Question about measurements

Tigercrum
Tigercrum Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am new to dieting and nutrition. I just got a food scale to better log accurately. My question is simple:

If there are 8 Ounces in a Cup, is that ounce weight or are there different ounces for volume, like a cup is volume?

Can I weight out 8 ounces of raw Broccoli if the recipe calls for a Cup, since measuring a cup of broccoli leaves a lot of empty space without packing it into the measuring cup?

does 16 ounces = pound and 16 ounces = 2 cups equal each other? Are they the same measurement of ounces?

Replies

  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    If a recipe calls for 1 cup of chopped broccoli, measure the volume of the cup of broccoli using a measuring cup. Then, put it on the food scale for the purposes of logging. Volume measures are for recipes. Food scale is for calories.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    Don't confuse "fluid ounce" - which is a unit of volume - with "ounce", which is weight. There are 8 *fluid ounces* in a cup, so no, you shouldn't switch 8 ounces of broccoli for a cup of it.

    Generally, weight is better for measuring solids, because, like you said, solids can have lots of air. Liquids can be measured either with volume or weight (weight is a bit more accurate, if your scale is accurate).
  • Tigercrum
    Tigercrum Posts: 7 Member
    Don't confuse "fluid ounce" - which is a unit of volume - with "ounce", which is weight. There are 8 *fluid ounces* in a cup, so no, you shouldn't switch 8 ounces of broccoli for a cup of it.

    Generally, weight is better for measuring solids, because, like you said, solids can have lots of air. Liquids can be measured either with volume or weight (weight is a bit more accurate, if your scale is accurate).

    Thank You SO much, that was exactly the info I needed. Logging is turning out to be not so easy to someone who doesn't cook and has never learned about nutrition and such. Sorry if it was a dumb question.
  • stephsother83
    stephsother83 Posts: 1 Member
    There are no dumb questions! Yes, fluid ounces are different from weight ounces - and the food labels don't help when they put "2/3 cup (85grams)" on the label, as if they equal each other. I am going out to buy a more accurate digital scale for this very reason. If you notice, some labels say "sold by weight not by volume, some settling of contents may have occurred during shipping."
    The demonstrations in this video http://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY (that I saw on another post) convinced me...

Categories