You're probably eating more than you think.

Shyloh1

This post was a real eye opener,I weigh everything now.

Thanks for such great information! :flowerforyou:

kyleekay10

I just recently started weighing my meat and pasta. Used my scale yesterday to weigh a piece of a coworker's birthday, cake too. :P

Never even considered weighing peanut butter, cereal, etc. I'm glad my scale is small- looks like it's going to be traveling with me far more often.

Sarauk2sf

I am such a noob sometimes...jeez

I have my scale and it came with the nice little bowl to put the food in...and all these nice little features that allows it to go from g to oz, a zero button and a few other buttons...didn't really think about them...

I was measuring my fruit this morning in that nice little aforementioned bowl to dump into my smoothie cup then made a mistake and put my yogurt in next...damn it...now my protien powder will stick...jeez...

So I was like eh I will just keep adding the stuff and keep track of what weigh what so as I go to the protien powder I hit one of those "other buttons"....AMG:mad: it zero'd out my yogurt...then I am like wait a minute..that's what that is for..nice...:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Then I realize cripes why not just put it in my smoothie cup and dirty one less dish....

I love my scale...gonna read up on the rest of the buttons on it now...:drinker: who knows what I will find that could be useful.

The really annoying thing is either when you press the wrong button or leave it too long between activity so it goes to sleep.

I use the tare or zero function all the time. I try to use one plate/bowl. Just keep adding and zero'ing out. It is really quick and easy when you get into the habit.

DSeay88

Thank you for the info! I am definitely investing in a digital scale.

likitisplit

I eyeball and am able to stay on track mostly. Condiments are important. Tracking EVERYTHING is important. When my weight loss stalls, I check for foods I might habitually underestimate, and then start weighing until I've identified the issue.

paprad

The really annoying thing is either when you press the wrong button or leave it too long between activity so it goes to sleep.

I use the tare or zero function all the time. I try to use one plate/bowl. Just keep adding and zero'ing out. It is really quick and easy when you get into the habit.

Hah, yes, I took too long with measuring the ingredients for my protein-muesli bar and it went to sleep and i had to start all over again. much mess was made

I've gotten used to doing the tare function too, so much easier.

Also, months of doing this has made my eyeballing much better too - I test myself when I am at home - how much rice = 100gm, how much feta =15 gm and suchlike, and my accuracy has really improved, so I feel more confident about eating outside because I believe I can come up with better estimates now.

delonda1

after reading this Im going TODAY and buying a scale

psylvester1

bump

bluelena

What helps with it greatly too.

Weigh the pot, pan, dish that it will be cooked in. Then weigh the finished product.

Now when you put it into that Recipe Builder, you can adjust the serving size to hit the calories you want out of it, and if 1/6 of the dish, you now know exactly the weight of your serving.
And suggest putting that serving weight in there too.

*smacks self upside head*

Why didn't I think of this before?

BRILLIANT. I can't wait to update all of my recipes as I make them again. I've actually decided NOT to make a recipe in the past because I didn't feel like figuring out how much constitutes a serving. I like the idea of being able to just weigh it by the ounce. This will come in SO handy when I make big batches of stuff and then dole it out into seperate containers for lunches.

I usually log everything by the ounce or gram, anyway. So, every time I eat a plum, pear, etc., I weigh it first. Or for packaged things (crackers, chips, etc). I weigh one ounce. It's never the 17 chips they claim you get for a serving, BTW. It's always way less.

I also like the "lick the spoon" method and will start using that for peanut butter, hummus, greek yogurt, etc.

What an awesome thread.

heybales

I'm curious as to what digital scales ones got that they really like, and why?

And what did you get that has been annoying and why? (keep others from getting it)

I got a cheap Walmart digital, not the cheapest, but 2nd cheapest.
Nice round robin button press of grams, ounces, lbs, kg measurements, tare function, auto-off.
But the auto-off is too quick, and must not be based on last weight change but button press, because I've added product and it'll turn off pretty quick, very annoying.
Also, if left totally alone, it'll start creeping up in whole grams before auto-off.

When first tested, I measured a couple known weights and it was consistent, but I never let the weight sit to see if it kept going up.

Unless protein powder starts absorbing moisture that fast increasing in weight. No, wait, the fruit does too....

bluelena

I have the Biggest Loser one, that I got at Bed Bath and Beyond for $19.99 (with 20% off coupon, of course). I really like it. I test it every now and again and it's been consistently accurate.

It will toggle between ounces/grams and has a tare function. I like to keep things simple, so that's all I really need as far as features go.

It has a glass top that can be taken off and washed, which I like.

ETA:

HOLY CRAP. It's on clearance right now for $14.99!

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/The-Biggest-Loser-reg-Digital-Kitchen-Scale/1015947047?Keyword=biggest+loser+scale

Sedna_51

I got this one on sale from Amazon about a month ago (http://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Multifunction-Kitchen-Elegant/dp/B004101GQC/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1379093518&sr=8-10&keywords=ozeri+scale) and I've been reasonably happy with it. It's not super fancy, but it does exactly what it says on the tin. I don't measure absolutely everything with it, but it's been really useful for things that don't fit into measuring cups or spoons (like cuts of meat, fish, or poultry, or servings of pasta) and for measuring small amounts of calorically-dense foods (like peanut butter or raisins). Nice tool to have around. And it's good to know that I'm eating exactly the amount I say I'm eating in my diary.

judychicken

Bump

whitebalance

This is my scale -- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009EUPMFK -- a little pricier than some, perhaps, but I love it.

Alsafi18

(I'm posting a comment here so I can find it easily when I want it again!)

I've been very good about weighing things, and we have and use the heck out of 2 digital food scales. I also use & love the recipe builder--that was the thing that really sold me on using MFP in the first place, because I cook. A lot. But there are a handful of hacks here for using the scale that I hadn't thought of at all, so thank you for those tips!

Some people upthread were discussing that sometimes the counts in the database can be wildly divergent; as an avid from-scratch cook, I have to put in a good word for the database items that come from the USDA nutrition database. They've been very accurate for me, and I really appreciate that they always have a 100g serving selection available. Of course, this doesn't pertain to brand items like yogurt or bread, but for fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and most fats, they are my gold standard.

Groovyca2022

Going to run out and get one asap!...

hutchy90

This is a great video showing the inaccuracies and how the calories add up when measuring v weighing

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

Thank you.

Koldnomore

bump

NutellaAddict

The biggest culprit for me was Pasta. I bought a digital scale from Walmart for $19.99...and I actually weighed out a serving and got about 8 or 9 pieces of Penne LOL.

elly1979

The biggest culprit for me was Pasta. I bought a digital scale from Walmart for $19.99...and I actually weighed out a serving and got about 8 or 9 pieces of Penne LOL.

Weighing pasta was a harrowing, tragic experience for me.

That and fried rice.

Sad days those were.

heybales

The biggest culprit for me was Pasta. I bought a digital scale from Walmart for $19.99...and I actually weighed out a serving and got about 8 or 9 pieces of Penne LOL.

Was that cooked with water weight added, or pre-cooked dry that the label is talking about?

Gotta ask, because another thread showed up a thought regarding that being missed for many foods that have water content when raw, but of course lose some when cooked.

And it is a bummer isn't it. What's really fun is find old packaging and see how the serving size was bigger in the past sometimes, but they made it smaller either to play in to the smaller calorie game, or to reduce package size while keeping servings the same for cost game.

NutellaAddict

I believe it was cooked......but drained...if that makes any sense LOL.

selinafzr

Weighing pasta was a harrowing, tragic experience for me.

I can relate to this tragic experience...

Thought I'd just have a small baked potato with cheese and butter for my dinner tonight after a bit of a glut yesterday.

Decided to be conciencoius for once, so weighed the teeny potato, miniscule glob of butter and sliver of cheese. 467 calorie total!

:sad:

heybales

I believe it was cooked......but drained...if that makes any sense LOL.

So much heavier than dry pasta the serving size is based on.

Might weigh the dry stuff to see how many you could have gotten.

caseythirteen

Out of curiosity I weighed out 2 oz. of dry pasta, cooked it and then weighed it again and it was nearly 4.6 ounces then.

retirehappy

Out of curiosity I weighed out 2 oz. of dry pasta, cooked it and then weighed it again and it was nearly 4.6 ounces then.

Thanks for saving me the trouble. I have been grokking on this concept for a few days now. Dry wt. vs. cooked wts.

Koldnomore

bump

Jamie22184

Great post! Keeping for reference.

moya_rargh

So you're supposed to weight pasta AFTER you've cooked it? Does the same go for brown rice?

joycloete

I didn't see it elsewhere but a helpful hint for weighing things like yogurt or peanut butter that stick to the spoon or whatever is to put the whole container on the scale and zero it out. As you take it out you'll have a negative number on the scale which is how much you've actually removed from the container. That way when there's a spoonful for the bowl and a spoonful for me I have a more accurate representation of how much I've actually taken out of the jar.

This is a GREAT tip!