Measuring food very confusing

Lucsi
Lucsi Posts: 14
in Introduce Yourself
Dear All,
Could someone explain how to measure food?
Scenario: I am in work go downstairs to the kitchen take a bowl of porridge readymade, sprinkle on it some nuts 3-4 little spoon and now what ? How do I know how much I ate?
1cup ½ cup OZ gram ect….. ect….
Restaurant – How to measure quantity is easier when home but outside must be a nightmare!!
Can you pinpoint to me some ideas how to do it. I measure some food home but not able to reproduce it outside
Thanks in advance or for any help appreciated
Lucsi

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,332 Member
    You will be able to eyeball portions after you measure them accurately for a couple months.

    Use a measuring spoon and measuring cups for liquids. Most ceramic small coffee cups are 8-10 oz, large ones 16-24 oz. A regular cereal bowl holds 2 cups, etc.

    The only way to learn correct portions is by measuring them accurately and then seeing how big they really are. Buy a food scale for $20.
  • darlilama
    darlilama Posts: 794 Member
    At home I measure virtually EVERYTHING with either my food scale (which displays in either grams or ounces) or measuring cups. For example, this morning I made a package of instant oatmeal. I then sat the bowl on my scale, zeroed the scale out and dropped some blueberries in it, measuring in grams. Then I zeroed the scale again and dropped some sliced almonds on it, measuring in grams. So, I had my three ingredients and the perfect measure of each, simply.

    Once you start to become accustomed to what a portion looks like (a visual memory, if you will), you can guesstimate when you are not at home. Of course, many restaurants (at least the franchise ones) provide fairly detailed nutritional data on the foods they serve on their websites.

    Also, here is a page that "converts" between different measures: http://www.csgnetwork.com/cookmeasuretable2.html
  • shanae727
    shanae727 Posts: 546 Member
    FOOD SCALE and measuring cups/tools! Keep it simple! Electronic food scale can switch from grams to ounces or whatever. Got mine at Target for $16. :)

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    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter
  • rockerbaby2003
    rockerbaby2003 Posts: 42 Member
    I had that same problem today. I was at a restaurant, Olive Garden and ordered my meal. I just did my best guess of everything I ate, and I plan to go for a fast walk in a little while. Try going to restaurants that have menus online, like Applebees. They list all of their stuff online. If you know you are going to a restaurant, try to look ahead online so you know what you are getting yourself into and its not a total shock when you input what you ate to your best estimates.
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
    I may not be popular for saying this, Lucsi, but us big guys who can lose while eating around 2000 calories or more don't have to be quite as careful with measuring. ( http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/#biglittle ) Being a little off matters more to someone on 1200 calories a day than to someone eating nearly twice that much.

    I use measuring cups and spoons at home, which has helped me a lot when I'm out in the world and have to guesstimate. A food scale would probably help me even more but I've been losing at my goal rate without it so I've never been too worried.

    There are some useful rules-of-thumb here:
    http://caloriecount.about.com/article/when_you_cant_measure_estimate_portions

    This isn't an exact science and eyeballing at restaurants/friends has worked for me.
  • treetop57
    treetop57 Posts: 1,578 Member
    Or maybe I misunderstood your question entirely.

    You've put your loss goal in kilograms, so is the problem that you're not used to our confusing array of US customary weights and measures? If you're more comfortable with metric weights, I'd recommend looking through the database for entries that give calories per gram or 100 grams. They are there for most foods.
  • Lucsi
    Lucsi Posts: 14
    Hello All,

    Truly thank you all for the quick replies and help on this. I will try to messure home as much i able to than try to learn to visualize
    the amount

    Again I appreciate all your help

    Best Regards
    Lucsi

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