Do yourself a favor!

SLLRunner

Or... dont buy a scale, and overestimate. If you can do this, it will work in your favour, because you will be consuming just 100g of chips instead of your recorded 125g, drinking 250ml of juice instead of your recorded 400ml.

Then with the money that you havent wasted on a scale, you can go out and treat yourself afterwards!! Double whammy or what?!!!

Double silly is what your response is!

Seriously, your response indicates disordered thinking around food. Accountability means honest logging.

SLLRunner

Or... dont buy a scale, and overestimate. If you can do this, it will work in your favour, because you will be consuming just 100g of chips instead of your recorded 125g, drinking 250ml of juice instead of your recorded 400ml.

Then with the money that you havent wasted on a scale, you can go out and treat yourself afterwards!! Double whammy or what?!!!

Without a scale how do you know what 100g looks like????

A scale is about 20bucks

Well, lets have a think. If I buy a pack of chips that say 500g on it, then yes, I can take an educated guess on how much I use. I would then round it up to the next 50g or whatever because I am never going to declare myself eating 115.29g of chips.

You know, your word choices come across as if you are trying to be coondescending, which says a whole lot about you and nothing about the person you take attitude with.

Why would you even think of "food tricking" yourself?

kmglennie

Accuracy is always going to beat estimating.

BAM. I am on board the scale-lovers train, keep it up!

Nice2BFitAgain

why get a food scale if you don't even know how much or how less to put on the scale? i guess i could do research

Say 1 serving size is a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. You'd measure out a half cup, but use the scale to find out how much it is in grams or ounces because that is far more accurate than a 'cup' measurement. Sometimes a cup can weigh more than the serving size in grams, therefore it's more calories than are printed on the label for 1/2 cup.

Research is key...but not difficult. On food packaging the serving size is listed with the weight in grams or ounces next to it. - you do not need to measure out the 1/2 cup and weigh that to get the appropriate weight for the item. just put a bowl on the scale, zero it out and then add your food to be weighed.

Hornsby

why get a food scale if you don't even know how much or how less to put on the scale? i guess i could do research

Say 1 serving size is a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. You'd measure out a half cup, but use the scale to find out how much it is in grams or ounces because that is far more accurate than a 'cup' measurement. Sometimes a cup can weigh more than the serving size in grams, therefore it's more calories than are printed on the label for 1/2 cup.

Research is key...but not difficult. On food packaging the serving size is listed with the weight in grams or ounces next to it. - you do not need to measure out the 1/2 cup and weigh that to get the appropriate weight for the item. just put a bowl on the scale, zero it out and then add your food to be weighed.

Or even quicker, Put the bag on the scale and pull out till you subtract the weight you want out. Literally takes 5 seconds longer than having no scale at all.

jenna808

Congrats on the loss, and I totally agree on the food scale. Definitely helps keep correct portion sizes and are recommended by people on here daily for a reason. Now I know what serving sizes are of my daily foods without having to weigh them too much anymore, and mostly use it for produce/meat nowadays.

As far as overestimating goes, sure you could use it on some things if you really wanted, but for foods that don't come prepackaged with labels and serving sizes it could be difficult. Produce is a good example, say a gala apple. There are a bunch of search results that have servings like medium apple 84 cals, small apple 55 cals, and similar. Well what's a small apple? It's relative. I take a couple seconds to put my gala apple on the scale, it's 242 grams, enter it and that's 130 cals. You can easily get some pretty big differences, even if you thought you were overestimating, especially if you eat a lot of fruits/vegetables that vary quite a bit in size. If overestimating works for some people, great, but for me I want to know for sure I have a deficit.

KnM0107

I don't weigh all my food (never have). I don't even own a scale. I have never had trouble surpassing my goals. If I ever do stop progressing I would think about getting a scale, but at this point I don't need to.

I am happy for everyone who weighs everything and enjoys it, do what works for you.

SezxyStef

I wonder if it's mostly the men who don't weigh their food...hmmm

Sreneesa

I don't understand why people even bother counting calories if they don't use a scale. Frankly they'd be better off just trying another diet or eat low carb or something (and avoid sweets or anything high calorie really).. because at least that way they'd be less likely to overeat.

Unless they have eyeballing super powers but I frankly doubt many of us do... because really, with a 500 calorie deficit, it's very easy to eat close to maintenance if you don't weigh your food.

I lost 65lbs without using a scale. It was actually pretty easy. Didn't use a scale until I only had 10 to go, and then for a bulking phase. Was actually pretty easy.

I have always in the past lost weight without using a scale. Never even thought too until coming on here so obviously it is possible.

I think now that I do weigh my food I eat more then I did when I didn't.

I do hope to not have to weigh food forever as it gets annoying. lol.. I do not want my life to revolve around constantly thinking about food, etc. I want to be normal like other people I know, who like me in the past did not use a scale to lose weight and kept it off. lol

But as I said above using a scale has allowed me to eat more then when I didn't weigh food in the past. It also has helped me to develop better eating habits and in return has helped with my way of thinking about fitness in general.

SLLRunner

I wonder if it's mostly the men who don't weigh their food...hmmm

I think you could be on to something. My man has been using MFP since October, has lost twenty pounds, and rarely, if ever, weighs the food that goes on his plate. I've seen him do it when he's cooking, but for me and not himself.

Yet, he's been as successful as he wants to be with his weight loss.

JustinAnimal

I don't understand why people even bother counting calories if they don't use a scale. Frankly they'd be better off just trying another diet or eat low carb or something (and avoid sweets or anything high calorie really).. because at least that way they'd be less likely to overeat.

Unless they have eyeballing super powers but I frankly doubt many of us do... because really, with a 500 calorie deficit, it's very easy to eat close to maintenance if you don't weigh your food.

I lost 65lbs without using a scale. It was actually pretty easy. Didn't use a scale until I only had 10 to go, and then for a bulking phase. Was actually pretty easy.

I have to agree with this gentleman and eldamiano. Lost 85-90 lbs. by overestimating calories consumed and underestimating calories burned. I didn't go too drastically in either direction, but the weight came off no problem. But that was just trying to lose weight, not necessarily bulk or build or anything that might require much accuracy. I don't have a heart rate monitor, either.

Tracking my calories and having the accountability was a much more important tool. But that's just my experience and I'm glad it was a positive one. I don't think this needs to be an argument, just what works better for you. Glad the OP found something that made things so much easier for them.

suziecue66

If you haven't bought a food scale and you don't weigh your food, PLEASE DO IT! You'll save yourself so much frustration.

I've lost a little over 30 lbs on my own without weighing food, but it was so slow and I kept getting stalled/stuck. Bought a food scale this week, weighed everything out, and I'm already 1.5 lbs down from where I was on Monday.

Please take everyone's advice! It really does work!

Great advice for those that keep wondering why they haven't been losing weight and insisting they are maintaining a calorie deficit. If you eat pretty much the same thing everyday once you know for sure what calories are you may be able to do it by eye.

Iwishyouwell

I don't weigh food because I don't calorie count or log to lose or maintain weight.

But for those who do rely on it, I can not fathom why any person who is struggling to lose doesn't weigh their food. It's just beyond my comprehension to struggle with losing, while calorie counting, because you're guesstimating your calories.

Clearly if you're not succeeding, yet still logging, it's almost always likely you're underestimating your consumption and faithful weighing would nip that right in the bud.

Hornsby

I wonder if it's mostly the men who don't weigh their food...hmmm

I would think it would be much easier for us for sure mainly because we can eat so much more for the most part so we don't have to be as precise. When you are maintaining at roughly 3200-3400 calories, it's not that big of a deal if you have some errors here and there. Obviously it gets a bit harder the less calories you can consume to maintain/lose.