Do you weigh your food?

mckant

I recently bought a food scale and I love it! I have really been underestimating portion sizes. I'm worried that weighing my food is going to create a monster, though. I know I've made it this long without it but what do I do when I can't weigh? Will "practice make perfect" and I'll get to the point where I can eyeball things pretty well? Just curious how you handle situations where you can't weigh your portions out...

james6998

Believe it or not i haven't been weighing my food that long and i can already estimate very accurately without weight. If put in a situation that i can't weigh my food i would use this new found talent.

ThisCanadian

I have a digital food scale and I still weigh most of the food beforehand even though I've been counting calories for about 2.5 months now. I will ease off once I hit maintenance, but for now I rather be more accurate. I personally tend to underestimate the amount of food on my plate.

shellsies93

I've been weighing my food for the last few months and when I don't have a scale, I've been able to eye ball it...so I think practice does make perfect.

rjj714

Hi "MC" -- I just purchased a scale about a week ago myself and I have to say I like it. What surprises me the most is how much I underestimated what I was eating. I've not only purchased the scale, but I have a great wall chart someone gave me which compares portion sizes in relation to the palm of your hand, a deck of card, a baseball, etc.

It's CRAZY how much I was overeating because I didn't realize that my portion sizes were so off. Hopefully the food scale and my wall chart will help me on my weight loss journey.

Regards -- RJJ

jillianbeeee

I was underestimating too! I measure meats, rice, pasta, cereal and nuts on my scale. My family gets a kick out of watching me at dinner time, with my food scale and measuring cups. lol. I have even started pouring my skim milk into a measuring cup then into my glass. Hey, I want to get every darn ounce I can in my 1200 calories a day! (5 foot 2 inches) lol

ValerieMartini2Olives

i always weigh and will continue to do so even when i hit goal weight

lyndausvi

I weight pretty much every thing I eat at home. At first I seemed to underestimate some items, overestimate other. After 2 months I've gotten much better at estimating. Just the other day I pulled out exactly 2 oz of pasta, I was pretty proud of myself.

I've decided weighing foods at home with continue for a while in the future.

ness12346

I agree - I think practice makes perfect! Someone once suggested that you should weigh all your food for a month, and then you become quite efficient at it. They suggest taking a week or so every year to 'brush-up' on your eye-balling techniques and to weigh everything again for that week.

I used to always over-estimate portions, too. So glad I bought a scale!

mckant

Thanks, guys!

MizMimi111

We've had a food scale for a few years to weigh food to get accurate carb counts for my daughters (both Type 1 Diabetes). Now the scale also gets passed around the table to me as well to count calories.

I can easily estimate the carbs in just about anything, anywhere because of consistently doing it at home.

The issue I'm running into is I automatically think carbs of any food item and if it's lower I think "oh that's good" but then I remember "no calories silly, check calories" :laugh:

Eumoher

You will get to the point that you can eye ball the approximate portion. I have lost 64 lbs, and have been at this journey for almost 6 months. I still weigh and measure everything.

zipnguyen

I weigh my foods during contest prep dieting. Off season I weigh but not to the "gram" and such.

kimswisher

I recently bought a food scale and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! I do know a few tricks for portion control when you are w/out your scale.
Thumb to the first knuckle=appx. 1 tbsp.
forefinger to the first knuckle= appx 1 tsp.
whole forefinger=appx 1 oz
palm of hand=appx 3 oz
Those are measuring tricks that I learned at weight watchers. Having the scale is good. We are staying true to ourselves. Keep up the good work. I hope that I was a little helpful.

Willbenchforcupcakes

Still weigh pretty much everything. I'm the oddball that tends to overestimate when just eyeballing - I'll be scooping out my peanut butter, swearing I'm taking two tablespoons, and only have 1.25 usually.

AstroRocket

Nope, not often anyway. Only for baking cakes or something. Only other thing I might weigh is pasta, I had a habbit of cooking to much as I'm a savoury addict lol

neutralhills

I either weigh food or measure portions using scoops or measuring cups. I'm pretty accurate with guestimating, but find I take more reasonable amounts when I am tracking food intake. I can fit WAY too much onto a plate, probably enough to violate several laws of physics if I am being honest.

I firmly believe that any type of measurement that causes you to consider your food intake carefully is a worthwhile investment.

snookumss

I only weigh food about half the time now, most of the time (like my breakfast in a restaurant yesterday with fruit) when I don't have my scale, I can guess at how many grams my pineapple is, or based on my history weighing watermelon guess how many grams of that there are. It will make it so much easier. When I make a salad, I write down every little bit I put in...

Makes things that much more accurate, and your data that much more reliable.

_EndGame_

I weigh most things, up until I've weighed them enough times to guestimate.

magerum

Guess, on the high end.

climbing_trees

Yes, I just bought a scale and currently I weigh everything!
I'm just getting started counting calories and making portions so I have no idea what the correct amount looks like.

I don't want to do this forever, just until I learn how much is the right amount for me to eat.

ktsimons

I tend to weigh and measure for a week or so then slack off. once the weight loss slows (or God forbid I gain) then I go back and weigh / measure again till I re-set my eyeballs!

ktsimons

You will get to the point that you can eye ball the approximate portion. I have lost 64 lbs, and have been at this journey for almost 6 months. I still weigh and measure everything.

Congrats! Your before and after photos are stunning!!

Wildflower0106

Nope. I didn't weigh food while I was losing and I don't now that I am maintaining.

julianadelbosque

I don't, but if I didn't have 4 other roommates I totally would! I just use measuring cups for everything, but I know that's not super efficient. But I also try to overestimate when I'm logging just to be safe.