Um. I just ate a tub of ice cream and need help

stealthq

1 mL of water weighs 1 gram. I usually just weigh whatever it is the same way. It is probably closer with this than trusting the company who loaded the product to actually give you the correct weight to the slightest gram.

This works for almost all liquids but ice cream has lots of air incorporated, you'd have to melt it first to be accurate. The empty/full container-weighing system works well, but you need an empty container first - I can usually manage that :happy:

Still doesn't work. 1mL == 1g works OK for liquids with densities similar to water. Melted ice cream is more dense. I found a reference book on ice cream on google that cites a range from 1.0544 g/mL to 1.1232 g/mL (can't believe it was so easy to find).

Why is it an issue to just weigh the frozen ice cream to get the right serving, unless you're in Canada and they don't give you the weight per serving? Obviously, then chopping up the whole mass into servings makes sense.

Foulque

If it's of any consolation, I've been making the mistake of measuring ice cream in cup measures for the last while too. Normally I weigh things but the serving size given on my brand is "1/2 cup (125 ml)" - presumably direct from the Department of the Bleeding Obvious. So I'm not sure what I can do to convert that into a more accurate serving by weight but I certainly have been packing that stuff hard into the cups so really need to dial back on that. In retrospect the huge container did empty out surprisingly fast although it isn't only me eating it and I'm the only one 'measuring' my servings from it so I can't be sure how much damage I've done to myself.

Quoting self to say I figured it out.

Weigh empty container. Weigh full container. Divide difference by container volume and multiply by serving size. That is the serving size in grams. Of course it can't be exactly perfect unless you check the stated container volume is perfectly accurate but it's a darn sight closer than ramming some ice cream in a cup measure. I have been eating just under 1.5 serving every time I 'measured' one serving. There goes my diary for the last week. Lesson learned!

1 mL of water weighs 1 gram. I usually just weigh whatever it is the same way. It is probably closer with this than trusting the company who loaded the product to actually give you the correct weight to the slightest gram.

According to my calculation, if I simply measured 125g of ice cream and called it a 125ml serving in my diary, I would be counting almost exactly half of the calories I had actually eaten of my brand of ice cream (it'll vary by brand). Your trick absolutely doesn't work for ice cream because of the air.

In any case no weight is actually given in grams by the manufacturers of the ice cream I buy, which is why I'm having to weigh it and work off their container volume (which, as I say, could be a little off) to get a gram/serving amount. I could probably take the empty container and fill it with the relevant amount of water to make sure it compares visually to the volume of the ice cream in a full container, just to be a little closer, but unfortunately there is no way to be 100% certain. Splitting the entire tub into portions might be closer. I'm happy to accept the small error inherent in my method since the ice cream I buy comes in a 4L container and any discrepancy in the container volume is going to be divided over 32 servings, i.e. fairly insignificant. With a smaller container, it would definitely be worth taking the time to be more precise but again, you can't know for sure if the container volume is right so even portioning it out beforehand won't necessarily be perfect.

This is why all serving sizes of solid foods ought to be given in grams. What a lot of unnecessary messing around.

RissyChris

I don't eat ice cream every day, but I keep a container of Unreal chocolate candies (basically "organic" M&Ms) in my desk drawer. When I get those middle-of-the-day cravings, I count out 12 or 25 of them (50 or 100 calories) and enjoy a moment of chocolate bliss. If someone said I have to give up the one thing that gives me a bit of pleasure each day, I'd probably feel like the OP, too. I fit it in to my otherwise pretty healthy and balanced diet. Though technically I should weight them, I don't. If I'm one M&M over for 50 calories, not going to worry about it.

My point is the OP says she's eating well and logging/measuring portions. Good for her. If she can get a new scale and hide it from her dad so he doesn't bust it up, great. Weighing portions is far more accurate than measuring, we all agree with that. But I think the OP's dad may be more of the challenge here than her nightly escape with a small cup of ice cream.

My heart goes out to you because I can hear the "I feel so trapped" in your posts. I hope that you find the inner personal strength to deal with your family and support from the outside to help you heal and move on. There is a solution to this--you have to search (and possibly search hard) to find it. Don't give up.

I think this is the best advice/post I've ever got on this website. You hit the nail right on the head. God bless you. Seriously I'm done dealing with other answerers because its been days since this 'mistake' happened and I've already moved on. How do I 'close' a post on this site? Cause I don't want people to still think I need help with this issue and hearing people tell me weird things like I have an ice cream addiction is slowly killing me inside because it is so damn wrong and there is no way to let them know.