Measuring Vegetables

Ribena145

weigh everything in grams.

ditto

SPBROOKS68

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

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

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

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

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.