lesson learned going to do my best to measure everything on my scale

Yay! Tell what what you find out. It’s always interesting to learn what happens.

FrankieFan1

I picked up a food scale last week and haven't thought to use it yet, thanks for the reminder!

lucerorojo

I have one but I hadn't been using it for everything. Today I weighed a banana (unpeeled) for the first time. This was an average size banana (definitely have eaten bigger and smaller ones) and it was 40 calories more (once I weighed it and took the USDA value) than the banana that is "medium" in the database. So for 6 months I've been using that "medium" and underestimating most of the time for a banana.

I also weighed a thick slice of bacon for the first time. (First time weighing my bacon at all). For thick slices I had been using the calorie equivalent of "2 slices" in the database. In the first place, I had no idea how big those slices were. I was just lazy. Sometimes I'd look on the package but the bacon I have this week has no information--it was fresh from a butcher. Anyway, ONE thick slice was 70 calories more than the "two slices" in the database. So had I not weighed the bacon and the banana today, I would have eaten 110 calories extra that I didn't realize. I'm weighing everything today!!

wizzybeth

shandy82165 wrote: »

Jeepfreak81 wrote: »

We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low

You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.

That happens to me with my favorite flatbread, Flatouts Lite. 90 calories a flatbread - but the weight for the flatbread is supposed to be 53g. Most of them are actually 59g. Now that does only translate to about a 10 calorie difference - when you are needing to be extremely careful with calories the closer you get to goal this could make a difference. I also noticed it with English muffins too.

I have not weighed frozen meals though I probably should. Right now I am losing on a regular, steady basis so I'm going to let that ride for now.

wizzybeth

diannethegeek wrote: »

Since it comes up so often, if you're looking to buy a food scale you don't need anything fancy. A friend of mine bought hers on eBay for $8. Mine cost about $20, but I didn't shop around and just bought what I could at Target. You want a scale that has a tare button (they all should) and can switch between ounces and grams easily. If you're cooking big pots of food for a family or weekly batches, then the ability to weigh heavy loads will be nice (11 pounds is a common upper limit for food scales). Other than that, get the cheap one unless you have very specialized needs.

I paid about $30 for the EatSmart scale on Amazon that has a weight limit of 15 lbs. I chose this one because it has a large platform and a very large, easy to read display - my other scale ($10 at Walmart) had a much smaller display .

pamfin

lucerorojo wrote: »

I have one but I hadn't been using it for everything. Today I weighed a banana (unpeeled) for the first time. This was an average size banana (definitely have eaten bigger and smaller ones) and it was 40 calories more (once I weighed it and took the USDA value) than the banana that is "medium" in the database. So for 6 months I've been using that "medium" and underestimating most of the time for a banana.

I also weighed a thick slice of bacon for the first time. (First time weighing my bacon at all). For thick slices I had been using the calorie equivalent of "2 slices" in the database. In the first place, I had no idea how big those slices were. I was just lazy. Sometimes I'd look on the package but the bacon I have this week has no information--it was fresh from a butcher. Anyway, ONE thick slice was 70 calories more than the "two slices" in the database. So had I not weighed the bacon and the banana today, I would have eaten 110 calories extra that I didn't realize. I'm weighing everything today!!

I can't bear those database entries that jus say '1 piece' or '1 slice' etc. That tells me nothing without a reference point of how big the piece or slice is. They're just useless really.