Is weighing food vital for losing weight?

Followingsea

It's not vital. I lost 20 lbs eyeballing.

That said, I just bought a food scale, and it turns out that... I'm pretty good at eyeballing. Mostly because I intentionally overestimated my guesses a lot of the time.

And some things blew my mind - it turns out I've been underestimating pasta servings by something like a factor of three! A serving of pasta is like... miniscule. And a serving of pasta is like 200 calories! I was off by a measure of 400 calories! There's a day's deficit, right there! On one meal!

If you log faithfully and track your weight faithfully, and you seem to be losing about on par with what your logging would predict, then no, weighing your food may not be necessary for you. But if you're logging everything you eat and your weight isn't changing over a period of weeks - or it goes up - then you may find it a worthy investment.

jofjltncb6

No, not vital...but a calorie deficit is...

...and consistently and accurately weighing and measuring your food is the most likely means of ensuring a calorie deficit.

Achrya

It certainly won't hurt but it's not vital I guess. I use mine less and less as time goes on (I can eyeball a portion of meat, which is 6ozs for me, with a tenth of an ounce at this point.)

ab_1203

Yes I think it is, especially if you eat foods like rice, nuts, cheese, pasta etc. For me, it is not easy to measure these foods and a scale is vital because those foods are pretty calorie dense, especially the cheese and nuts.

callyart

It was vital for me.

Before I got my scales, I was guessing my amounts and I was totally out most of the time. I use all of the time now, but I am getting better at estimating because I have been doing it for 5 weeks now.

RinnyLush

Not 100% necessary IF you can exercise complete honesty regarding your portions. As mentioned in the above comments, a lot of people fare better weighing and measuring their food simply because they can't be objective when eyeballing it themselves.

Personally, I weighed and measured my food for the first couple of months to be sure I was eating the right amount and learning what the portion sizes looked like. Then I decided to just start eyeballing things simply because always breaking out the measuring cups and scales was cramping my cooking style. I've still been losing steadily.

Do what feels right for you! If you feel like you don't quite have a grasp on portion sizes, or are still having issues controlling how much you eat, then weighing and measuring might be a good fit for you to reach your goals. If you feel you've got a handle on those issues, then it might not be necessary anymore! :flowerforyou:

RoseGoldDinosaur

Weighing food is not vital. If you aren't ultra savvy in the kitchen though, I recommend measuring food.
Use a measuring cup, tablespoon, and shot glass to start getting used to how much a serving size is.

4oz of meat is a SMALL serving the size of a deck of cards, 1 TBSP of salad dressing doesn't cover 2 cups of lettuce, and you're going to want to start eating cereal and oatmeal out of a mug because the half cup and 1 cup servings don't come anywhere close to filling a bowl. Just get used to what it looks like to eat smaller portions and you'll start to recognize how much is an appropriate serving. You'll be amazed at how much you save on groceries when you actually measure out that 1 cup of milk!

diannethegeek

I weigh my food because I find it easier than having to find and wash measuring cups/spoons for everything I eat. It's just easier to tare the scale between each ingredient as I throw them into a bowl.

Of course it's possible to lose weight without a food scale. People have been dieting for decades without them and I lost a good chunk of my weight before buying one. But you may have to put up with slower weight loss or more plateaus and fluctuations along the way if you're not very good at eyeballing portion sizes.

sympha01

When I was younger I always eyeballed my portions when I was dieting. I also was pretty much always wrong. I had this idea that a boneless chicken breast was "probably about 3 oz" because that's what serving recommendations were (now I know they are typically between 6 oz and 10 oz, at least where I buy them); or that the glass I poured my milk into was "probably 8 oz" again, because that's what the serving recommendation is (my glasses hold 14 oz). A peanut butter sandwich probably had 1.5 tbsp of peanut butter (so, so wrong -- and I like my PB spread pretty thin, too!). The only way I ever lost weight in that phase of my life was if I was targeting an unholy low number of calories (oh, the folly of youth!) like 900 a day. Of course, I was probably getting closer to 1500 calories a day. Which -- turns out was probably about right.

If you want to know what you're doing, you definitely have to get an accurate handle of portion sizes. The errors add up to a lot of calories and can derail your progress. You don't have to be "obsessive" about it (I don't take a scale with me when I eat out or at a friend's house, etc.), but doing it with your home meals makes a big difference in your mindfulness of the consequences of what you eat.

Cheeky_and_Geeky

I've been eyeballing my portions & guesstimating my workout calories burned & have consistently lost weight. I have my calories set at 1350 though, so im probably eating 1700 & burning half as many calories as I think I am. If you have less than a 500 calorie deficit, then yes you probably will need to buy one. Especially if you are a novice at eyeballing portions. Good luck!

cwolfman13

It depends on how precise you want/need to be and how good at estimating you are. I was horrible with estimating initially...I started using a food scale and found out that I was eating around 600 calories per day more than I thought I was which was completely wiping out my deficit and thus the reason I wasn't losing weight. As soon as I started weighing and measuring everything, the weight came right off no problem.

I don't really weigh too much stuff anymore as I learned how to eyeball pretty good and I've just been maintaining. Actually, that's not totally true...I started weighing most things again this week because I'm trying to drop a couple points in BF% with a very, very small deficit so precision will be key.

Brianna716

Vital? No. Helpful? Yes. Especially if you don't know what 1 serving of each food looks like.

One serving of cereal is less than a cup. Do you have measuring cups in your kitchen- yeah, less than one of those. Turns out one serving of cereal does not mean fill the bowl to the top

cmriverside

I can spot an ounce of cheese from across the room.

However, I used to have no idea about portion sizes before I started using the digital scale. Oil, meat, cheese, nuts, avocado, fruit, are all pretty easy to make a mistake. A 300 calorie mistake is imperceptible if you have never weighed a food.

300 calories in a day can undermine your success.

ktsmom430

In the beginning, it really helps to get the correct amounts.
You may get very good at it and not need to measure and weigh foods eventually.
But if you are not losing, it may be because you are eating more than you think.

fast_eddie_72

I think its something people who become OCD buy and use......sorry.

If you're good without it, that's fine. But it's not just being "OCD". I wasn't estimating well. Would probably estimate better now with some experience using a scale. And I'll probably get very good after a while. But it's not being OCD. The difference can add up to a lot of calories.

doubleclick_darling

I'm still very much in the beginning of my weight loss journey (about a month and a half in), and using my little scale has helped me out so much. I don't have to know what an ounce, gram, or anything else is (my scale can be changed to different measurements, though grams and ounces get the most attention). One thing I've noticed is that me weighing foods for the last month and a half has really helped me learn what a real serving is. For example, what I thought a serving of cheddar cheese was and what it really is varied greatly (my "ounce" was easily 3 times the size of a true ounce).

Weighing foods has also actually improved my slicing skills indirectly. I'm learning to slice thin cheese slices (among other things), which actually results in better overall taste and texture quality of my foods (a thin slice of cheese melts so much nicer on my breakfast sandwiches than a thick slice).

I've started guestimating on some foods, but for meals I know are going to be potential trouble meals, I weigh to make sure I keep my servings in check and get an accurate count.

Vicxie86

I use a digital scale, measuring cup and spoons. For me, it is very very vital because i tend to eat with my eyes,the bigger the portion, the better. I cannot say i am cured of that just yet, so measuring everything has become a very welcomed habit, i don't really care who wants to see it as OCD

jofjltncb6

Vital? No. Helpful? Yes. Especially if you don't know what 1 serving of each food looks like.

One serving of cereal is less than a cup. Do you have measuring cups in your kitchen- yeah, less than one of those. Turns out one serving of cereal does not mean fill the bowl to the top

Bah!

Next, you'll tell me that a carton of Breyer's coffee ice cream doesn't contain two servings.

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