Do you weigh/measure your food?

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Replies

  • melindanew
    melindanew Posts: 150 Member
    Calorie dense things, when I'm at home. I don't bother with veggies and the like.
  • kristinhowell
    kristinhowell Posts: 139 Member
    I weigh and measure as often as I can. I don't stress out when I don't/can't, though. Sometimes I just eyeball if I'm eating leftovers and I measured or weighed out a portion the day before.
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
    I eyeball, but I know from experience that I tend to eyeball high, not low.
  • eomuno215in541
    eomuno215in541 Posts: 201 Member
    I dont have a food scale. I do measure by tablespoon and cup. I eyeball low-cal things like leafy greens and berries. And remember dry and wet weigh differently. I'm sure when I have to get more precise I'll get a food scale.
  • Jetta_C
    Jetta_C Posts: 58
    Thank you guys - this is sooooo helpful! My challenge is that I travel for work so I am eating at least 3 nights a week on the road probably 35+ weeks of the year. My idea of what a "portion" is has gotten all out of whack. I think buying a good scale for when I am home would really help me.
  • Curtruns
    Curtruns Posts: 510 Member
    A food scale was a real "eye opener" for me. I usually cook in bulk and if the package indicates 6 servings, I will measure the whole amount and divide by 6, then sticky note the serving weight to the tupperware container in the fridge.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I always weigh my food. I even weigh my caloric liquids, although that's just me being anal and not wanting to mix and match measuring with weighing :p

    And it might be anal but if you buy a food scale.. you could bring it with you sometimes to understand what restaurant servings are like. But really, lets say you buy something pretty basic like a steak with mashed potatoes and a veggie. The menu will probably tell you the size of the raw steak, so use that as an entry on MFP. Or if it doesn't, then try to estimate the cooked weight with your hand. For me, the circumference and thickness of my palm equates to ~3.5oz of cooked meat, for others (I'm guessing smaller hands) it's closer to 3oz. There are diagrams for things like this that are useful to memorize or have saved on your phone when you can't weigh things.
  • Catter_05
    Catter_05 Posts: 155 Member
    I weigh food if I am home and annoy my husband with information like, "honey, did you realize this was one serving on cottage cheese?" And I show him the small dish of cottage cheese I just measured out. My 9 year old has started measuring out a serving size of snacks. At least I know the good habits are rubbing off :smile:
  • BruceHedtke
    BruceHedtke Posts: 358 Member
    For most things, yes. It's not hard to do once you get in the habit. For eating away from home, I'm ok with "getting close enough".

    For fresh fruit and produce, I try to buy everything in the same size. So, if I'm buying six bell peppers, I want all six to be roughly the same size. The same goes for apples, oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. It's not difficult as most things tend to be pretty much the same size as far as produce goes.

    That way, I can weigh one pepper (or apple, orange, etc) and use that weight for the rest of the peppers. I used to weigh every vegetable/fruit but the difference in calories for a pepper that weighs 150 grams versus one that weighs 100 grams is about 10 calories. And that's a pepper that is 1.5 times bigger than the smaller one. There just isn't a big enough calorie difference to pull the scale out every time I have a fruit or vegetable.

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