Weighing vs measuring food

omma_to_3

I too weigh my food (and cry at how little peanut butter I get - I swear 32 grams is barely a tablespoon and nowhere near two!).

But how did you get the info for the rice? When I see rice in grams, it's referencing it dry - before being cooked.

I'm a little OCD. So I weighed out my dry rice, weighed my rice pot, and cooked the rice. After the rice was cooked, I weighed the resulting rice, and used the ratio to figure out the calories.

For example: (numbers made up for sake of easy math)

100g of dry rice = 400g of cooked rice.

100g of dry rice = 200 calories (yes, this is off, bear with me)

400g cooked rice = 200 calories

150g cooked rice in my lunch = 75 calories

That's not OCD it's just good math! I'm a data geek and have planned to do this too but never got around to it. Problem is that sometimes the water content of the cooked rice is different so final volume is different. But have you found that in general it expands to 4X?

pspetralia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Great video to prove the point!

rockerbabyy

Thank you for this post.. I have a great food scale but have really only been weighing my meats and stuff, however things like 1/2 cup of nuts, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, or even 1 cup of cereal I have just been using measuring cups. I would like to be doing this right but to be honest I have no idea what 1/2 a cup is in grams. If anyone has a link to some charts for this info it would be great. Thanks

everything is going to weigh differently - so i just go by the data on the package. most times items have both cup and gram measurements listed like, "1/2 C (113g)" [example from my cottage cheese] or "2/3 C (28g)" [cheerios example]

davidpearly

Thank you for this post.. I have a great food scale but have really only been weighing my meats and stuff, however things like 1/2 cup of nuts, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, or even 1 cup of cereal I have just been using measuring cups. I would like to be doing this right but to be honest I have no idea what 1/2 a cup is in grams. If anyone has a link to some charts for this info it would be great. Thanks

everything is going to weigh differently - so i just go by the data on the package. most times items have both cup and gram measurements listed like, "1/2 C (113g)" [example from my cottage cheese] or "2/3 C (28g)" [cheerios example]

thanks I will start looking at that

lindsyrox

I've also heard that there can be a 20% variance in calories on nutrition lables which doesnt seem like much but when you've got a 1500 calorie day thats potentially 300 extra calories snuck in.

Andrew_peter

Weight most everything, unless it is a liquid or prepacked/premade food item thing as they are usually spot on for weight per item. Everything else you are right, weight is just way more accurate than measuring I've found.

coolraul07

Great post. I learned this lesson when I bought a food scale.

I still get a little teary-eyed when I weigh out 32g of peanut butter, and remember what I used to call 2 tablespoons.

^^THIS! I just made a CPB&J sammich a little while ago with my digital scale and thought back to a year ago contrasting what they looked like then vs. now. I'd estimate that my 'year-ago' sammich was probably 300 cals more than the measured ones I make now! Same with the bowl'o'cereal.

Addendum: That's why I always try to add a weight measure with volume when I add something new to MFP. (e.g. 3 tbsp - 46g) I ALWAYS use weight as primary measurement, and only use volume when weight isn't available.

ElGatoBB

Oh, 1/2 cup of cereal does NOT weigh the way it says on the box. Tried with so many, when I was still eating cold cereal.

Food scales are a gift from the heavens. All "portions" given in packages are, ahem, designed to make you eat more, and feel les guilty. After all, they have to sell it. The tbsp measure, especially, maddens me.

coolraul07

I'm a little OCD. So I weighed out my dry rice, weighed my rice pot, and cooked the rice. After the rice was cooked, I weighed the resulting rice, and used the ratio to figure out the calories.

For example: (numbers made up for sake of easy math)

100g of dry rice = 400g of cooked rice.

100g of dry rice = 200 calories (yes, this is off, bear with me)

400g cooked rice = 200 calories

150g cooked rice in my lunch = 75 calories

I'm NOT OCD and I do this with my spaghetti! Ratios RULE! #MathGeek

ValerieMartini2Olives

Buying the kitchen scale was one of the smartest things I ever did. I feel like I get much more bang for my buck when I eat. But then there are times where I'm like "Oh... THAT'S what 50g looks like?" But that doesn't happen very often.

sharonKay65

I know I need to get one, and in fact I remembered today while I was at Dollar General but they did not have one and time didn't permit me going to Walmart or somewhere else to look right then. I noticed one person wrote that they simply rounded up which I have done on a few things when I have to. Thanks for the comparisons though..... I know what I will be buying tomorrow!

Andrew_peter

Oh, 1/2 cup of cereal does NOT weigh the way it says on the box. Tried with so many, when I was still eating cold cereal.

Food scales are a gift from the heavens. All "portions" given in packages are, ahem, designed to make you eat more, and feel les guilty. After all, they have to sell it. The tbsp measure, especially, maddens me.

Cereal was a huge surprise for me too. A 30g serving of cheerios just looks sad in a bowl by itself...

Brie4me

Thank you for this post.. I have a great food scale but have really only been weighing my meats and stuff, however things like 1/2 cup of nuts, 1/2 cup cottage cheese, or even 1 cup of cereal I have just been using measuring cups. I would like to be doing this right but to be honest I have no idea what 1/2 a cup is in grams. If anyone has a link to some charts for this info it would be great. Thanks

Here you go: http://calculator-converter.com/converter_g_to_c_grams_to_cups_calculator.php

tigger_belle

Thanks! Some real food for thought!

LisaGirlfriend

you are definitely right and have made up my mind to buy a digital food scale. Thanks for the wake up. :-)

efirkey

I agree with the OP. I just yesterday was looking at someone's diary and they had the following. 4 ounces of chicken breast 30 calories. This was so obviously wrong and I saw examples like this in more than one person's diary. It doesn't help when I look up something like chicken breast and there are a half of dozen entries with calorie counts ranging from 25 to 50 calories per ounce. Which one do you choose? If you choose 25, well then you can have more ounces of chicken.

We all eat pretty much the same foods during the course of the week. I suggest that you verify your counts on a lot of these items with other websites or a calorie counts book.

And measure accurately. You are only making it more difficult for yourself if you fudge the numbers and then need to figure out why or why not you are losing weight.

efirkey

I cook a lot of Basmati Rice and 1 cup dry produces 4 cups cooked.

PonyTailedLoser

Exactly!

jenilla1

so true

shorty35565

I have a food scale and I weigh everything!