Portion Control Weighing your food success stories pls!

bleep

Pro Tip - When weighing things like peanut butter, jelly, mayonnaise or any other high calorie but hard to estimate stuff... Put the bread on the scale first and then zero the scale out, then add whatever it is to the bread to get that weight right.

I remember when I first started weighing things, somebody told me that and it helped me.

Same here. When I started hearing "Weigh everything" I was thinking to myself, "I am not going to weigh out 10 grams of butter before I put it on my toast. That's just silly!" Well, it is silly because there's an easier way, hehe.

I found another tip about weighing things like butter or oil etc. Instead of weighing the bread before and after (and getting crumbs everywhere) weigh the tub of butter before, take out what you want and then weigh it again and check how much less it is! No mess no fuss!

Yep that is a good way to go too, and I do that sometimes as well, especially when I'm adding stuff like sauces/marinades from a bottle to a stir fry I'm cooking.

_Zardoz_

(And really, is it that difficult?)

Truth--I will never understand people who are more willing to cut out entire foods and eat at severe estimated deficits just in case they've guessed wrong than to take the extra minute to weigh their food and record it.

this

clau_nectarina

I weigh everything - food that I make, fruit, sauces, and of course, takeout (no matter how healthy it might be). I find that the portions and nutritional content listed on websites and entered on the MFP database have nothing to do with how much food a business will serve you. I've had some restaurants serve me portions three times as large (in weight) as what is listed on their website... So those noodles that you thought had some 340 calories are suddenly 1020 calories. They're trying to keep the customer happy by serving a heaping plate, but getting 2 to 3 times what you thought you'd be served is a disservice.

I thought I had a good eye for 'cup, half-cup, tablespoon', etc., but the reality is that most of the time I underestimate and some of the time I overestimate... So I decided to stop guesstimating. I have one scale at home and luckily there's one in the kitchen at my office, so it just takes me a few seconds to figure out how much I'm really eating.

What has shocked me the most is finding out that the fruit that I get in (US) supermarkets is huge. I see a listing for a medium pear, let' say 145gr, and the single pear I buy in the supermarket weighs about 240gr. If you're a huge fan of fruit, like I am, you end up eating a lot of sugar in those supersized fruits, so I see no option but to weigh them.

My second surprise was juice/drinks - I thought I had an idea of what 8oz of orange juice look like... Nope! At 110 calories per 8oz, it's not the best idea to end up drinking almost double without noticing.

I've lost 14 pounds in 50 days (without starving) and I'm very happy with my progress. It wouldn't be possible if I didn't weigh and measure.

cavia

I was resistant to weighing my food initially for the same reasons you listed. It's obsessive and restrictive.

Based on something a poster wrote on BB.com I decided to give it a shot for the duration of the 12 personal training sessions I had just signed up for. I fully expected to fail. The first week I saw the scale move down and then keep moving down.

That was about 260 days and 34lbs ago.

My idea of a portion of mashed potatoes was a good 3-4x the size of what a serving of mashed potatoes is for me now plus I no longer add the generous knob of butter and giant spoon of full fat sour cream I used to. That's just one example but it was eye opening to see that my idea of a serving size was badly skewed.

It literally takes me seconds per meal and is second nature at this point.

And while eating in a deficit, I can count on one hand how many times I haven't been able to finish the food on my plate. The two times that I think it's happened - I've done what another poster has already said, I wrap it up and it's free food for later since I've already accounted for those calories.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Loved this post, I'm convinced! I'm totally buying a food scale like TODAY!

Me too! I went shopping today--for glasses for the family, but didn't get the scale...I'll get one tomorrow for sure!

MuseofSong

I think my ticker speaks for itself.

I can't imagine not weighing my food. How do you know how much you're eating??? I try to keep a 500 calorie deficit. If I eyeballed the ground beef I just had, I could easily underestimate by 100 calories. And then the PB and J I had this morning? How do I know how much 2TBS of PB is? There goes another 50. What about cheese on my taco? I love that stuff, and could easily see myself eyeballing 2 ounces as 1...there's another 100 calories! Before you know it, my 500 calorie deficit is gone!

What she said! I enjoy calorie dense foods. Calories can go from OK to OMG what have I DONE?! pretty quickly Because I don't want to do cardio for 2 hours every night, I weigh my food portions. And for caloric drinks, like my occassional glass of wine, I have glasses that I've already measured ounces into, so I know exactly where 6 ounces of liquid is in the glass. And, heck, I'll admit it, I've even weighed my wine glasses so I know how much 6 oz of wine weighs. lol

Pro Tip - When weighing things like peanut butter, jelly, mayonnaise or any other high calorie but hard to estimate stuff... Put the bread on the scale first and then zero the scale out, then add whatever it is to the bread to get that weight right.

I remember when I first started weighing things, somebody told me that and it helped me.

One up! Put the container on the scale, like the peanut butter container or the jelly jar, and tare it. Then you count the grams into the negative as you remove the portion until it's the gram count you want. That way the smidge (which could be a few grams) left on the knife or spoon (that you lick off :blushing: ) is counted, too!

I read that on the forums here and it really helped to measure some stuff from the containers. It's a little bit easier than a weigh the container, remove product, and weigh again. Just let it go negative on the scale as you remove the food item. That way you don't accidently end up with way more than you wanted on your plate. No one wants to scoop something that was already on a piece of bread back into the jar. :sick:

zyxst

Portion control is the main way I've lost weight. I mostly use a food scale ($12 Starfrit from Canadian Tire) to weigh out things. I've learned weighing out my Wheat Thins (20g) gives me at least 1 more cracker than the listed 11 pieces serving. :laugh:

SideSteel

If you are tracking your intake and you aren't getting results at a pace that you expect (assuming expectations are reasonable to begin with) then I think it's a very good idea to use a food scale and be meticulous about your tracking.

However, this doesn't necessarily have to be a lifetime thing. Use the food scale for a couple of weeks and see what happens to your results. Over time, you may become comfortable enough with estimating that you stop using it, or perhaps use it intermittently. But I think the decision to use one, at least for a while, may open your eyes up to some things, and also help you estimate portions.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

SherryTeach

I weigh and measure all my food and I don't feel that I am compulsive. Especially when I build a recipe, I want to know exactly what is in it and how much.

As for containers, I use Ziplock containers with screw on lids. They are cheap and leak proof. I have probably 30 of them. I make food in batches, portion it all out, freeze it and then I don't have to worry about food for a couple of weeks.

stef_monster

I have anything left on my plate, I put it in a leftover dish. It's then "free" calories for anytime I'm extra hungry, because it's already been counted for in my day. I have no problem grabbing an already accounted for leftover container for a midnight snack.

YOU ARE A GENIUS AND I LOVE YOU. Why did I never think of this!?

TheFitHooker

I measure and weight every ounce of my food. I believe portion control is the #1 key. I've lost 133 lbs, been doing portion control from the start.

AllonsYtotheTardis

I weigh all my food. I believe that's why I've been successful here.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I bought this one:

http://www.amazon.com/White-0-04oz-Digital-Kitchen-Compact/dp/B0096YDPNA/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1383593082&sr=8-13&keywords=food+scale

$7, and it's worked great. I wish the platform were bigger, but I really can't complain for the price, and I've always managed to make it work. Sometimes I do have to weigh in a bowl before transferring to a plate if I'm weighing something large though.

Thanks for posting this link. I'll be sure to get one like this, but with a bigger platform (thanks for mentioning that too) and that weighs/measures grams & oz. This price looks terrific--I'll shop around but definitely will get one today!

NewLIFEstyle4ME

I bought this one:

http://www.amazon.com/White-0-04oz-Digital-Kitchen-Compact/dp/B0096YDPNA/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1383593082&sr=8-13&keywords=food+scale

$7, and it's worked great. I wish the platform were bigger, but I really can't complain for the price, and I've always managed to make it work. Sometimes I do have to weigh in a bowl before transferring to a plate if I'm weighing something large though.

Thanks for posting this link. I'll be sure to get one like this, but with a bigger platform (thanks for mentioning that too) and that weighs/measures grams & oz. This price looks terrific--I'll shop around but definitely will get one today!

Shopping again today and stopped in J.C. Penney, found a nice looking scale, but it was $50.00 and did NOT have the gram function. I think I'll check out Amazon.

AllonsYtotheTardis

Starfrit makes a reliable one with grams and oz, and they can be bought at walmart. I think they were around $20 CDN, so they should be a little less in USD.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Starfrit makes a reliable one with grams and oz, and they can be bought at walmart. I think they were around $20 CDN, so they should be a little less in USD.

THANK YOU for the name brand and place...I'll check there for sure tomorrow! In the meantime, what I've been doing is "eyeballing up" for the past two days. Whatever I've eaten, on the mfp food diary cals, I've been putting .5-to 1 serving more than it states. Not perfect by a long shot, I know...but that's what I've been doing until I get my scale. Kinda like my exercise cals, instead of putting everything I've done for the day--I short the time or not count the cals on a particular exercise, because there is NO WAY I've been burning all the cals Mfp's cals state...it's just no way!

mama2redhead

Just ordered my scale! Thanks for the great post.

xX_PhoenixRising_Xx

107lbs lost... I weigh virtually everything, even wine. I can eyeball a portion size pretty accurately now, but I still prefer to weigh and get it exact!