Travel scale-yes or no?

Countandsubtract

Is it worth it to (also) buy a smaller food scale to bring with you when you're going out to eat?

I've heard of people doing that before but the only reason I could think that it would be helpful is in those 9 out of 10 occassions where I forget my doggy bag in the car after and don't eat the rest. (So I have a more accurrate estimate of what I've eaten.)

I would imagine it also helps with people with a serious medical NEED to be exact with their intake.

(I've checked it would definitely NOT double for any fine-level measurements like if somebody has some sort of really finnicky medication that has to be measured in milligrams.)
I also don't use cups because I find it wasteful and time consuming to have to clean them every time, so I only use scales if I need to measure things.

Are there additinal reasons I should consider it?

(P.S. I'm a girl, so I could easily just keep it in my purse )

Chef_Barbell

I would never bring a food scale to a restaurant. :noway:

yirara

I used to have a scale in my drawer at work when I worked in an office that served really great, authentic southern Indian food. They provided calories, and sometimes I'd just take a second serving along to my desk in plastic cups to weight it as a check. And found there was a definite portion creep taking place. But no, I never took a scale to a restaurant. I eat out so rarely that it doesn't matter in the end.

Lietchi

I have a travel scale, for the following reasons:
- when I'm at the office: I regularly order poke bowls and they vary quite a lot in their serving size -> I don't weigh the individual ingredients, but having the total weight makes it easier to estimate. Also useful for the frequent times when there are 'goodies' available (danish pastry, etc)
- when I'm traveling (duh ): I'm usually away for at least a week, usually two or three at a time. When we're renting a house, I'll bring a regular food scale, but for breakfast buffets, restaurants etc. I've been known to use my travel scale. I'll admit that it depends on how fancy the restaurant is, how close the other tables are,... I use a folding food scale (three legs).

It's a matter of preference really, and also depends on how often you eat outside of your own kitchen. I'm slightly obsessive probably (I also bring a regular scale and weigh myself when traveling, luckily since losing weight my clothes take up less space in my suitcase when traveling )

cmriverside

Chef_Barbell wrote: »

I would never bring a food scale to a restaurant. :noway:

^^This.

I can't even imagine the condescending remarks that would create.

Even if I weighed something, what's the point? I don't know what/how much cheese and oil is in it - which is going to be the calorie-buster.

After using my at-home digital food scale and logging my food for a while, I'm able to guesstimate my restaurant food pretty well.

Close enough is good enough.

Countandsubtract

danish pastry
Not a bad point, I really am pretty bad at estimating high-calorie items.


Even if I weighed something, what's the point?
Fair enough. Ever tried getting the nutrition facts from a restraunt(because of pretty bad allergies), even when going in person?

You get the "well, just look it up online"...if your or another website had that information I wouldn't be asking.

"Oh well then download our app."
30 minutes of data usage later, I use the app for ten seconds and immediately delete it since I will never be going there again anyway.
...sorry, rant over.

I too mostly only go out to eat when traveling because it's a pain to make things (especially on day trips/on the drive).

I do however appreciate restraunts that fess up to their calorie on their menus/boards.

cmriverside

@Countandsubtract I worked in restaurants for a couple decades. Unless you're eating at a place with well-controlled portions like McDonalds (and probably ONLY McDonalds) then even their own calorie counts could be off by a few hundred calories.

Most meat portions will be correct because of how they buy them. Sides, and dressings, grains, potatoes, oil, butter, sauces, sour cream, and cheese? No way you're getting an exact portion - whoever is preparing the food and even servers will have habits and portions that may be way over or somewhat under. Usually way over. Cooks and servers tend to want to give people what they want, and what they want is more. Over-portioning means fewer trips back to the kitchen for more dressings, etc.

I wouldn't trust any restaurant calorie estimates - or at the least I'd figure it's off by about 200-300 calories unless all grains, sauces, oils, dressings, and cheeses (or sour cream) are on the side in little cups so I can see how much it is.

glassyo

Hey, if it's good enough for Faye Dunaway.... 😁

Never at a restaurant but I've taken my own pre-portioned salad dressing.

I also used to take a portable scale with me to Whole Foods when I'd get a little somethin' somethin' from the hot bar.

Actually, that's a lie about not taking a scale to a restaurant. I used to go to Burger King so much, they got very generous with the grilled chicken I'd get. It was a survival tactic.

And, seriously, not a big deal. You do what helps to keep you on track.

cwolfman13

It would be completely pointless for myself. I rarely eat out at any kind of chain or franchise and mostly eat local. Only chains and franchises with 20+ locations are required to provide the nutritional information. Even then, I don't really see the point in bringing a scale to a restaurant...I've never seen the breakdown of something by grams or ounces, only XXX is YYY calories. If each item on your plate doesn't have nutritional information by weight, there's no point really in weighing it.

Lietchi

cwolfman13 wrote: »

If each item on your plate doesn't have nutritional information by weight, there's no point really in weighing it.

Funny, I have the opposite reasoning. If I don't weigh my food, both quantity and nutritional info will be uncertain. By weighing, I at least eliminate one factor of uncertainly in my guesswork. (I really suck at judging the weight of food, serious margin of error when I try that)

cwolfman13

Lietchi wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

If each item on your plate doesn't have nutritional information by weight, there's no point really in weighing it.

Funny, I have the opposite reasoning. If I don't weigh my food, both quantity and nutritional info will be uncertain. By weighing, I at least eliminate one factor of uncertainly in my guesswork. (I really suck at judging the weight of food, serious margin of error when I try that)

If you go to a pub and get a burger and fries and it says the meal is 800 calories but provides no information by weight, how does weighing your fries out provide any meaningful data? I guess that is my biggest confusion on this question that I've seen come up over the years. Like I said, for myself it's all pretty meaningless because primarily eat out at local places that don't provide nutritional information at all.

MsCzar

glassyo wrote: »

Hey, if it's good enough for Faye Dunaway....

I've worked with Ms. Dunaway and don't think you'd want her as your role model.

I'd never take a scale into a restaurant. But have considered it at work where there is a constant avalanche of delicious free food provided all day long. Since returning to steady work after the pandemic, I am losing the weight battle badly. Maybe a scale wouldn't be a bad thing.

glassyo

MsCzar wrote: »

glassyo wrote: »

Hey, if it's good enough for Faye Dunaway....

I've worked with Ms. Dunaway and don't think you'd want her as your role model.

I'd never take a scale into a restaurant. But have considered it at work where there is a constant avalanche of delicious free food provided all day long. Since returning to steady work after the pandemic, I am losing the weight battle badly. Maybe a scale wouldn't be a bad thing.

LOL I had to google to see which movie star it was. I just remember I thought it was cool to see since WE'RE ALL ON MFP AND STUFF! 😀

I wouldn't take one to a fancy restaurant but I don't go to those much and pre log what I'm hoping to stick to having just to make sure *some* calories are logged.

I have absolutely used our postage scale at work

This is all because my stomach is bigger than my will power.

OP, if you're still on track when you go out to eat by taking those doggy bags home, I don't think you need a portable scale.

AnnPT77

I'm pretty consistent about weighing food at home (for almost 7 years now), but I don't weigh food in other places.

If I had a traveling job, or otherwise ate away from home a lot, maybe I'd consider it, I'm not sure.

For me, it's not necessary. I'm pretty good at estimating quantities now (eyeball method). Occasionally, I'll snap a phone photo of my plate in a situation where estimating is complicated (like a buffet or potluck), and taking the photo wouldn't be tacky/rude (no flash, anywhere).

On top of that, I've figured out that what I do on a rare day isn't all that meaningful in the big picture, even it I eat well over my calorie goal. Repeat: Rare day.

I don't like having conversations centered on perceptions that I'm eating eccentrically. They're almost always annoying, not productive. This goes way back - I became vegetarian in 1974, in a time in place where that was unusual. Calling attention to it was likely to result in conversations that wasted my time and energy. During weight loss, I tried to cut off most conversations about my quite-quickly-shrinking size (and how/why it was happening) with a brief polite response, for the same reason. Weighing food when out and about would just create more of those pointless conversations, in my view.

But that's a reaction based on the balance of impacts in my life. If my life were different, I might feel differently.

Lietchi

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

If each item on your plate doesn't have nutritional information by weight, there's no point really in weighing it.

Funny, I have the opposite reasoning. If I don't weigh my food, both quantity and nutritional info will be uncertain. By weighing, I at least eliminate one factor of uncertainly in my guesswork. (I really suck at judging the weight of food, serious margin of error when I try that)

If you go to a pub and get a burger and fries and it says the meal is 800 calories but provides no information by weight, how does weighing your fries out provide any meaningful data? I guess that is my biggest confusion on this question that I've seen come up over the years. Like I said, for myself it's all pretty meaningless because primarily eat out at local places that don't provide nutritional information at all.

In my case there is no calorie count provided by the restaurant (99,99% of restaurants where I live/travel). So the weight helps me log approximately, I know the weight of my meal and then 'guess' the rest (according to the ingredients, or similar dishes from restaurants or supermarkets that do post calories per 100gr).
If a restaurant provided the calorie count for the meal, I wouldn't weigh either and just use that.

COGypsy

I always wonder how this would actually work “in the wild”. Do you ask the waiter for an extra plate so you can scoop every item onto a scale? Do you then put the whole thing back in the main plate or just eat one thing at a time around the whole dish? I seriously doubt I’d be eating out again with someone into that kind of production.

Countandsubtract

I always wonder how this would actually work “in the wild”. Do you ask the waiter for an extra plate so you can scoop every item onto a scale? Do you then put the whole thing back in the main plate or just eat one thing at a time around the whole dish?

I was wondering that too. Of course, where I would be more concerned would probably be with fast food if you ever do that. So much of it has drastically high calories. If it's fast food, chances are you're not staying. I guess you could bring a bowl, but a flat surface to put the scale on might be hard to find in private if you don't stay.

Although I don't think I'd begrudge someone if they had severely bad health and needed to weigh food for that reason. I would imagine it could be a problem for some sensitive diabetics too. And maybe recoveribg anorexics? (I've heard that they have to be pretty careful in their recovery because in theory it can trigger medical events if their food intake is too far off schedule.


I suppose they might have been invented for salad-bar-type situations, where it would be hard to get a known caloric value, but as someone pointed out, you would still have to know the calories per weight of any non-raw food.


Oh! Or maybe they're for college students because if you always eat in the cafeteria, you wouldn't really have a way of learning portion size easily.
Weighing would probably be more subtle than measuring at that point. (Faster.)

Lietchi

COGypsy wrote: »

I always wonder how this would actually work “in the wild”. Do you ask the waiter for an extra plate so you can scoop every item onto a scale? Do you then put the whole thing back in the main plate or just eat one thing at a time around the whole dish? I seriously doubt I’d be eating out again with someone into that kind of production.

I can only speak for myself: 'in the wild' I'll weigh my full plate before starting and my empty plate after finishing (and guess the proportion of the different elements). Or if there's one specific item I want to weigh, I'll put the plate on, tare and then lift off that one item to see how much it weighs.

Just to be clear, I don't always do that, for those people reading who think I'm crazy. I'm more likely to do that when it's something 'simple' but hard to judge the weight of, like a pizza, where I can weigh it very quickly and then enjoy my meal.

Countandsubtract

weigh my full plate before starting and my empty plate after finishing

Oops. Good point. That is a lot simpler than bringing tons of bowls.

COGypsy

The majority of what I eat is restaurant food and I’ve had success losing and maintaining both with just estimating consistently based on calories posted by large chain restaurants for similar items.

Chef_Barbell

COGypsy wrote: »

The majority of what I eat is restaurant food and I’ve had success losing and maintaining both with just estimating consistently based on calories posted by large chain restaurants for similar items.

Same here... 🙌