Why I needed a kitchen scale!

I have used a food scale for many years........I started using one when I had joined Weight Watchers ages ago. It will definately open your eyes, well it surely did mine to portion control especially when measuring food with measuring cups and spoons or by eyeball and you won't believe how much more food you really may be eating by not weighing it. I weigh almost everything I have to eat now.....

Here is a video to watch ;-) about using a scale vs. measuring cups and spoons........
http://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY

**** I have the same scale as in the video only mine was made by Kitrics and not Chefmate ****

The Kitrics Digital Nutrition Scale (I bought mine on QVC a few years ago but have seen it on amazon and some mail order catalogs too) and it has food codes programmed into it and you can add more food codes for your own favorite foods and the scale gives you the nutritional info for the items you are weighing. It has a tare button and you can change between grams and ounces for weighing items.

Solid foods should be weighed and liquids measured in order to get accurate measurements.

Some food scales have liquid measuring options, one of my two do. That being said, I still use measuring cups for liquids most of the time.

Oh, that would be awesome! Mine doesn't have the liquids option though.

Definitely! Purchasing a food scale proved to be one of the most useful tools when I was shedding my last 10lbs. Realized I sucked bad at eyeballing oz of chicken I was consuming lol

I have been wondering about chicken. Should I measure raw chicken on the scale or cooked chicken? Which MFP chicken listing do you use when its skinless/boneless breast? There are so many...

I weigh it raw, and search for "chicken raw".

I have good news for you! You are supposed to weigh pasta dry. Pasta absorbs water and weighs more after you cook it.

Solid foods should be weighed and liquids measured in order to get accurate measurements.

Some food scales have liquid measuring options, one of my two do. That being said, I still use measuring cups for liquids most of the time.

Can you explain how this works? I don't get it. 8 oz. of milk weighs a different amount than 8 oz. of water. Do you input the item being weighed when it is a liquid??

Yes. When liquids are measured in ounces, that is a measurement of VOLUME, not weight. That's why you see it always called "fluid ounces"--it's not a weight measurement.

As the two liquids are different densities, they will have different weight at the same volume. Similar to the idea when comparing the same volumes of muscle and fat, muscle weighs more than fat.

I am going to assume that when the box says 1 cup it means 1 measuring cup NOT 8 oz.

If it meant 8 oz it would say 8 oz.

Right next to the 1 Cup, the number of grams will also be listed. I go by the grams.

this thread made me open a new window and go to amazon and buy a new scale. Been fumbling with a lame one so far- and using cups... I knew Id admit what I was doing was bunk eventually...

Thanks OP!

I am going to assume that when the box says 1 cup it means 1 measuring cup NOT 8 oz.

If it meant 8 oz it would say 8 oz.

Right next to the 1 Cup, the number of grams will also be listed. I go by the grams.

Every once in awhile I check it against the number of portions. For instance if a pint of ice cream has a serving size of 1/2 cup, you get 4 servings. If one is over, another will be under. If the box of cereal has 12 servings of 1 cup, measure out 12 cups and see how it works out. (This is much easier if you're not sharing food with a household, but there are advantages to measuring out servings in advance when you're getting used to new serving sizes and portion control.) For instance in the example, you can put each serving of cereal into a sandwich bag and have 12 servings ready.

And yes, while most liquids will weigh about the same amount -- especially clear, water based liquids -- some like dense soups won't. And I don't think water and oil weight the same per volume. ??