Be weary of the word "about"...

Zombielicious

Good morning MFP Family! I never post topics, but I felt the need for a public service announcement today...

Please be weary of the word "about" on the nutrition labels of your foods. The word "about" means it could be relatively close to two servings--and therefore close in calories to two servings--but could also be way more or less. This is why I don't like using the "1/2 cup", "1 cup", or "1 container" serving sizes on cans (or any packaged product) and will always measure by weight. For example, when I make tuna, I drain the can and weigh the meat; generally coming up with a significantly less amount of meat than the can states is in there. This I'm okay with. The big surprise came last night when I was logging my food in today's diary. I decided I was going to have soup today for lunch. The serving size on my can is 1 cup (240 mL), while the servings per container are "about 2". This would mean that there should be roughly 480 mL worth of soup in my can, equating to 280 calories for the entire thing. My can is 18.8 oz - *gasp* - it's not in mL, meaning I have to do math! Well, I did the math (thank sweet baby Jesus for Google), and there are 555.982 mL in 18.8 oz. My can has 324 calories in it, not 280. Okay, that's only a 44 calorie difference, not a huge deal....and it's not, but what if you have a can of soup every day for a week? Or even a month? (Not that you would do that, but for example's sake). That's 1232 extra calories a month that you wouldn't be logging...and that's just for ONE can of soup a day. If you're serious about logging and losing (or gaining) weight, put in the little bit of extra effort to make sure your calculations (or that of the devious food companies) are correct.

Thank you all. Have a wonderful day.

TL; DR: Check your nutrition labels vs. the weight of your packaged food to make sure "servings per container" are correct.

bunbunzee44

I really hate those cup measurements too! I feel like they are so inaccurate.. but I usually saw them here while logging food, I didn't know they had them so inaccurate on packages too! good thing I have that food scale..

LiftAllThePizzas

It's just as likely to be under.

Zombielicious

It's just as likely to be under.

Yes, that's why I mentioned weighing the tuna and how it was under. It definitely goes both ways, but it's the overage of food that can get you.

I really hate those cup measurements too! I feel like they are so inaccurate.. but I usually saw them here while logging food, I didn't know they had them so inaccurate on packages too! good thing I have that food scale..

Right? A food scale is your best friend when it comes to tracking calories.

sakuragreenlily

A food scale is definitely indispensable! I once weighed a slice of bread out of curiosity and found that it weighed 50% more than the package estimated! Stupid mutant sized slice of bread >.>

melham

If you have a smart phone, get a measurement converter app. Super handy. I recommend spending a buck or two for a good one, otherwise you're probably going to be bombarded with ads all the time. If you don't have a smart phone, there are lots of online converters. I find that the units used to note the size/weight of the product on the front of the package are frequently not the units used to determine serving size, so I use my converter app quite a lot.

Zombielicious

If you have a smart phone, get a measurement converter app. Super handy. I recommend spending a buck or two for a good one, otherwise you're probably going to be bombarded with ads all the time. If you don't have a smart phone, there are lots of online converters. I find that the units used to note the size/weight of the product on the front of the package are frequently not the units used to determine serving size, so I use my converter app quite a lot.

Ah, I never thought about using an actual app. I just use Google on my phone for the conversion.

A food scale is definitely indispensable! I once weighed a slice of bread out of curiosity and found that it weighed 50% more than the package estimated! Stupid mutant sized slice of bread >.>

HOLY CRAP! I guess I never thought about bread...being pre-sliced and all. I would have thought the slices were all uniform. Damn...just another thing I need to start weighing. Thanks a lot ;p

AmyRhubarb

After becoming both weary AND wary of the guesstimates on food labeling, I started using my scale for everything too. Love that thing.

lattarulol

I have spent a fair amount of time weighing bread, and it seems that the end caps almost always weigh more (usually about 1.5 slices of bread, up to 2 sometimes) and the slices in the middle are usually spot on. If you use the same brand of bread often, over time it is easy to pick out which slices may weigh more (or less if you are at the ends of the bread).

Swiftdogs

I'd be wary (sorry :embarassed: ) of measuring tuna that way. Unless the calorie information on the can is "drained weight" it includes the water.

LiftAllThePizzas

It's just as likely to be under.

Yes, that's why I mentioned weighing the tuna and how it was under. It definitely goes both ways, but it's the overage of food that can get you.

If it's the only meal you ever eat, and it will determine your health the rest of your life, that might be true. But you're talking about a thousand individual meals per year.

Deipneus

At least things like tuna are fairly straightforward. When I started researching food labels and learned the margin of error built into the methodology, I became a lot less precise in my weighing and measuring. We're lucky if our calorie estimates are correct within 15% even if we weigh and measure obsessively, which I no longer do.

jwdieter

It's not just a spelling error either. People are actually pronouncing it "weary". I think it's surpassed the "chic" errors at this point due to usage frequency.

cdjs77

It's kind of tricky to convert ounces to milliliters, as ounces are a unit of weight and mL are a unit of volume. The ounces measurement on soups in the US is usually the net weight of the soup not the volume (you'll notice that it can vary from soup to soup even if the can is the same size). Most people (including Google) use the assumption that 8 fluid ounces equals one cup, but this is not always true, especially in the case of soups which are often denser than fluids like water. The nutrition facts on your soup are probably not assuming that 8 ounces of soup is equal to one cup (240 mL), but rather that one cup of soup weighs more than 8 ounces, since the soups is more dense.
So, it is probably safe to assume that the calories given are accurate for your can (assuming your can is two cups in volume) and that you are significantly overestimating by trying to convert the nutrition information from a volume measurement to a weight measurement.
Example: I just bought some ice cream that was 500 mL (2.11 cups), however, it's net weight was 430 g (15.16 oz). In this case, the ice cream actually weighed less than it's volume would suggest. (The assumption 8 fl oz. = 1 cup would suggest a weight of about 16.9 oz).

Zombielicious

After becoming both weary AND wary of the guesstimates on food labeling, I started using my scale for everything too. Love that thing.

Hahaha...MY BAD! I didn't even catch that!

gigglesinthesun

It's kind of tricky to convert ounces to milliliters, as ounces are a unit of weight and mL are a unit of volume. The ounces measurement on soups in the US is usually the net weight of the soup not the volume (you'll notice that it can vary from soup to soup even if the can is the same size). Most people (including Google) use the assumption that 8 fluid ounces equals one cup, but this is not always true, especially in the case of soups which are often denser than fluids like water. The nutrition facts on your soup are probably not assuming that 8 ounces of soup is equal to one cup (240 mL), but rather that one cup of soup weighs more than 8 ounces, since the soups is more dense.
So, it is probably safe to assume that the calories given are accurate for your can (assuming your can is two cups in volume) and that you are significantly overestimating by trying to convert the nutrition information from a volume measurement to a weight measurement.
Example: I just bought some ice cream that was 500 mL (2.11 cups), however, it's net weight was 430 g (15.16 oz). In this case, the ice cream actually weighed less than it's volume would suggest. (The assumption 8 fl oz. = 1 cup would suggest a weight of about 16.9 oz).

just like to point out that in the UK and most of the Commonwealth Nations a cup is actually 250ml whereas a Japanese cup is 200ml

sunsetzen

This is why I'm very lucky to live in a metric country. Our tuna has a weight with water/oil, and a weight without (if you drain it properly).

VanillaBeanSeed

I had a can of chicken the other day. The serving was 60cals for 1/2 the can or 71 grams.

I drained the water and weighed the chicken.. the WHOLE can was ony just over the 71g serv size.

Couldnt believe how under it was.. but good for me!

cdjs77

It's kind of tricky to convert ounces to milliliters, as ounces are a unit of weight and mL are a unit of volume. The ounces measurement on soups in the US is usually the net weight of the soup not the volume (you'll notice that it can vary from soup to soup even if the can is the same size). Most people (including Google) use the assumption that 8 fluid ounces equals one cup, but this is not always true, especially in the case of soups which are often denser than fluids like water. The nutrition facts on your soup are probably not assuming that 8 ounces of soup is equal to one cup (240 mL), but rather that one cup of soup weighs more than 8 ounces, since the soups is more dense.
So, it is probably safe to assume that the calories given are accurate for your can (assuming your can is two cups in volume) and that you are significantly overestimating by trying to convert the nutrition information from a volume measurement to a weight measurement.
Example: I just bought some ice cream that was 500 mL (2.11 cups), however, it's net weight was 430 g (15.16 oz). In this case, the ice cream actually weighed less than it's volume would suggest. (The assumption 8 fl oz. = 1 cup would suggest a weight of about 16.9 oz).

just like to point out that in the UK and most of the Commonwealth Nations a cup is actually 250ml whereas a Japanese cup is 200ml

Sorry, I assumed the OP was using the US cup which is about 240 mL (technically 236.6 mL).

courtypoo23

Wow! Thanks for this post! I had no idea there could be such a variance. I see "about" frequently.

Achrya

That's why I weigh things before I eat them.

True story