Foods you were OVERestimating calories for before you used a food scale?
Copper_Boom
Posts: 85 Member
So I had a revelation today with avocados. I always just assumed a medium avocado was around 250 calories. I bought a normal (to my eye) sized hass avocado today. Scooped out the contents from the skin and removed the pit. When I weighed the actual edible avocado, it was only 90 grams (144 calories).
What a pleasant surprise! Was curious if anyone else had been overestimating calories before using a food scale, and for which foods.
What a pleasant surprise! Was curious if anyone else had been overestimating calories before using a food scale, and for which foods.
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Replies
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Oatmeal, for me. I was eating at least an extra 100 calories or more until I got my food scale. Now, when I scoop, it is a scant 1/3 cup.
ETA: overestimating? Ugh. My calorie burns. Lol
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L1zardQueen wrote: »Oatmeal, for me. I was eating at least an extra 100 calories or more until I got my food scale. Now, when I scoop, it is a scant 1/3 cup.
ETA: overestimating? Ugh. My calorie burns. Lol
Lol!
P.S. What a beautiful Siamese cat!1 -
Ice cream I was being more careful than I needed to be. 6
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Shredded cheddar cheese. I would eyeball a quarter cup. Found out I was shooting myself by a decent amount. Yay, more cheese!!10
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Butter and mayo---sometimes it doesn't even weigh 0.2 oz, I was saying .5 Tbls5
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mountainmare wrote: »Butter and mayo---sometimes it doesn't even weigh 0.2 oz, I was saying .5 Tbls
Those are the exact two I was going to post!5 -
of all things...peanut butter-- was only eating 1.5 tbsp instead of 2.
also cereal3 -
Shredded cheddar cheese. I would eyeball a quarter cup. Found out I was shooting myself by a decent amount. Yay, more cheese!!
Same here, only I was eyeballing an ounce. For a while, flavored yogurt, apple sauce and a few other things that I accepted as close enough to weighing the same as water to just use these little 8 oz glass dishes to measure into and eat from. I mentioned that to my my wife and she shook her head and told me they were 6 oz. So now I weigh into bigger bowls. Shaved turkey lunch meat. Rolls - I would use the calories on the package and always take the smallest one; I usually still do that even though I found the smallest one is often 1/4 - 1/3 less.1 -
Peanut butter. I don't like goopy globs of it and have always used a thin smear for sandwiches. Thought that was a serving, but no.3
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Chicken! I was surprised that my 100 calories of chicken was really only like 50! I can have a lot more now!4
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Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.2 -
Peanut butter for me. What I thought was 15g (a serving) was actually around 7-8 g because I was trying to be careful.
Chia seeds as well. I thought I was using around 20g, turns around it’s always been a solid 4-5g3 -
youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
You have to be careful about canned fruits and veggies. Even though you will eat the drained product, nutrition information is "as packaged" unless specified otherwise. If liquid you pour off is water or mostly water and has very little calorie content, what's left has more calories per unit of weight. With fruit it's probably closer to okay to ignore the syrup as it has as many or more calories by weight than the fruit.2 -
Avocado. I always called 1/4 of a medium avocado 100 calories. It's about half that.
Lunch meat. I thought my 4 slices were 3oz of meat. Not even close.
Potato. I also thought that a potato the size of my hand was 300 calories.2 -
I think everyone has to plead guilty for peanut/almond/cashew/etc. butter
Bulk powders and using rounded vs. leveled scoops for stuff like oatmeal, flaxseed, & protein powders because the more times you measure something, the greater amount of uncertainty & accumulation of error (i.e. using 4 1/4 cup measurements vs. 1 one cup measurement)
Kind of dread weighing out portions so I stick to pre-packaged foods only for better consistency2 -
Meats and especially fish. I assumed most fish, except salmon, was about 175 calories. But some portions I take are about 100.
Condiments as well, like jellies, dressings, and sauces.1 -
The occasional times I buy prepackaged foods for dinner, such as fresh pasta and a pre-made sauce with a garlic bread. I was gladly going along with the packet e.g half the box of ravioli is 260cals and half of the garlic bread is 395cals etc... When I actually entered the foods per 100g in to the database and then weighed them I found I was being grossly short changed
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youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
I have been cooking beans from dried for years , at first for economic reasons and then for taste and control of salt content.2 -
youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
I have been cooking beans from dried for years , at first for economic reasons and then for taste and control of salt content.
It also gets around the problem with weighing canned beans drained when the labelled calories include the liquid in the weight. The drained beans can have almost double the calories by weight compared to the label. OTOH, weighing dried is fine if you make one serving at a time, but typically you will be making many more and often already mixed with other ingredients while cooking. One of the things I like about frozen peas, beans and corn is that you can weigh them accurately and make a serving at a time. that's important at my house as I am about the only one, other than one of my kids who is away at college, who eats beans (other than green beans) and peas somewhat regularly.0 -
CarvedTones wrote: »youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
I have been cooking beans from dried for years , at first for economic reasons and then for taste and control of salt content.
It also gets around the problem with weighing canned beans drained when the labelled calories include the liquid in the weight. The drained beans can have almost double the calories by weight compared to the label. OTOH, weighing dried is fine if you make one serving at a time, but typically you will be making many more and often already mixed with other ingredients while cooking. One of the things I like about frozen peas, beans and corn is that you can weigh them accurately and make a serving at a time. that's important at my house as I am about the only one, other than one of my kids who is away at college, who eats beans (other than green beans) and peas somewhat regularly.
When I use canned beans, I'll drain them and then weigh them, and use a USDA cooked entry. Not perfect, but it seems to have worked so far. I don't typically see frozen beans (other than green beans) around here at all, I wish I could find them!0 -
Also peanut butter by about 1/3rd. Cashews/other nuts (probably trying to be too cautious like some have mentioned). Mayonnaise and other condiments and spray creams etc
Even when I was weighing using a spring scale I was way over estimating them.
Strangely the things I was underestimating are things that don’t really matter like spinach so I feel a bit spoiled using my new digital scale and getting to eat more of all of the yummy things.
But weighing cheese makes me sad ☹️2 -
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youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
I have been cooking beans from dried for years , at first for economic reasons and then for taste and control of salt content.
Ditto. It takes a little bit of preplanning -- like, I can't decide that afternoon that I want to make chili for dinner that night -- but it's worth the effort, and really doesn't take all that much work. Beans soak overnight, then get cooked before I make the meal. Even kidney beans only take an hour to cook, and Great Northern are closer to 30 minutes or so...1 -
I can't believe all the people who were OVERestimating peanut butter! The pitiful sight of a properly weighed serving would make angels cry
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Pasta! My weighed out serving is less than I would eat before I tried to control portions but more than what I would try to guesstimate with a stupid measuring cup after I started counting calories.1
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youngcaseyr wrote: »Canned beans typically say 3.5 servings per can, but after measuring I have found that it is almost always nearly exactly two servings. I can eat more beans but that also means I have to BUY more beans. Worth it.
However, 1 dry cup of flour is typically more than the weight in grams as it is listed on the package.
Whatttt the bean thing is ridiculous! Does the serving/weight include the water?0 -
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