need quick tip for food measurement/weight

mama_mia3

Food measurement and guestimating weight. I can't ever tell what would be equivelent to an ounce of food. I don't have a scale for that kind of stuff. and sometimes I'm not always in possesion of a measuring cup to measure appropriate portion sizes.

Question of the day? Just how many peices of homemade deer jerky can I actually have? It's SO good!!! Calories are determined by ounces and I want to know how I can figure that withoug a scale.

bryansmama

I'm not sure how to figure that out without a scale, but for future refrence I found a small food scale at walmart for $5! It was in the kitchen utensils section.

seachelle

1 oz = 6 tsp or 2TBSP (not sure that helps with Jerky measuring) A scale would be your best bet and your get your moneys worth out of it! The Turkey Jerkey I have says a serving is 1.5 oz it has about 5 little strips in it.

knittnponder

I agree, go buy a kitchen scale. I have a a MyWeigh that I bought online. It's digital and measures in pounds, ounces, kg, grams and pounds and ounces together. I love that I can switch between the modes since different things are recorded different ways on this site. I'd just make sure it's got ounces and grams as those are the two most common. And make sure it has a "tare" button so you can zero it out. When I make my smoothies I put the blender jar on the scale and zero it out. Then as I add my ingredients I zero it out again between each addition. I know exactly how much of each item I'm eating and there is no guess work and no fooling myself.

kammy92

I definately need a food scale!!!! I'll have to check out Walmart!!!!

PJilly

1 oz = 6 tsp or 2TBSP

That works for fluid ounces, which measures volume, but you can't convert ounces of weight to tablespoons or teaspoons.

KokomoJoe

Go get a cheap scale as other suggested (however I never recommend shopping at wally mart). Once you use a scale you will become very good at guestimating. Now when I fill a small ziplock with cashews I can put it on the scale and it almost always is 1 oz. same thing with meat, I can cut up a portion that will always be 3.5 oz to 4 oz without the scale. I do check only because I don't want to see portion creep. I have 2 scales, one cost $10.00 and the other cost $30. The smaller one gives me very accurate counts to .1 of a gram not that I need it that accurate but it is portable and handy if I have to grab something at work.

PJilly

In the meantime, here's a link that has some tips for eyeballing portion sizes:
http://www.wvportions.com/strategies/portion.asp?sid=2

aeevr

For reference, a dime weighs (actually has a mass of) about a gram.

There are ~454 grams in a pound.

An 8oz candy bar is 454/2~228 grams.

So with this info off the top of my head I will guess that a Slim Jim (beef jerky thing) weighs 1/3
of a candy bar. Then the Slim Jim would weigh 228/3~76 grams.

Edit: Just checked in the database... A regular sized Slim Jim is 3 oz which is ~84 grams so I was off by 23 calories (because according to the database there are 240 calories in a 3 oz serving of Slim Jim)