Do you weigh your foods? If so HELP! :)

Kel3369

I have been told by my RD to meticulously weigh and measure all food intake and I have been trying to do that. I realize that measuring anything incorrectly can really cause a big problem with your calorie intake. Just letting something go over the top of a measuring cup can add over 50 calories that may not get counted and over a year that will be extra pounds of weight. The RD explained this to me so I really do feel its important to get it as accurate as I can especially since I am feeling very shaky about the exercise calculation part of this. I would love to get one of those arm band things to see for sure what I am burning but can't afford that right now and websites, machines, and apps all give me different numbers of calories burned. I get so confused! I will add 20 minutes of circuit training and it says I have burned 150 calories but I will see posts on this site saying people have burned 3 times that in the same amount of time. I just don't know what is correct.

Now, I am having issues with the food scale. This may sound silly but I had a can of Starkist tuna in water. It was a 5 oz can and it says on the back 2 oz when drained" and serving size is 2 oz with 2 servings per can. So 4 oz per can once you drain the water off right? I drained the water out of this tuna like crazy and it looks dry to me. I split the can in half and put it on the scale expecting it to weigh 2 oz and it says 4 oz! I recalibrate the scale to zero which is a pain because its not the best scale money can buy. I got it for 8 dollars at Walmart. You have to move a dial to get it to zero and it moves off very easily so you have to watch it carefully and fix it each time you weigh something. Also, I weighed a bunch of other items in the kitchen that had its weight listed to check the scale's accuracy and it was spot on. So, I have to assume this tuna measurement is correct. How can half a can be 4 oz on the scale when the can says it should be 2 oz? All I can think is I am not draining off all the water but I can't get any more out of this damn tuna! lol This is all making me crazy. Is there some kind of rule with foods you drain water off of? I am not having this with any other food but tuna and its a big part of my diet. My husband has a digital postal scale I was thinking of using to weigh my food. A scale is a scale right so that should be okay shouldn't it? I don't have access to it yet but I want to get my hands on it to compare it to my manual scale and see if they agree. Especially about this damn tuna thing. I just want to make sure I can at least get the food side of things correct since the exercise is so ambiguous right now. Thanks for listening and if you have any ideas or feedback I would love to hear it.

saivenkat02

I always go with what the machine in the gym says. If the machine says I have lost 700 calories for 1 hour of elliptical, I take it down. I have been using my best guess estimate for the amount of portions of the food I eat, and it has worked for me for the first 3 weeks. If it doesnt work for you, then maybe you got to start measuring them according to the portion size mentioned in the database of myfitnesspal and then record the calories accordingly.

nurse_heather

I found a cheap digital scale at WalMart ($30 i think)...also,make sure you subtract the weight of the container you are using.

dmpizza

Water doesn't have any calories, so probably just taking half the tuna is all you need to worry about.

fdonhauser

If you really want to be sure...then splurge on a good scale. I have a Salter scale and love it. If the food I'm gonna eat goes in a bowl, on a plate, or whatever, I put the bowl on the scale BEFORE I turn it on so the bowl ends up being "0" and I can then accurately weigh my food.

reese66

You drained the tuna great now just weigh out two ounces, sometimes in packaging a little more or less can end up in the container.

cramernh

I know which scale you are using - seriously... aim for a 3pt shot and chuck it... Digital is the way to go....
I purchased the Aquatronic digital scale from bigtray.com because it allows me to do both pounds and kilos (if Im trying a euro recipe), I can change it from fluid ounces to milliliters, it also allows me to do a tare when adding or weighing items on it.. It was only $49.00 and takes a GOOD beating too!!!

Kel3369

LOL I definitely will be tossing this scale. I don't have a ton of money to spend but I did find a digital scale for under 20 dollars that is endorsed by the show "The Biggest Loser" does anyone know if this scale is any good?

Carrie401

I've had an Escali primo for years and I love it. It is more than you wanted to spend at $25 on Amazon but it gets great reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Digital-Scale-Warm/dp/B0007GAX04/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317926313&sr=8-1

BaliRun

LOL I definitely will be tossing this scale. I don't have a ton of money to spend but I did find a digital scale for under 20 dollars that is endorsed by the show "The Biggest Loser" does anyone know if this scale is any good?

my mom gave me" the biggest loser" scale and it's awesome.. very accurate. the packaging says 2oz and it measures 2oz. u can do g, ml, oz, lb...and u can search the name of the item on the sacale and it will tell you the calories, protein, carbohydrates, total sugars, total fat, and glycemic index (G.I.) value.

when i started measuring everything i found that i was overestimating the weight some items like chiken and underestimating the measurement of other items like peanut butter,

Kel3369

So happy to hear the Taylor digital scale endorsed by "The Biggest Loser" is worth it. I went on to Ebay and was able to get it even cheaper than the Walmart price with free shipping so I am pretty happy about that. I don't think hubby wants me putting food on his postal scale. lol Hopefully this will be better than the piece-o-crap manual scale I bought for eight dollars. I hate that each time I would use it I would have to recalibrate it to zero. Thanks all for the help. You guys are the BEST!