Food weighing scale miracles.....
Replies
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Hi everybody,
After reading so much about food scales on forums here... I decided to try it... Though i was still reluctant to weigh each morsel i put into my mouth but desperate times call for desperate measures... When my weight stalled for more than a month with regular excercise.. I was at my wits end... I ordered a well reviewed food scale from amazon... And god!! Am i surprised!!!! Am stunned into silence about the underestimation of food quantities.... My everyday home made coffee was 125 kcal till now but with the scale i know it is 168kcal... I used to munch on peanuts in between work... And add the calories approximately.. Yesterday i measured each peanut i ate literally:noway: lo behold... It was 300 kcal unaccounted... I was underestimating my food intake by approximately 25% everyday.. So actually i was logging in 1300-1400 everyday.. When actually it was anywhere between 1800-1900... So how can i expect weight loss.... Thank god i didnt gain... It would have broken my heart:laugh: any way so here am proclaiming myself as a food scale convert forever..... When doing everything else scientifically... Why not food intake also... :flowerforyou: good day everybody... Happy measurings to me...
Congrats on discovering the benefits of a kitchen scale! It will make your weight loss journey easier.0 -
Ok, ok you guys win! I just ordered a scale on amazon. I've been on the fence about weighing because i have an obsessive/addictive personality and a family history of eating disorders. I'll give it a shot but if I get so obsessed that it starts interfering with daily life, it's going in the trash. OP deserves a pat on the back for converting this nonbeliever!
For the record, I'm not going to stop eating cookie butter right out of the tablespoon measuring spoon.0 -
You can put your spoon on the scale, tare it, and then scoop your cookie butter and reweigh. Still straight from the spoon. I may or may not have experience with this with Nutella and dark chocolate almond butter... :-POk, ok you guys win! I just ordered a scale on amazon. I've been on the fence about weighing because i have an obsessive/addictive personality and a family history of eating disorders. I'll give it a shot but if I get so obsessed that it starts interfering with daily life, it's going in the trash. OP deserves a pat on the back for converting this nonbeliever!
For the record, I'm not going to stop eating cookie butter right out of the tablespoon measuring spoon.0 -
Just getting this on my list for when people fight the recommendation to buy a digital scale.0
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The best part about food scales is that I get to feel like a mad scientist every morning when I'm making breakfast.
Lolz... Am being teased as einstein of food at work... But who cares... Am loving it...
today when i had a temptation to eat a fistful of salty fried nuts... I jus measured them and calculated the calories and the craving vanished instantaneously... I ate an apple instead....:bigsmile: small steps towards healthy attitudes... 0 -
Congrats on seeing the light OP! :drinker:
I hope others can learn from your experience.0 -
This thread, like some others here, instantly convinced me. I bought one on amazon too! I was already planning on making a purchase on the site so i just threw it in there 0
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my problem, too. How do you figure out the calories for a single serving of something you just cook by feel and make enough servings for several leftover meals?I did lose weight (I'm quite athletic) but I'm going to try to attempt to jump on this too. I've been using "guesstimates" rather accurately (it worked) but I'd rather KNOW. The problem *whine* is that I make EVERYTHING from scratch with gluten free flour mixes of my own or pre-made gluten free flour mixes that I modify. Did I mention EVERYTHING? All breads, pizza, sauces....I have to figure out gluten free pasta next. Am I allowed to whine? I hate the pre- made gluten free stuff in packages. It's so disgusting I won't even eat it with the exception of one brand of cookies and donuts. :sad:
We eat nothing processed or package. Lots of bean soups, chicken soup, etc.0 -
I have never had doubt about food scale and its efficiency but I admit I am plain lazy and have a huge stomach that a food scale can't handle...0
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my problem, too. How do you figure out the calories for a single serving of something you just cook by feel and make enough servings for several leftover meals?I did lose weight (I'm quite athletic) but I'm going to try to attempt to jump on this too. I've been using "guesstimates" rather accurately (it worked) but I'd rather KNOW. The problem *whine* is that I make EVERYTHING from scratch with gluten free flour mixes of my own or pre-made gluten free flour mixes that I modify. Did I mention EVERYTHING? All breads, pizza, sauces....I have to figure out gluten free pasta next. Am I allowed to whine? I hate the pre- made gluten free stuff in packages. It's so disgusting I won't even eat it with the exception of one brand of cookies and donuts. :sad:
We eat nothing processed or package. Lots of bean soups, chicken soup, etc.
i find using the scale easier when I cook from scratch
i scribble on the whiteboard on the fridge as i go
i cook by feel, but i weigh and record as i go
so this morning I made pancakes for which I don't use a recipe and I add "just enough" butter to the pan for them to cook, so I weight the butter patty and write it on the board, then cook as usual, then re-weigh the patty and do the subtraction
it tends to make me feel better, because If I had guessed I would have assumed that I had used more butter than in fact i did
today i cooked 10 pancakes and used 7g of butter
I make my pancake mix to the right consistency rather than a set ingredient weight, so i weighed my milk bottle before and after cooking instead of weighing out a certain amount
then i weighed all the pancakes and set up a "recipe" using (1serving=1gram) so that i can keep logging the left overs accurately too
the best bit is i don't have to feel guilty about the 4 pancakes that i cooked with butter and ate with sugar and lemon because I know that I have logged them accurately0 -
I agree with you folks ! It has taken many months to bend my head around the fact that I should use a food scale. My husband only shakes his head every time he sees me ... nevertheless, I always thought a Banana was roughly 120 grams but the ones I eat are more like 240 gramms !0
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I just got my scale in March and I am in love! Yes I resisted it a long time as I was doing it just fine and successfully without one, but I was having a problem since February. When I got about 15lbs away from goal. Could not seem to break past the point I was at now, so I'd been thinking about getting a food scale and been wanting one. So I read on here that a few people really liked the Biggest Loser 11-lb Glass Digital Kitchen Scale, so I got one at Walmart. Love it!
And, boom lost 1.7 lbs after that first week and finally am back on a downward trend I have lost consistently every week since then. I have told my husband it's the best thing I've ever bought. I weigh everything now and truthfully it's kind of fun, like a game haha! Like I have read most people say, Peanut Butter was an eye opener. I thought I was already measuring conservatively...nope. I've found a few others that surprised me, Apples, condiments, cheese, and yep, cereal. But I do not eat cereal too often, so don't think that one was one of my problems.
I think the closer you get to goal you really have to be so dead on with everything to lose. That small deficit can really be ate up by a few calories here and there. So I'm very happy with my food scale.0 -
To think of it... I was worried sick i may have gone into starvation mode:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: the problem is not the lack of calories but may be a little too much of them... this situation reminds me of some thing i read somehwere..
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Hi everybody,
After reading so much about food scales on forums here... I decided to try it... Though i was still reluctant to weigh each morsel i put into my mouth but desperate times call for desperate measures... When my weight stalled for more than a month with regular excercise.. I was at my wits end... I ordered a well reviewed food scale from amazon... And god!! Am i surprised!!!! Am stunned into silence about the underestimation of food quantities.... My everyday home made coffee was 125 kcal till now but with the scale i know it is 168kcal... I used to munch on peanuts in between work... And add the calories approximately.. Yesterday i measured each peanut i ate literally:noway: lo behold... It was 300 kcal unaccounted... I was underestimating my food intake by approximately 25% everyday.. So actually i was logging in 1300-1400 everyday.. When actually it was anywhere between 1800-1900... So how can i expect weight loss.... Thank god i didnt gain... It would have broken my heart:laugh: any way so here am proclaiming myself as a food scale convert forever..... When doing everything else scientifically... Why not food intake also... :flowerforyou: good day everybody... Happy measurings to me...
Yeah, once I started measuring all of my food, the weight loss became consistent. I was overeating on mixed nuts, granola and some other stuff. I did over-estimate calories from some food, though. Now, I've got a digital scale at home and a scale at work. You have to stick with what works.0 -
Its amazing how poorly I was guestimating on food portions without a scale...
Now my big miss is peanut butter...My tablespoon and and actual tablespoon are 2 completely different things...lol
Sounds like my tablespoon!!!!0 -
I will be buying a food scale today. In the past 6 weeks I have logged all food and exercised for a total loss of 2 pounds. I think this is going to make a difference for me!0
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Hi everybody,
After reading so much about food scales on forums here... I decided to try it... Though i was still reluctant to weigh each morsel i put into my mouth but desperate times call for desperate measures... When my weight stalled for more than a month with regular excercise.. I was at my wits end... I ordered a well reviewed food scale from amazon... And god!! Am i surprised!!!! Am stunned into silence about the underestimation of food quantities.... My everyday home made coffee was 125 kcal till now but with the scale i know it is 168kcal... I used to munch on peanuts in between work... And add the calories approximately.. Yesterday i measured each peanut i ate literally:noway: lo behold... It was 300 kcal unaccounted... I was underestimating my food intake by approximately 25% everyday.. So actually i was logging in 1300-1400 everyday.. When actually it was anywhere between 1800-1900... So how can i expect weight loss.... Thank god i didnt gain... It would have broken my heart:laugh: any way so here am proclaiming myself as a food scale convert forever..... When doing everything else scientifically... Why not food intake also... :flowerforyou: good day everybody... Happy measurings to me...
I had the same wake up call. It is what helped me the most.
Happy Measurings0 -
That's great! It's funny. I was actually way overestimating! Still, really helpful, and it improves your estimating when you have no other options.0
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my problem, too. How do you figure out the calories for a single serving of something you just cook by feel and make enough servings for several leftover meals?
We eat nothing processed or package. Lots of bean soups, chicken soup, etc.
Log it as a recipe (weigh ingredients as you go), then weigh the total quantity when you've finished and edit the MFP recipe to make each 'serving' 100g. If the total quantity is, say, 510g, you can't tell it you made 5.1 servings when you first log it, but you can when you go back in and edit it. Then when you have leftovers you just weigh the amount you're having and log it as a proportion of 100g.
I do this and if it's something I cook by feel often (stewed apples, salad dressing etc.) I don't bother re-logging my recipe each time; I just assume it'll be pretty similar as I do it so often.0 -
I need to just go ahead and get one, I am almost afraid to see how much I how much I am underestimating what I am eating.0
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I no longer use measuring spoons for anything that has a grams weight for a serving size....including PB. I put the bread (assuming PB) on the scale, tare it, spread the PB and weigh, add more or take some off if needed. Same thing with sauces and dressings.
For me, the food scale has become more important the smaller and smaller my deficit has become. If you have a 750 cal deficit, yeah, you may underestimate, but you might still get a loss for a while. I'm eating super close to TDEE right now so every gram counts. Another thing I do for accuracy is to check the entries in the MFP database. So many user entries are just WRONG.0 -
I finally sucked it up and mine should be delivered today. I just hope I don't get too OCD with it. That's always been my worry, but you guys are so convincing that it's a normal thing to weigh your food and that it's not over the top at all. It's just hard to get it through my thick head that it's ok to weigh and I won't be a weirdo for doing it.
Well, I don't care if I look like a weirdo. I measure right there in the break room at work. People know that I've lost a lot of weight. They'll ask questions sometimes. Maybe someone else will be encouraged to measure their food, too.0 -
My scale is on order. My husband thinks I am nuts but I've seen way too many of these posts to not believe how important weighing your food is.
this is what i am worried about...looking like i am crazy and obsessed with food and calories. I just know I would be criticised heavily if i had a scale.
But every time i read another post about how much people have been overeating (underestimating) prior to getting a food scale, I get a little panicky. I am at a point now where i just want to add on 25% more "quick add calories" to my day to compensate.
I, too, suspect I will get a food scale in the near future.0 -
I finally sucked it up and mine should be delivered today. I just hope I don't get too OCD with it. That's always been my worry, but you guys are so convincing that it's a normal thing to weigh your food and that it's not over the top at all. It's just hard to get it through my thick head that it's ok to weigh and I won't be a weirdo for doing it.
I'm OCD about it and frankly I don't care. I weigh everything when I'm home... it gives me peace of mind.
My scale actually started misbehaving last week, and I had to use cups to figure out the number of servings of mashed potatoes I had made... It made about 5. Finished the mashed potatoes after a couple days, using measuring cups again, and realized I had only logged 4 servings. So that's 150 unaccounted calories somewhere. Ugh.
The scale did it again yesterday and I just went to Target to buy a new one before having dinner. Even after a year, I still can't estimate properly, and my deficit is too small to guess.0 -
I just started using a food scale this weekend. My goodness, that 1 ounce of Gouda cheese is just enough to make you mad. At least now I'll be saving a couple of hundred calories from when I was eyeballing it.0
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I just started using a food scale this weekend. My goodness, that 1 ounce of Gouda cheese is just enough to make you mad. At least now I'll be saving a couple of hundred calories from when I was eyeballing it.
Cheese is the one food I barely eat anymore, just because 1 ounce is so small it's not even satisfying. And I used to eat a LOT of cheese.0 -
I just started using a food scale this weekend. My goodness, that 1 ounce of Gouda cheese is just enough to make you mad. At least now I'll be saving a couple of hundred calories from when I was eyeballing it.
Cheese is the one food I barely eat anymore, just because 1 ounce is so small it's not even satisfying. And I used to eat a LOT of cheese.
ah yes, perhaps my one saving grace is that i avoid cheese...love it too much to only eat an ounce.0 -
I just started using a food scale this weekend. My goodness, that 1 ounce of Gouda cheese is just enough to make you mad. At least now I'll be saving a couple of hundred calories from when I was eyeballing it.
Cheese is the one food I barely eat anymore, just because 1 ounce is so small it's not even satisfying. And I used to eat a LOT of cheese.
ah yes, perhaps my one saving grace is that i avoid cheese...love it too much to only eat an ounce.
Nuts is on my "rarely eat" list, too....28 grams of nuts...I can't deal with that...might just drop if off completely.0 -
"May 1, 2014 12:27 PM
The best part about food scales is that I get to feel like a mad scientist every morning when I'm making breakfast. "
ROFL! It's true!
Thank you everyone for the suggestions on how to weigh out tricky stuff!0 -
Hi everybody,
After reading so much about food scales on forums here... I decided to try it... Though i was still reluctant to weigh each morsel i put into my mouth but desperate times call for desperate measures... When my weight stalled for more than a month with regular excercise.. I was at my wits end... I ordered a well reviewed food scale from amazon... And god!! Am i surprised!!!! Am stunned into silence about the underestimation of food quantities.... My everyday home made coffee was 125 kcal till now but with the scale i know it is 168kcal... I used to munch on peanuts in between work... And add the calories approximately.. Yesterday i measured each peanut i ate literally:noway: lo behold... It was 300 kcal unaccounted... I was underestimating my food intake by approximately 25% everyday.. So actually i was logging in 1300-1400 everyday.. When actually it was anywhere between 1800-1900... So how can i expect weight loss.... Thank god i didnt gain... It would have broken my heart:laugh: any way so here am proclaiming myself as a food scale convert forever..... When doing everything else scientifically... Why not food intake also... :flowerforyou: good day everybody... Happy measurings to me...
Good for you! but what kind of coffee do you drink with that many calories? My black home brewed coffee has only 2 calories?0
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