Using a food scale
lindamtuck2018
Posts: 9,836 Member
I have been doing MFP since early December. I am using a food scale but not a 100% of the time. I know I will have to tighten that up as I continue on this journey. When I joined in December, I was actively binging so I was still gaining but I have managed to lose 29.8 pounds since the beginning of February. So to get to my questions.
In reading a thread earlier, I was given the impression that food should always be measured in grams. I measure somethings in grams and some in ounces. For example, the mandarin orange I had with breakfast was measured in grams but my apple that I will have for tonights snack will be measured in ounces. Is this ok?
How should I be measuring prepackaged food like hamburgers? Right now, I just use the calorie count for one burger off the package.
Right now I just weight my meats, fruits and vegetables. What else should I be doing? I want to get into using my food scale correctly.
In reading a thread earlier, I was given the impression that food should always be measured in grams. I measure somethings in grams and some in ounces. For example, the mandarin orange I had with breakfast was measured in grams but my apple that I will have for tonights snack will be measured in ounces. Is this ok?
How should I be measuring prepackaged food like hamburgers? Right now, I just use the calorie count for one burger off the package.
Right now I just weight my meats, fruits and vegetables. What else should I be doing? I want to get into using my food scale correctly.
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Replies
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Good job on weight loss so far. I weigh in grams when I know what a serving is in grams-otherwise go for ounces. I don't think it matters as long as it is accurate either way. You can use the calorie count off the package, but I prefer to weigh meats before cooking them if possible. I also weigh things like butter. Peanut butter, brown sugar, etc. I use measuring spoons for. I basically measure everything I eat at home.3
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Here are my tips:
- I wouldn't worry about grams vs oz for fruit.
- For sure I weigh calorie dense foods like oil and butter in grams.
- When making recipes I tend to weigh heavier things in ounces, but that's just because I have those measurements memorized - I know I want a pound of this or 8 oz of that, and I haven't bothered to memorize anything over the gram equivalent of 4 oz.
- When I get new brands of things, for example your burger patties, I would weigh them for a while until they have proven their accuracy. I believe food companies are allowed to be 20% over, so it would be good to know if any products are way off like that.
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I did something today which you might find useful. I was adding shredded cheese to a recipe. With the scale set to oz, I added until the scale said 6.0 oz. Then I switch units to see how many grams I had for logging.
I didn't care that I wasn't going to have 168 grams. I was close enough and logged accurately.1 -
I honestly don't think grams vs ounces is a big deal. Grams may be slightly more exact for some things as a gram us so much smaller than ounces, it's just easier to get an exact measurement. But I doubt for most people it would make much of a difference.5
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In addition to weighing your food, I think the other important part is finding food entries that accurately match what you've eaten. Be vigilant by looking at the back of the label you have on hand, comparing it to what you're entering into your food diary. It doesn't really matter if you use grams or ounces. I personally use grams because I simply find the math to be straight forward. Such as if I ate 158g of apple slices, I find the USDA entry for an apple in 100g and enter 1.58 servings. I measure most of my produce this way. I also prefer grams because the back of nearly all nutrition labels uses them. However, ounces aren't always noted. A lot of the time cups and tablespoons are used instead and that can be a pain. It's a lot less time consuming (and more accurate!) to weigh 1 tbsp of things like butter or peanut butter than it is to spoon it out. Or for things like bread or buns, the label will say something like "1 slice (45g) is 90 calories." But when you weigh one slice of bread, it might be 57g. It seems like it may not be that much of a difference, but that one slice of bread you thought was 90 calories is 114 instead. Those little discrepancies can add up over time. It may not seem like it makes a difference at first but if you come to a standstill and wonder where you're going wrong, it can be the difference between losing and not losing. My recommendation is to weigh everything! Pasta, rice, meat, oils, cheese, bread, snacks (chips, cookies), ice cream, yogurt, etc. This is just how I do it, but everyone has their own method that they develop over time with practice. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck!4
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lindamtuck2018 wrote: »I have been doing MFP since early December. I am using a food scale but not a 100% of the time. I know I will have to tighten that up as I continue on this journey. When I joined in December, I was actively binging so I was still gaining but I have managed to lose 29.8 pounds since the beginning of February. So to get to my questions.
In reading a thread earlier, I was given the impression that food should always be measured in grams. I measure somethings in grams and some in ounces. For example, the mandarin orange I had with breakfast was measured in grams but my apple that I will have for tonights snack will be measured in ounces. Is this ok?
How should I be measuring prepackaged food like hamburgers? Right now, I just use the calorie count for one burger off the package.
Right now I just weight my meats, fruits and vegetables. What else should I be doing? I want to get into using my food scale correctly.
i bought a food scale last year, it is great, named Eetekcity nutrition food scale, maybe you can try.2 -
How do you enter 1.58 servings? I have never seen where you can use a decimal point, just a fraction (1/4 of a serving, 1/2, etc.)0
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Logging only needs to be as consistent and accurate as it needs to be to see progress. If you're seeing progress while spending 2 minutes a day roughly logging your food intake then it makes no sense to spend 20 minutes a day meticulously logging to see the same progress.
If on the other hand your not seeing results then it's time to up the diligence and attention to logging and this is where measuring by the gram can come in handy. Grams are just a smaller and therefore more accurate measurement so if you're working with relatively thin margins then that level of accuracy may be what's required.6 -
I normally just go by whatever the box or container measures it as. Like if the box says a serving of something is 75g then I use the grams setting on my scale.
Also my scale is a manual one and it shows grams vs oz's at the same time. (ounces on left, grams on right little red horizontal line goes straight across both.)
When I started out, I weighed EVERY thing, and was constantly washing the scale. Now I can pretty much eyeball my food and know what a serving of something should be w/o weighing it.
Good job on losin' the weight so far girly. Keep it up!1 -
BlowPopKisses wrote: »I normally just go by whatever the box or container measures it as. Like if the box says a serving of something is 75g then I use the grams setting on my scale.
Also my scale is a manual one and it shows grams vs oz's at the same time. (ounces on left, grams on right little red horizontal line goes straight across both.)
When I started out, I weighed EVERY thing, and was constantly washing the scale. Now I can pretty much eyeball my food and know what a serving of something should be w/o weighing it.
Good job on losin' the weight so far girly. Keep it up!
I envy those that can eyeball food accurately enough to be consistent with their results. I try to guess the weight of something before I weigh it and am nearly always out by a reasonable amount.
Looks like I will be a food weigher for life! Better that than the weight creeping back on though.2 -
How do you enter 1.58 servings? I have never seen where you can use a decimal point, just a fraction (1/4 of a serving, 1/2, etc.)
On the dropdown menu, choose the unit you want (usually 100 grams, in my case). Then, in the text box that allows you to enter the number of units, you can type 1.58 instead of 1 or 2 or whatever.
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As far as 1.58 if you’re using iPhone just tap your serving number and then tap the decimal section and type that in 🙂
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How do you enter 1.58 servings? I have never seen where you can use a decimal point, just a fraction (1/4 of a serving, 1/2, etc.)
I've only seen this option when on the computer. Mobile seems to use 1/8 serving etc.
As for ounces vs grams I agree with @kimny72 that it might be slilghtly more accurate just because it's a smaller unit but outside of that it doesn't really matter. I use both and lost weight without any troubles. I am in maintenance and still weigh certain foods to ensure I am within my limits. When you get close to goal accuracy becomes vital because the deficit is so small. Getting used to weighing now is really smart and will assist you in your journey. Congrats on your awesome loss so far!
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scribblemoma wrote: »As far as 1.58 if you’re using iPhone just tap your serving number and then tap the decimal section and type that in 🙂
Whoa, I didn't know that was a thing! I use Android.
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@scribblemoma that's awesome! I've never noticed that before. Thank you for sharing!
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Whoa...weird. I don't have the fraction/decimal thing on my PC or mobile app (android) at all. For years I've just entered the decimal into the serving size section and have never been shown options.4
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>>hug to a fellow binge eater.>> You've lost 29.8 pounds. The way I see it, whatever you're doing must be working so keep doing it.1
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Susieq_1994 wrote: »Whoa, I didn't know that was a thing! I use Android.
Aha only reason I knew there was a difference is because my husband has Android and I’ve seen how it logs!
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It’s my pleasure, Cheryl! Happy to help 🙂2 -
To be honest, I focus my precision weighing on the most calorie dense foods. Peanut butter, salad dressing, meats, cheeses, avocado, mayo, chips, etc. For things like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers - I don't bother as much and will be more tempted to just use "1/2 tomato" etc. I know it's not as accurate but it hasn't seemed to hurt my weight loss (yet) - maybe because I eat back like 1/2 exercise not all which kind of covers small logging errors. We'll see as we get close to goal.2
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scribblemoma wrote: »As far as 1.58 if you’re using iPhone just tap your serving number and then tap the decimal section and type that in 🙂
So excited about this! Been on here for years, using a food scale, and never noticed this option...awesome!!!
To the OP, I use grams and ounces when I weigh/log. Usually I really focus on grams for shredded cheese, cottage cheese, ground beef, chicken. I don’t know why I choose some food over others for grams versus ounces haha hasn’t made a huge impact for me either way (as far as accuracy is concerned for weight loss)
The key for me is just using the food scale as often as possible for as many things as i can (packaged, fresh, meats, veg etc)
Good job so far 💪🏻
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Thank you all for your valuable insight! Any help I can get in this journey I will take!2
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I guess it depends on the packaging. If it gives calorie counts in Oz - I use Oz - if it gives in grams - I use grams.
I also weigh and log the majority of stuff - but some I guess at. I don't care if I ate 1 cup or 1 1/2 cups of lettuce. It's only going to be maybe 10 calorie difference. But I definitely weigh meat, rice, potatoes, my major veggie portion, salad dressing, etc. I estimate and sometimes measure things like cooking oils, etc. but at least try to add in something for them. Lately I've gotten lazy and been eating out - that is what is hard, and you end up guessing what the portion was, and what is the closest thing to use as an entry. I really need to get back to cooking more and logging better - but that's just my issue lately. Only eating back some of the exercise calories definitely allows for some logging errors.1 -
scribblemoma wrote: »As far as 1.58 if you’re using iPhone just tap your serving number and then tap the decimal section and type that in 🙂
Believe it or not, that setting has been staring me in the face for years and I’ve never noticed it. 🤦🏽♀️ Thanks!
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I think both are fine. They are both fairly accurate units of measure. A lot of stuff on MFP is listed in both.
Personally, I like grams because I can usually search for foods that have their nutritional info sourced from the USDA, which is only listed in grams. Also, pretty much anything with a Nutrition Information label lists serving sizes in grams.
Regardless, as long as youre weighing stuff on a scale and you can find out how many calories it is, its totally fine.
The problem comes when you try to weigh foods in "cups", "tablespoons", "handful", "one avocado", etc. Those measures are completely variable. Is it a cup of chopped carrots, or a cup or pureed carrots? One is going to weigh more in grams and have way more calories as a result.
But as others have said, I also focus on weighing the calorie dense stuff. I dont really worry about weighing stuff like veggies. I could stuff a plate full of a veggie salad and it wouldnt even hit 200 calories. However, do the same peanut butter, and youd be easily putting on several hundred more calories.2 -
@scribblemoma you have just rocked my world. No more figuring decimals on the calculator. Woo HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!2
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I use a food scale and measuring spoons. I always use ounces unless it's an amount smaller then say a teaspoon, then I use grams (or for cheese and small condiments I usually use grams). I have been lucky in estimating, and if I eyeball an item and then weigh it I am consistently under. So far I've lost 85 pounds so I must be doing okay!1
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