Weighing food- were to start?

ABHY7

Hi all, looking for advise on weighing foods. Just starting this so few q's like;
Do you weigh everything raw or cooked?
Do you weigh everything? Including butter on bread for e.g.?
Do you weigh in grams?
I'm following a plan to decrease my carb intake, 1st week deficit 350kcal, week 2 100kcal and so on until week 5. Plan is for weight loss.
By weighing food, does this mean my eating out days are over? Plan, prep repeat?
Thanks in advance

janejellyroll

I weigh everything raw.

When I'm shooting for a deficit, I do weigh everything solid. Higher calorie things like butter, I always weigh.

I usually weigh in grams.

I am accurate as possible with the food I prepare myself so that I have "wiggle room" for rougher estimates when I'm eating out or having food others have prepared for me. It works for me.

cmriverside

Some people weigh everything, some only weigh some things...I always weigh in grams, and I weigh things raw and use "raw" database food entries.

I still eat one or two meals per week out. Those meals are guesses. It all works out.

malibu927

I always weigh raw/uncooked. If there's an item that is easier to weigh cooked, just make sure you choose an entry for cooked in the database
Nearly everything. Butter is a yes because it's calorie dense. Many choose not to weigh green veggies because they're low calorie so being off on them isn't going to break anything
Grams is more precise, but ounces is fine
And I still eat out, just not as much as before

cmriverside

I would say, weigh butter - it's really calorie dense, and easy to use a lot more than you think. When I was losing weight, just about the only things I didn't weigh were onion, cucumber, lettuce, garlic, tomato, cabbage, celery...things that are either very low cal or that I used small portions.

I still logged them, but just used "two cups" or "three slices" or "one clove of garlic."

ghudson92

I weigh everything on a digital scale in grams (apart from liquids which I measure in ml), everything. That includes butter, cooking oils, low cal vegetables.. everything. That way there is minimal room for error. I weigh everything raw, unless the packet specifies otherwise (e.g. the pasta I buy only has nutritional info for cooked). If you want to get it right you have to be meticulous. It's a lot of work but it gets easier the more you do it.

Lounmoun

Do you weigh everything raw or cooked?
It depends. Sometimes a food is cooked before I weigh it. I log it with an entry that matches the state I weighed it though.

Do you weigh everything? Including butter on bread for e.g.?
I do not weigh everything. I do weigh things several things regularly. Weighing calorie dense foods like butter, cheese, peanut butter, pasta is a good start. Stressing about weighing lettuce is probably a bit much.

Do you weigh in grams?
Sometimes I use grams and sometimes I use ounces. I don't know why I do that. They are both helpful. I started with an ancient manual food scale that only had ounces and pounds before using a digital food scale.
I think I use ounces more for meat or cheese because I am used to thinking of those items in ounces and pounds.
For some reason I weigh carrots in ounces but other vegetables in grams.

By weighing food, does this mean my eating out days are over? Plan, prep repeat?
I eat out 1 meal a week and the rest of my food is prepared from home. I don't take a food scale with me everywhere I go.

cwolfman13

purelush wrote: »

Hi all, looking for advise on weighing foods. Just starting this so few q's like;
Do you weigh everything raw or cooked?
Do you weigh everything? Including butter on bread for e.g.?
Do you weigh in grams?
I'm following a plan to decrease my carb intake, 1st week deficit 350kcal, week 2 100kcal and so on until week 5. Plan is for weight loss.
By weighing food, does this mean my eating out days are over? Plan, prep repeat?
Thanks in advance

I weight most things raw unless the nutrition label says otherwise. If I do weigh something cooked, I'd pick a "cooked" entry from the database to log. I never have weighed everything...I typically weigh meats as well as calorie dense things like nuts, nut butters, oils and butter, etc. I never weighed packaged foods...I just went off the label.

Sometimes I weigh in grams, sometimes ounces. My efforts were to be good enough, not chasing perfection.

I still ate out...I still attended functions with family and friends. Again, I never worried about perfection...just good enough.

deannalfisher

for weighing things like butter; peanut butter...pull the jar on your scale and TARE is out (make zero) - then scoop out your desired serving and the negative number is the amount in g that you ate

CarvedTones

I tend to weigh cooked a lot and find entries for cooked. I know they are less likely to be perfectly accurate, but I make family meals and don't prepare my portions separately. It has worked out okay for me. I agree that you should weigh raw when it is possible, but it isn't the end of the world if you can't. I guess at things I can't weigh or don't know the recipe for and is homemade or whatever but I always log every single thing even if I know it is a guess. I don't ever want to get in the habit of making exceptions.
Using inexact cooked weights, I have stayed within a couple of pounds of where I wanted to be maintaining for the last couple of months.

tbright1965

janejellyroll wrote: »

I weigh everything raw.

When I'm shooting for a deficit, I do weigh everything solid. Higher calorie things like butter, I always weigh.

I usually weigh in grams.

I am accurate as possible with the food I prepare myself so that I have "wiggle room" for rougher estimates when I'm eating out or having food others have prepared for me. It works for me.

I weigh everything calorie dense, in grams and shoot for 1g under the serving size on the package. I.E. if a serving of cheese is 28g, I'll shoot for 27g and log it as 28g.

I don't weigh individually packaged items. I don't weigh fruits or vegetables. I don't weigh slices of bread, but will weigh any peanut butter I put on a slice. I figure in the long run, the calculated values on the label will average out. If I'm having a spinach salad, I'll weigh the dressing and cheese and chicken I put in it, as described above, but not the spinach, peppers, onions, etc.

I'm keeping a pretty consistent 1%/week weight loss and have cut my fasting blood sugar from 180 mg/dL to between 85 and 115 every morning.