Why do people weigh their food?

WalkingAlong

This is an honest question. Why would you weigh your food? I get counting calories (duh). But the weight of something shouldn't matter. Am I wrong?
Enlighten me please!

Are you being serious LOL!

How the hell can you count calories (as you say you understand about that bit) if you do not know how many calories in the food? If you do not know the weight of the food in question how the hell can you know the amount of calories in it to count them??

Me thinks you are actually on a wind-up.

*sigh* It is very possible to lose weight, get healthy and count calories without a scale. You might not be able to but it worked perfectly for me. I am very good at estimating and eyeballing. I don't think everything is absolute and I have the sense to adjust my intake if need be. All without weighing food.

This may come as a shock, but people can and do lose weight without counting calories at all...

oh well that's okay then, no need for you to worry really is there.

However, for most other people trying to lose weight, "eyeballing" food is a waste of space.

I think if you counted up all the published diet books and plans from the last century, most of them would have you eyeball portions or some variation of that, not count calories.

Counting is usually unpopular and avoided because it sucks so people quit. And weight loss isn't linear so people quit. And it's demoralizing to see your hour walk didn't even cover your egg sandwich calories.

It's human nature to want to go back to being able to intuitively eat the right amount, a skill we were born with and lost. In my opinion, anyway.

Most diets fail too.

Do "calorie-counting" diets succeed more than "eye-balling" diets do? No idea.

But accurately measuring removes (or at least diminishes) one of the things that can easily go wrong when trying to reduce calories.


ETA: Oh, and I don't think counting calories "sucks". I think it's empowering and educational. (However, what "sucks" is trying to stick to calories that are too low. Perhaps that's why some people think that counting calories "sucks".)

I agree most diets fail. I'm not saying not counting beats counting, just that there are two methods, not just one. This one here is among the less popular, I think, too. I see more people counting carbs or points or glycemic index or food combining or whatever. I was replying to "eyeballing is a waste of space". Which is nonsensical anyway so I don't know why I bothered.

Counting calories is simple and only takes a few minutes but it's unnatural and inconvenient. Our relationship with food should be natural and intuitive. If you had to time your sex sessions, or measure your urine, or scrutinize any natural task that most of the animal kingdom just *does*, it's likely to rub you wrong on some level. Or I think it should.

I'm not talking about deficit eating sucks, though that can be, too. Do you assume I'm eating at 1200 because I say it's usually safe? I'm sorry, I'm not counting and when I do, I eat higher on average though not a lot. It doesn't change that if an adult woman chooses to lose up to 2 lbs/week by eating at 1200, there's rarely anything unsafe about it.