Do you weigh your food?

NeuroticVirgo

When I first started I didn't. I actually thought weighing your food was pretty unnecessary ... and I was losing even though I was only eye balling my servings. So I wasn't in a hurry to start weighing my foods. BUT I finally jumped on the scale band wagon...and holy cow was some of my stuff off!!

For one, just because the bag says a serving is 4 oz....and everything looks like its pre-cut into 4oz servings....does not mean it really is. I did this with chicken, and when I bought a scale...found out most of what I thought was 4 oz...was really 8 oz. And potatoes...don't get me started on what a "small" potato is. I buy the 5lb bags, so I assumed unless the potato was abnormally large, (since they are mostly the same size)...that 1 potato = 1 serving. Pft...got my scale and realized some of the potatoes I thought were 1 serving, were really like 2 or 3 servings...and they weren't all that big.

Its worked the opposite too. 1 tsp of some stuff looks like WAY more than I would have put when I weigh it (like 5 grams Parmesan cheese, or mustard).

I think my food scale was probably one of the best purchases I've made so far while trying to lose weight. Just wondering if anyone else out there started out like me, but now weighs their food.

DianaPowerUp

Yes, I do weigh my food, and you're exactly right. Once you start weighing your food, you'll be surprised how much smaller an actual serving size is!

Aid_B

Yep, I weigh almost everything, bought some electric sclaes and some measuring cups ! )

mallorybriann

I am addicted to weighing food!!!!!!

And I TOTALLY agree on the potatoes! Publix says one medium potato is 5.3 oz... more like two sometimes three potatoes weigh that!
Realized sometimes I was under estimating and sometimes way over estimating. Gives me good piece of mind

Angela4Health

I totally guessed until about a month into this and then I started measuring and weighing everything and I'm so glad I did because I was overestimating before!

purple_punk

yup i weigh all my food with a digital scale its helped me loads

ashlinmarie

I measure everything out into portions right now but as soon as I move, I'm getting a scale to start weighing out my meats and stuff. I KNOW I usually go over when I eat red meat especially, but I do make sure to only eat it on days I do intense workouts and even then I leave some calories open for error.

bethabeeg

I do too... I have the old school scale yet though. I'm asking for a nicer one when we put out our registery for our wedding. Until then the old cheap one works just fine

jjclem07

I weigh everything now!!! I have got to learn to eat correct portion amounts. I was much like you and assumed I was eying in correctly and was completely wrong as well!!

rileysowner

I agree completely. I got a good digital kitchen scale early on, upgraded it to one that was even better after a few months. It was the best purchase I have made. Very quickly you discover that while the bag lists one slice as a serving, if you weigh it you find it is often much more than the weight of a serving. It is much more precise to weigh than anything else. Always remember that food makers can be fined for shorting something, but not for being over. That means pretty much anything you buy that is pre-divided into servings will have those servings be a little bit (sometimes a lot) bigger than a serving.

KidP

If i'm at home then i weigh most stuff or use measuring cups. I am convinced that is a big part of what has helped me. More than anything else, it's teaching me about portion control. I have noticed that as a result of measuring stuff, my estimation skills have improved. The best part is that a food scale does not have to be an expensive purchase. Mine was less than 20 bucks.

I personally think that along with a Heart Rate Monitor, a food scale & measuring cups are crucial to tracking everything properly.

GaveUp

Yes I do weigh my food. I have a digital scale which makes it easier to weigh food in a plate or bowl. I just put the dish on the scale then push tare and it 00's out the I put the food in. I love it!!

Very important to weigh your food!!

MelissaL582

For the first 3 months, I was eyeballing my food also. When I finally got my food scale, I realized that I was logging in more of what I was actually eating. Now that I have a scale, I weigh everything that I can. I started eating potato chips -according to the package it says about 11 chips per serving..well that was wrong..it was more like 6 chips (28g). Buying a food scale has been one of my best purchases as well.

dls06

Yes In the beginning I weighed everything. Now that I have been doing it for so long I am getting good at eyeballing but if I question myself at all the scale comes out.

Airliner

Absolutely correct! The other thing is, when you weigh the amount you are actually eating, you can adjust the serving size as you record it. For example, today I wanted a little more dressing on my salad than the "2 tablespoon" serving. So it's easy enough to just change the number of servings to "1.5" and use 3 tablespoons.

This, to me, is the best and most reliable way to get the most out of MFP.

sezp

Yeah I agree - weighing food is a real eye-opener. I now weigh everything that I can't judge by sight alone (for example, I know what an ounce of grated cheese is without getting out the scale). The biggest surprise for me was cereal - the first time I measured a 'portion', it was about a third of what I would've normally poured out for myself...

Niveous

Yes, I absolutely weigh everything for accuracy. It makes measuring out quantities of beans, rice, and pasta a whole lot easier too and it really takes very little time to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

SiltyPigeon

I was also surprised when I started weighing my food, but for the opposite reason. Especially with meat, I was WAY OVERESTIMATING. As a prime example, I was registering 2oz of pork chop as 4oz. Way to gyp myself! I could've eaten double! I also LOVE my measuring cups.

Pandorian

I weight it all.. now... when I was working with a dietician I didn't have the scale at that point and was manually tracking my foods (pen and paper) and I never managed to lose weight while working with her... now that I've been using a scale, and tracking my caloric intake, well I'm 15 lbs lighter than I was when I started with the dietician and it's almost exclusively from proper portion control.

Genie30

I'm a weigher too. Like many people I need that to moderate my portion sizes or they'd creep up. I especially always weigh cereal because if I didn't I'd have twice as much and convince myself that was one portion!

capricorn144

:happy: yes yes yes....

i have to keep doing it to keep honest with myself!

sometimes you actually save your day with weighing your portion!