Figuring out serving sizes is making me want to break things

dominique77

Weigh it.

and for gawds sake just eat the cheese already before you make yourself crazy over each this whole thing!

ETA: Wait.......you're not new? So this is your first time eating cheese? :huh: In the 2 years you've been a member...no cheese?:glasses:

nice reply, Made my day! . ... Really dude you are too angry over 28g of cheese... Just cut it out all together

thirtyandthriving

cheese is usually in one ounce servings. I just weigh out my one ounce. And it is turkey taco night at my house too!

28g=1oz

BoxingClever

Sorry that was blurry, but I'm not taking it again.

Thank you for posting photos

The only explanation I can think of is the fact that my cheese is finely shredded (so it's less dense), and your shreds look quite a bit thicker than mine. :ohwell: But again, this just brings me back to the point that using cups as a measurement is pretty much useless.

BoxingClever

Weigh it.

and for gawds sake just eat the cheese already before you make yourself crazy over each this whole thing!

ETA: Wait.......you're not new? So this is your first time eating cheese? :huh: In the 2 years you've been a member...no cheese?:glasses:

nice reply, Made my day! . ... Really dude you are too angry over 28g of cheese... Just cut it out all together

FYI, I've only been tracking my food for 2 weeks, not 2 years. Just because I signed up on the site on a certain date doesn't mean I've been using it religiously ever since then. I don't even remember when the hell I signed up on here, to be honest.

And seriously, if you think a thread is stupid, DON'T POST A REPLY. It really serves no purpose, other than making you look like a ****.

BoxingClever

Thank you to everyone who gave a serious response, or offered a useful opinion without just trying to make me look like an idiot.
I think I'm done here.

jenna715

Since ive gotten a scale ive noticed i was underestimating other things by using measuring cups too. Id trust the scale.

fteale

I have never understood the American cup thing.


edit, and wth is a STICK of butter? Butter comes in 8 oz pats. How would you even make it into a stick?

LethaSue

4 sticks in a pound of butter, so 1/4 th of a pound

rockerbabyy

See,this is why we UK peeps have such difficulty with cups as a measurement!

And 'sticks' of butter! How much is a stick ffs?

8 tablespoons or 112 grams

LethaSue

Our butter here in the U.S. does not come in pats. Unless you go to a cafeteria or the hospital then you might see a pat of butter and that is just a single serving.

rebyekah

I've been having problems figuring out serving sizes ever since I started tracking, so I bought a scale. I'm making tacos tonight, and I wanted to figure out the servings of all the ingredients.

The serving size for the shredded cheese is 1/4 cup (28g). Out of curiosity, I weighed out the 28g IN the 1/4 cup measuring cup. As you can see in the photo, it's heaping and falling all over the place because it will not fit in the cup. It actually FILLED the 1/2 cup measuring cup, which would mean 28g is TWICE AS MUCH cheese as 1/4 cup. Even squishing it down wouldn't get it to fit in the 1/4 cup.




So.....WHICH IS IT?? Which serving has 110 calories as the package states? Because obviously 28g has quite a few more calories than 1/4 cup. Why the hell can't they just make the serving sizes according to WEIGHT for everything that's not a liquid?? How the hell is anyone supposed to know how many calories they're consuming when the measurement system is so completely f**ked?? :explode:

OMG, this is beyond frustrating.

If I don't know or I'm eating a home cooked meal I didn't prepare I usually just pick something that's similar and guess.

Like if it's homemade tacos, I'd type in tacos to search and pick something that looks similar. I try to go on the high side with the calories and I'm sure I'm wrong sometimes but I'm not eating home cooked meals everyday so it's not a big deal.

I agree. Do what works best for you, but I would have gone crazy weighing stuff. I did this for a 1 1/2 years and I never weighed or measured squat. I always guessed on just about everything. Somehow it still worked, so it's probably ok to make a rough estimate now and then.

BoxingClever

Put a 2 dollars on your scale, it should weigh about 2grams. If it doesn't register it, then the issue is with your scale accuracy.

I don't have any bills, but according to the US Mint website, a nickel weighs 5g. (http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/index.cfm?action=coin_specifications)

So, just to put the arguments about my scale to rest:

jerber160

I'd tend to go with the 1/4 cup shredded. there's less of it.....

MrsLong1980

*chuckles* This is funny! Strange that they put cup measurements on packets - in the UK all nutritional measurements are in grams so there's no confusion

As for your cuppage dilemna - shred size would be an issue so next thing those dudes will be having to do is tell you what size shred you need! LOL

delong99

I'm going to buy a scale so I can eat more shredded cheese!! What brand of scale is that?

fteale

See,this is why we UK peeps have such difficulty with cups as a measurement!

And 'sticks' of butter! How much is a stick ffs?

8 tablespoons or 112 grams

I have just checked and apparently a US tablespoon isn't the same as a UK tablespoon. And a US teaspoon is a whole 3rd bigger than a UK one. AND a US pint is 0.8 of and English one! So one cup is half a US pint, but only 0.4 of a UK one.

No wonder I can never get American recipes to work! That and they always seem to require ingredients that don't exist here.

BoxingClever

I'm going to buy a scale so I can eat more shredded cheese!! What brand of scale is that?

EatSmart Precision Pro - Multifunction Digital Kitchen Scale w/ Extra Large LCD and 11 Lb. Capacity
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CM6TVI/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

wftiger

Not sure what kind of measuring cup you have but when I measure out 28grams it fits in 1/4 cup easily. When I pack it down I can easily get 2 servings into the 1/4 cup.

BoxingClever

Not sure what kind of measuring cup you have but when I measure out 28grams it fits in 1/4 cup easily. When I pack it down I can easily get 2 servings into the 1/4 cup.

So now that it's not my scale, it's my measuring cup that's the problem! *facepalm*

HonkyTonks

I find some things in the MFP database don't have gram options.. they just go by cups, or serves.. I want grams for everything! Grams are the best.

BoxingClever

I find some things in the MFP database don't have gram options.. they just go by cups, or serves.. I want grams for everything! Grams are the best.

You can always create a new item and enter the serving as grams.

MummyOfSeven

one stick of butter is 1/4 cup melted or softened.

I quite literally LOL'd at that answer.
The whole point of the comment was that. here in the UK, we either go by lb & oz or grammes.
Telling me that a stick is 1/4 cup....I'm still none the wiser.
Sorry, lol. :happy:

HonkyTonks

I find some things in the MFP database don't have gram options.. they just go by cups, or serves.. I want grams for everything! Grams are the best.

You can always create a new item and enter the serving as grams.

I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.

MummyOfSeven

I have just checked and apparently a US tablespoon isn't the same as a UK tablespoon. And a US teaspoon is a whole 3rd bigger than a UK one. AND a US pint is 0.8 of and English one! So one cup is half a US pint, but only 0.4 of a UK one.

No wonder I can never get American recipes to work! That and they always seem to require ingredients that don't exist here.

Welcome to my world! Come on in and have a cupcake....measured in ounces :laugh:

MummyOfSeven

I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.

For things like that, the Calorie Counter book comes in very handy. It's a British book, but this one is similar:

http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Calorie-Counter-Portable-Guide/dp/1593596480/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1327105224&sr=8-7

BoxingClever

I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.

Ah, my scale came with a guide that lists the "calorie factor" of a ton of different food items. It shows how many calories there are per gram in each food, so then you just multiply that number by the weight of your serving. I'm sure you should be able to find the info online somewhere.

quara

Not sure what kind of measuring cup you have but when I measure out 28grams it fits in 1/4 cup easily. When I pack it down I can easily get 2 servings into the 1/4 cup.

So now that it's not my scale, it's my measuring cup that's the problem! *facepalm*

It could be your measuring cup... mine are stupid, only the 1/4 and 1 cup are accurate... 3 1/3 cups or 2 1/2 cups cause the 1 cup to overflow...

I have also found that my scale is super sensitive to surfaces that aren't 100% flat. If it's on a cutting board with a wobbly leg or a part of the counter that isn't 100% flat (I never knew these items weren't flat, cause they look like they are to my eye!) the scale gives me a wonky number. Try moving the scale to another location and try again?

ETA: OK, I read through the rest of the posts and it looks like your scale is accurate (with the whole 5g thing)... I say go by weight. I know with All Bran Buds, the box says that 1/3 cup is 28g. However, when I weigh out 1/4 cup, it's 25g, so that is clearly bull and I go by the weight.

PoleBoy

AND a US pint is 0.8 of and English one! So one cup is half a US pint, but only 0.4 of a UK one.

not quite - while there are 16 oz in an American pint, and 20 fl.oz in a British pint, a british fluid ounce isn't the same as an American ounce - it's a twenty-forth bigger

So the British pint is 20% bigger than than an American pint, not an American pint is 20% smaller

....

PoleBoy

I had a set of scales that were very bad if I gradually added something - they would "steady" the reading - the only way I'd notice is it would go to a negative reading when I took the stuff away...

So, just to put the arguments about my scale to rest:

just to satisfy the nit-pickers, zeroing your cup as you did for the cheese, how much do six nickels in your cup weigh?

Bentley2718

The 1/4 cup comes from the pre-shredded cheese. In other words if you had a hunk of cheese that would fit in a 1/4 cup before it is shredded it would weigh 28g.

This makes sense, but it doesn't make sense that they would then put that as the serving size on the SHREDDED cheese. A 1/4 cup of solid cheese is not the same as 1/4 cup of shredded cheese. So why would they use the same serving size? It seems like common sense to use WEIGHT for anything that's not a liquid.

Okay, I realize that my *****ing about it is ultimately pointless, but it just boggles my mind that whoever writes up the nutritional info actually thinks this is the best way to do it. :huh:

They don't think it's the best way t do it, but most people are too lazy to get out a scale and somehow think measuring cups are better.