Clarification on Food Measurements

gramarye

I feel like this is really basic stuff, but I'm still getting a handle on portioning and I wanted to clarify on measuring food. I have a food scale, and it's pretty much the best thing ever. I've started using it whenever possible -- like, I checked how much a teaspoon of sugar weighs, and now just go by weight when I have it in coffee. Ditto with butter. I love the control.

I'm curious about packaged things that have servings like "1/2 cup." Example, cottage cheese is my most common 1/2 cup food item. Is measuring it out to four ounces accurate? Or is there a difference in weight to volume that I'm missing? I'm mildly concerned that I'm measuring out too much now and underestimating calories. (I haven't been doing it long enough to determine if there's been any changes in the way I'm losing weight.)

Sorry for the silly question. Thanks for reading!

bcattoes

A 1/2 cup measurement would be for a measuring cup, but it will not always be 4 ounces. An 8 ounce cup is based on water. Some things are heavier than water tho, so you'd have to with measure it with a measuring cup or find an entry by weight. Sometimes foods will give both, such as 1/4 cup (30 grams).

TheSlorax

I believe for the most part, food labels also list the serving size in grams. your cottage cheese should have the number of grams the 1/2 cup equates to on the label. I would then weigh out a serving by the gram. I rarely use measuring cups anymore as it's much easier to just put my bowl/plate on the food scale and weigh the serving size. mostly because it's less dishes and I'm lazy, but it's also more accurate so it's a win-win.

husseycd

Liquids are the only thing I've found that don't always have weight equivalents for measurements. Like milk or cream. Because you can't have a heaping teaspoon of cream, I don't worry too much about it.

The_Enginerd

You are confusing ounces (weight) and ounces (volume, aka fluid ounces). There are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, but your food scale measures weight.

I believe for the most part, food labels also list the serving size in grams. your cottage cheese should have the number of grams the 1/2 cup equates to on the label. I would then weigh out a serving by the gram. I rarely use measuring cups anymore as it's much easier to just put my bowl/plate on the food scale and weigh the serving size. mostly because it's less dishes and I'm lazy, but it's also more accurate so it's a win-win.

This. On mine it says 1/2 cup (113 g)

cmeiron

Depending on where you live you may not be so fortunate as to get weight measurements on your food. There's a ton of stuff I eat whose packaging only indicates a volume measurement. Super annoying.

gramarye

You are confusing ounces (weight) and ounces (volume, aka fluid ounces). There are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, but your food scale measures weight.

I believe for the most part, food labels also list the serving size in grams. your cottage cheese should have the number of grams the 1/2 cup equates to on the label. I would then weigh out a serving by the gram. I rarely use measuring cups anymore as it's much easier to just put my bowl/plate on the food scale and weigh the serving size. mostly because it's less dishes and I'm lazy, but it's also more accurate so it's a win-win.

This. On mine it says 1/2 cup (113 g)

Thanks for the information -- I had a feeling I was mixing something there, but couldn't put my finger on what.

And also -- I can't believe I never noticed the grams there before! I just checked my fridge and everything I looked at had the grams in parenthesis next to the serving size. I'll have to keep an eye out for that one when buying food in the future, because that's super convenient.

Thanks, everyone!