How do you use a food scale?? HELP!

Allison128

I know.. I know.. stupid question?!?! Well the only stupid questions are the ones not asked.

I'm kinda currently stuck at my current weight and losing motivation. I have about 10-14lbs to go! I think being so close to the finish line I need to be as trutful wih myself as possible!

SO.. I'm going to buy a food scale today.

How do you incorporate it into your nutrition, diet and fitness routines?

What types of food do you weigh? Meat only? fruit? What? I know.. another stupid question

Also.. this is a biggie... When you weigh meat.. do you weigh it raw or cooked?

Does anyone recommend a specific brand? Is the Biggest loser scale good??

Thanks for your help!

Minnie_Moo

I know.. I know.. stupid question?!?! Well the only stupid questions are the ones not asked.

I'm kinda currently stuck at my current weight and losing motivation. I have about 10-14lbs to go! I think being so close to the finish line I need to be as trutful wih myself as possible!

SO.. I'm going to buy a food scale today.

How do you incorporate it into your nutrition, diet and fitness routines?

What types of food do you weigh? Meat only? fruit? What? I know.. another stupid question

Also.. this is a biggie... When you weigh meat.. do you weigh it raw or cooked?

Does anyone recommend a specific brand? Is the Biggest loser scale good??

Thanks for your help!

I have used a food scale for many years........I started using one when I had joined Weight Watchers. It will definately open your eyes, well it surely did mine :ohwell: to portion control especially when measuring food with measuring cups and spoons or by eyeball :noway: and you won't believe how much more food you really may be eating by not weighing it.

I weigh almost everything I have and yes I weigh meat after it is cooked.

The food scale I have is a Kitrics Digital Nutrition Scale (which I bought on QVC but have seen on amazon too) and it has food codes programmed into it and you can add more of your favorite foods and get the nutritional info for the items you are weighing.

You can buy any food scale from a regular digital scale to the much fancier ones. I think the main point is basically the measuring of the portions

Nelski

I weigh pretty much everything when I'm calorie counting unless it is something that is packaged for 1 serving. It has really helped me with my portions. Many things that I have weighed tons of times I can just eyeball a serving size now, but I do still weigh sometimes. When I weigh my meats I usually do it cooked. The Purdue chicken I usually get shows 4oz for serving size on the lable so I usually measure out 3 oz when cooked. It might not be exact but close enough for me. If it's a ground meat I usually just estimate so don't weigh. Like if I buy a pound of a ground meat it will usually be portioned into 4 servings so I know I'm getting about a 4 oz serving size before cooking. I measure, my cereal, oils, milk, nuts, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. I don't aways measure my fruits and veggies but sometimes I do, it depends how accurate I am being that day and what it is. I don't measure a slice of bread or tortilla and just count them a slice like the package says but if you want to be really accurate on your counting you could measure the slice of bread to see that sometimes it's actually more or less than the the serving size says a slice should be. I don't remember what brand I have, but it is digital and only cost less than $20 and it has worked great for a few years.

Pandorian

Weigh everything. Weigh everything raw.
Oatmeal, rice, pasta will weigh differnetly based on how you cook it, only way for 2 different cooking methods to come out the same is to start from dry for weighing.
Meat I weigh raw also. See any restaraunt, they are very sure to mention their 1/4 lb weight for a burger refers to pre-cooked weight. Cooking meat rare is going to take out less moisture than cooking to well done so the weights will be different.

For fruit measure the edible portion, like if you're eating an apple I eat mine sliced so I weigh once the core is gone, orange is peeled, banana peeled, grapes off their vine etc.

Get used to "tare" function on your scale, I put my empty bowl on the scale, tare it so it reads 0, pour the cereal in to the weight I want, tare again and pour in my milk or water. Perfectly measured, no additional scoops / cups etc dirtied.

robin52077

Weigh everything. Weigh everything raw.
Oatmeal, rice, pasta will weigh differnetly based on how you cook it, only way for 2 different cooking methods to come out the same is to start from dry for weighing.
Meat I weigh raw also. See any restaraunt, they are very sure to mention their 1/4 lb weight for a burger refers to pre-cooked weight. Cooking meat rare is going to take out less moisture than cooking to well done so the weights will be different.

For fruit measure the edible portion, like if you're eating an apple I eat mine sliced so I weigh once the core is gone, orange is peeled, banana peeled, grapes off their vine etc.

Get used to "tare" function on your scale, I put my empty bowl on the scale, tare it so it reads 0, pour the cereal in to the weight I want, tare again and pour in my milk or water. Perfectly measured, no additional scoops / cups etc dirtied.

exactly this.

Also, when doing a whole recipe, let's say a casserole baked in the oven in a big glass dish...weigh the empty dish, then as you make the recipe, weigh and add each ingredient to mfp in Recipes, then after the casserole (or whatever) is COOKED, weigh the WHOLE thing, then subtract the weight of the dish/pan. This gives you the weight of ALL the food. Then divide by # of servings in the pan to give you the weight of each serving, that way, if you say 1/8 of this recipe is 460 calories, you KNOW 1/8 of the recipe is 672 grams, and you can put a plate on your scale, tare it to 0, and put 672 grams of your food on your plate, and can ACCURATELY log 1 serving of that recipe.

Allison128

Wow! I can't wait to try it! I'm going to go to Bed Bath and beyond and see what I can try!
Thanks for your help and suggestions!

toots99

I have the Biggest Loser scale and I like it a lot. It was like $19 at Bed Bath & Beyond. Definitely go with a digital scale.

TurboJenn

Even something that is packaged for one should be weighed if at all possible. Servings in individual packages can be over by as much as 50%!!! That is a lot of extra calories!!

catycee1

how exactly do you measure spaghetti? cooked? uncooked?

robin52077

how exactly do you measure spaghetti? cooked? uncooked?

weigh it dry, grams per serving according to your box.

Atlantique

You've already gotten good advice on how to use it and that you need one that can tare. You also want one that can switch from ounces to grams to pounds. It doesn't seem like you need a high weight capacity on these kitchen scales, but you really do. If you use your dinner plate on it, or a large glass bowl when you're baking, it adds up quickly!

I have this scale and love it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N07KUE