Measuring Vegetables

dreamer0219
dreamer0219 Posts: 8 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How do you measure your vegetables? Do you use a scale and go by ounces or do you use measuring cups? One of the major ones I'm trying to figure out is romaine lettuce. There's a really big difference in cramming lettuce into a measuring cup versus weighing 8 ounces on the scale. So how do you know which is right? What about broccoli?

Any information would be appreciated.

Cynthia

Replies

  • samrybarczyk
    samrybarczyk Posts: 32 Member
    I use my scale and I also do water displacement. With water displacement, you would fill up a liquid measuring cup to lets say 1 cup, then put your fruits or veggies in until it reaches your desired amount, so if it's a 1/2 cup you would go up to 1 1/2 cups. Obviously this works better on denser fruits and veggies. :smile:
  • Longtobeslim
    Longtobeslim Posts: 67 Member
    I measure by the cup. When I buy romaine lettuce in a bag it always usually says so many calories for so many cups of lettuce.

    I measure the majority of my veggies that way. Once in a while I weigh them, but mostly its by the cup.

    Erin
  • s1lence
    s1lence Posts: 493
    Personally I go by measuring cup. I don't have a scale. I'll start with whatever I'm working with, like a carrot- cut it up and put it in the cup. When I go to log it I select the whole item and select chopped however much it was.
  • thilyer
    thilyer Posts: 32 Member
    Usually for lettuce I use my food scale.
  • cheshirequeen
    cheshirequeen Posts: 1,324 Member
    most veggies i dont use. my bag of broccoli has 150 calories for the whole thing so the calories wont make or break if im off some.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
    I use the scale for everything :]
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
    I use the scale for everything :]

    ^ This.
  • scoob1983
    scoob1983 Posts: 18 Member
    I use a scale. With leafy vegetables the calories are so low, and I am trying to get macro nutrients up. Without the scale, I would measure less for leafy vegetables. Also without the scale I'd measure more for foods that I like to eat.
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
    Use the scale. Volume-to-weight measurements can be off depending how much you stuff into the cup.
  • SmartAlec03211988
    SmartAlec03211988 Posts: 1,896 Member
    I weigh everything.
  • Josephina57
    Josephina57 Posts: 170 Member
    I use the scale for everything :]

    ditto, much more accurate.
  • Nopedotjpeg
    Nopedotjpeg Posts: 1,805 Member
    A cup is only 8 oz. for liquids.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    I use a scale and measure almost everything in grams. The grams are almost always listed on the nutritional content labels for everything alongside the volumetric measurement (cups).
  • Nopedotjpeg
    Nopedotjpeg Posts: 1,805 Member
    And usually for lettuce, idgaf. I just estimate a salad is 1.5-3 cups.
  • mbajrami
    mbajrami Posts: 636 Member
    Scale. Even if it gives serving sized by cup, I find it almost always gives it in grams also, so I set the scale for grams and weigh that way.
  • Laces_0ut
    Laces_0ut Posts: 3,750 Member
    weigh everything in grams.
  • hbm616
    hbm616 Posts: 377 Member
    I've begun trying to weigh everything. I use to eye-ball my lettuce but after weighing I realized how far I was off!
  • 77tes
    77tes Posts: 8,514 Member
    I love my cool scale, so I weigh almost everything. It's really a postal scale, but it weigh in ounces or grams with just the push of a buttton. I also like playing with it a lot.
  • CharlieBarleyMom
    CharlieBarleyMom Posts: 727 Member
    scale on everything. Even so far as taking someone else's recipe, filling a Tbsp. of something and weighing that amount in grams so that I can accurately log it. If you just say "1 cup" of raisins, maybe that is a loose cup or a really packed down cup... but this way I know exactly... and I know for the next time I make the recipe EXACTLY how much I used. This is great for baking.
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
    I estimate based on weight by dividing the total weight purchased by the number of units purchased. So if 4 apples weighs 2 lbs, each apple weighs 8 ounces.

    For spinach, I buy a tub that contains four 2cup servings. I separate this into 4 containers at the beginning of the week so that I know each salad has approx 2 cups of spinach.
  • Ribena145
    Ribena145 Posts: 201 Member
    weigh everything in grams.

    ditto
  • SPBROOKS68
    SPBROOKS68 Posts: 561 Member
    I estimate based on weight by dividing the total weight purchased by the number of units purchased. So if 4 apples weighs 2 lbs, each apple weighs 8 ounces.

    For spinach, I buy a tub that contains four 2cup servings. I separate this into 4 containers at the beginning of the week so that I know each salad has approx 2 cups of spinach.

    This is what I do - estimation and then I find that most the items on MFP are over too.
  • dreamer0219
    dreamer0219 Posts: 8 Member
    Thanks for all the input. I'll be sure to start looking at packages to see what they have marked as a serving. From there I guess I'll play around with the different ways and see what works best for me.
  • SgtPwns
    SgtPwns Posts: 1
    I have been racking my brain figuring out how to have the most accurate measurements for my foods. I was confused on whether to weigh meat raw or cooked and how to measure vegetables. Because once the vegetables are cooked, they will weigh significantly more because of the water they hold after being cooked. At least if you steam them. However, I found this really helpful article that tells you how to measure foods when cooking. Fruits and vegetables is #4 so here you go:

    http://www.wikihow.com/Measure-in-Cooking

    It makes total sense now. You don't measure vegetables in a dry measuring cup (like how you'd measure rice or oats), rather, you measure them in a liquid measuring cup (like how you'd measure milk or water). I hope this puts you at ease like it did me! Which makes is much easier to measure spinach leaves and broccoli because it's a bigger container you're placing them in rather than trying to stuff it in a small dry measuring cup.
  • OsricTheKnight
    OsricTheKnight Posts: 340 Member
    I'm going to go against the crowd and say you just don't need to bother with vegetables. Consider them free and eat as much as you want.

    You really can't go wrong having 2 or 3 or 4 cups of romaine lettuce every day.

    I'd focus on measuring butter, jam, salad dressings, meat, fruit ... in short, anything that actually contains significant calories. If you eat a bit of extra veg it is not going to derail you - just the opposite, it'll help you not eat something else, and everything else is worse.

    Osric
  • Ely82010
    Ely82010 Posts: 1,998 Member
    For lettuce, I estimate that my serving is between 2 and 3 cups. The calories are so low that my estimations don't make a dent in my diet, and I use the same technique when I estimated my salads when eating out.

    For more dense vegetables, like carrots, I use my kitchen/food scale and I weight in grams and oz (raw), so I can find either one in the database.

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