Weighing your food vs. measuring

conniedj

So if you have seen my "watch my progress" post, then you know that I have been on the EM2WL program for just over 8 weeks.

My TDEE for several weeks was @ 2800--and I maintained, with gradual gains of 4 lbs over 8 weeks.

What I didn't do was weigh my food. I just got a scale. Guess what? Everyone that says " You are probably eating more than you think" is probably right!

If you notice on the label of your food.....a serving size in portion, followed by grams. I followed the portion--it should be correct, right? An example: Costco Organic Animal Crakers on serving = 13 crackers/28 gms. I always took 13 crackers ( ok--sometimes 14...plus the one I pop in my mouth before I started counting:blushing: ). In weighing the same crackers 28 gms was = just 9 crackers! I have been overconsuming and under-logging!

Imagine all the extra calories over the course of a day/week/ month!!!

For me this was eye opening. And it's good news/bad news. Bad news first. I have been eating well over my TDEE--which means I was probably in more of a "clean bulk" ( slightly above TDEE) phase vs. TDEE. So scale has not been going down.

Good news? I was probably eating about 3000/day and pretty much maintaining....only slight gain averaging .5 lbs/week. So now as I am cutting....I will probably do a smaller cut with real portions. I am excited to see what happens!

The lesson? I really considered myself a great judge of volume. But volume (ie: 1 cup) doesn't equal the weight portion of that food item! I am humbled by this lesson and will retrain myself to weigh my food. But I have to tell you--I am lamenting having to weigh peanut butter. How do you do this without losing at least some on the dish/spoon???:laugh:

heybales

So if you were underestimating food intake, and actually eating more, and not gaining on what was really more calories - your TDEE is higher than you thought.

So TDEE estimated matched underreported calories, but for actual calories, it was more.

So true, you are getting bigger deficit getting more accurate.

The other fun one, is the "about 3 servings" on an item almost anyone would eat the whole thing of.

In that case, you can weigh it to determine if they included more than stated on the package.
Then divide that by the actual serving weight.
Many times it's really 3.3 to I've seen 3.8 servings. And sometimes that's just going by the stated weight on package divided by the serving size weight. Not even taking in to account they may have put more in the package than stated.

Soup is bad about that using measuring too. mL on can is really 2.5 times the mL serving size, not the "about 2" as stated.

conniedj

Yes! It is amazing how great the fluctuations are in "serving size" as listed, and then what the actual size looks like!

Peppermint_Patty614

Thanks for the lesson. I never would have thought to weigh the animal crackers, and I reach for them often to eat with peanut butter. Yeah peanutbutter will be a pain to weigh.

Thanks for posting.

conniedj

There has to be a good way to weigh PB without losing most of it??? Maybe zeroing out a piece of bread/cracker then putting peanut butter on IT to weigh??? Anyone???

heybales

Spoon on scale, zero out, put peanut butter on spoon, put spoon on scale - there's your PB weight.

Now put PB on whatever you want, even lick that spoon very clean.

abrnchood

Heybales, that is exactly what I was going to say! That is also a great trick for time saving with measuring my lunch time salad--I put my salad bowl on, measure, and reset repeatedly with each new item so that I don't have to use extra cups or anything. Measuring is a pain in the neck but it is the only true "measure" of what we eat and it gets easier/faster over time. I have also found that it is more accurate to measure in grams vs. ounces. I do the same thing with any home baking. I never measure by cup, only by gram. It is the only way to get a consistently good baked product.

conniedj

Lick the spoon! Earth-shattering! lol. How is it that I didn't think of this? I did the piece of bread--zero'd out, added PB, zero's again, added spreadable fruit. Again, not rocket science, but illuminating all the same!

husseycd

Weigh the peanut butter in its container, take the amount you want, weight the peanut butter in the container again. The difference is what you took. You can also weigh the peanut butter in the spoon and then weigh the spoon minus the peanut butter but still with the trace peanut butter. That's more accurate but also more messy.

I always lick the spoon.

graysmom2005

There is a "You probably eat more than you think" thread that I copy and paste CONSTANTLY on threads where people are stumped as to why they are gaining/not losing. Those calories add up fast, and unless weighing every little thing, things are estimates at best. If you follow EM2WL then you are in even GREATER risk of gaining as your deficit goal is so small. Don't weigh all your food? Chances are EASY that you have made up that 500-250 daily deficit in a hurry. Every day. Get the scale out, PEOPLE! LOL!

conniedj

I have seen that thread about "you're probably eating more than you think". I didn't believe that there was that much discrepancy between what is listed as a serving portion, and the actual serving in grams. Some products are pretty spot on--my whey, for example. And my ice cream. Other products are just way off! Like the animal crackers and almonds...

But yes---all those calories you didn't know you were eating absolutely add up! Weigh the food before you eat the food!!:bigsmile: