Weighing food

imanlavan234

I am having a hard time understanding about weighing my food and how much I am I taking. When it says 1oz or 1g of fruit and when I measure it it doesn’t even say that it will say 20 on my scale and under 4oz on my measuring cup

Lazarus1035

Weigh everything, and use the numbers from the scale to determine your grams. With the liquids, you can only go by the amount that you know is in there. Like for example, putting in Almondmilk, and it's 3/4th's cup, and the minimum on the tracker is 1 cup. Put in .75 for your serving.

If the milk for example, is already poured in, use the combination I mentioned above, but if it's coming out of the carton, weight the bowl first, so you know how much weight it is (so you can subtract it), and then put the actual amount in your servings tracker.

Alatariel75

OK, so there are weight oz (used for solids) and fluid oz (used for liquids). They're not interchangeable.

Weight solids in grams or oz on a scale. Use measuring cup oz only for liquid.

SurferGirl1982

I agree with @Alatariel75 Use a kitchen scale for solids. Put the container you will be using to weigh it in on the scale. Either turn the scale on after placing the container on it or hit the tare button after placing the container on the scale. The scale should read zero "0" before adding your food. On the package that the food comes in, it will often say 1/2 cup, etc. But next to that (in parenthesis) will be the grams contained in that 1/2 cup.

And, as Alatariel75 mentioned use a measuring cup to measure liquids. Ounces (for solids) are measuring a weight, while fluid ounces are measuring a volume of liquid.

SurferGirl1982

@imanlavan234 I forgot to mention. You don't have to weigh in grams. You can weigh ounces if you like. Most kitchen scales have several units of measure that you can chose (grams, ounces, pounds, kgs). There should be a button you can push to toggle between the different units.

And as @Lazarus1035 said, if the nutrition information says a serving is one cup and you only want to use 3/4 cup. Then, in your food log enter 0.75 as the amount of serving.

springlering62

I get it. It’s super confusing at first and those in my boomer generation run screaming from metric.

After a while of weighing, however, I began to understand metric. It was easier and far more accurate.

There’s a few things that will help you, if you can remember them.

An ounce is generally 28grams
Tablespoon usually 14-15 gr
tsp is 2-3 gr

And if you have a virtual assistant, it’s so easy to just ask, “hey siri! How many grams in a cup of flour”, and you have the answer faster than you can google it yourself.

My baking results are so much more consistent since I switched to grams.

My scale broke this weekend, and I’d promised visitors homemade biscuits, muffins, cornbread. It was a shock to go back to measuring cups. The only reason I even still had one was because it made a great pet food scoop. 😇

springlering62

pS your weight loss will be far more consistent with grams.

I challenge you. Weigh your empty tablespoon, in grams. Now add a tablespoon of peanut butter. Weigh again, in grams.

I can darn well bet you there will be more than 15 grams in the spoon you just scooped. Probably more like 25 or so.

At 90 calories per 15 grams, something as innocent as peanut butter can sabotage your weight loss!

Multiply that by coffee creamer, ice cream, mayo etc throughout your day. The less-accurate imperial measurements can add hundreds of calories you’re not even aware you’re doing.

Please please please stick with it. It gets easier, I promise. By the end of thirty days you’ll have it down pretty pat. So what if you’re not perfect at first? For me, awareness and simply thinking what am I putting in my mouth was the key to turning my life around.

SurferGirl1982

springlering62 wrote: »

I get it. It’s super confusing at first and those in my boomer generation run screaming from metric.

After a while of weighing, however, I began to understand metric. It was easier and far more accurate.

There’s a few things that will help you, if you can remember them.

An ounce is generally 28grams
Tablespoon usually 14-15 gr
tsp is 2-3 gr

And if you have a virtual assistant, it’s so easy to just ask, “hey siri! How many grams in a cup of flour”, and you have the answer faster than you can google it yourself.

My baking results are so much more consistent since I switched to grams.

My scale broke this weekend, and I’d promised visitors homemade biscuits, muffins, cornbread. It was a shock to go back to measuring cups. The only reason I even still had one was because it made a great pet food scoop. 😇

You're partially right and partially wrong. Grams and ounces measure weight while fluid ounces, teaspoons, tablespoons and cups measure volume.

So while it is true, that 1 oz = 28 grams, a tablespoon does not always equal 14 - 15 grams. For instance:

1 tablespoon of Hershey's Cocoa powder weighs 5 grams
1 tablespoon of chia seeds weigh 12 grams
1 tablespoon of Adam's Crunchy peanut butter weighs 16 grams

It depends on how light or heavy the ingredient is or how dense it is.

You are correct that in baking it is much better to weigh in grams because the ingredient may be packed more densely or there may be inconsistencies of how you scrape off the top of the measuring cup resulting in an inaccurate measurement.

I wish I was better at baking! I tried making my own bread several years ago with my own recipe with whole wheat flour and seeds. I tried modifying other recipes. But it never came out right (too dense). I finally gave up ☹️

Alatariel75

SurferGirl1982 wrote: »

springlering62 wrote: »

I get it. It’s super confusing at first and those in my boomer generation run screaming from metric.

After a while of weighing, however, I began to understand metric. It was easier and far more accurate.

There’s a few things that will help you, if you can remember them.

An ounce is generally 28grams
Tablespoon usually 14-15 gr
tsp is 2-3 gr

And if you have a virtual assistant, it’s so easy to just ask, “hey siri! How many grams in a cup of flour”, and you have the answer faster than you can google it yourself.

My baking results are so much more consistent since I switched to grams.

My scale broke this weekend, and I’d promised visitors homemade biscuits, muffins, cornbread. It was a shock to go back to measuring cups. The only reason I even still had one was because it made a great pet food scoop. 😇

You're partially right and partially wrong. Grams and ounces measure weight while fluid ounces, teaspoons, tablespoons and cups measure volume.

So while it is true, that 1 oz = 28 grams, a tablespoon does not always equal 14 - 15 grams. For instance:

1 tablespoon of Hershey's Cocoa powder weighs 5 grams
1 tablespoon of chia seeds weigh 12 grams

It depends on how light or heavy the ingredient is or how dense it is.

You are correct that in baking it is much better to weigh in grams because the ingredient may be packed more densely or there may be inconsistencies of how you scrape off the top of the measuring cup resulting in an inaccurate measurement.

I wish I was better at baking! I tried making my own bread several years ago with my own recipe with whole wheat flour and seeds. I tried modifying other recipes. But it never came out right (too dense). I finally gave up ☹️

I think one of the best examples of the inaccuracies of cups is shredded cheese. Scoop half a cup of shredded cheese, not packed down, and it *should* be around 2oz/60g. However, if you get a little keen and pack it down, you can fit 4-5oz/120-150g in the same cup. Log it like that and it's going to completely mess your calorie count!

SurferGirl1982

@Alatariel75 Good example!

springlering62

That’s why I said “generally” and “usually”.

My 5gr cocoa will be logged as 5 gr and will be weighed for accuracy.

BTW, if you insist on sticking with imperial measurements, compare your various measuring units. For example: My adorable pottery spoons and cups from Anthro are much larger than standard units. Cute, but you won’t be staying in your expensive Anthro garb for long if you rely on their cute kitchenware.

Have found differences in size between reliable name brands, too, like cuisinart versus OXO and so on.

I even compare my digital scales once in a while for accuracy. I had a two year old Ozeri that last week randomly started at zero and then quickly hit -6, -11 and so on. New batteries didn’t help. Farewell, loyal friend.

xbowhunter

I don't weigh any food and am at goal weight.

Maybe I should so I don't drop any more weight...