actual servings vs what's listed on bag

jeannette120
jeannette120 Posts: 65 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All...
Just curious. I was eating some Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles and measuring out the servings. Package says one serving is 2/3 cup and there are about 5 servings. When I measured it out (pre-cooked) I only came up with 3.5 servings. I did not jam pack my measuring cup either and they were frozen so probably a bit bulkier than if they were thawed. Would you go by what I actually measured or the total on the package? I find this discrepancy on many things that are packaged. And yes, I know packaged foods are not the best so spare me the "whole foods" speech. Thanks...

Replies

  • Cindygutie
    Cindygutie Posts: 50 Member
    When I eat packaged foods at home I use my food scale. For example, with cereal, there is a huge difference because settling occurs. So I go with weighing. It's worked for me.
  • jeannette120
    jeannette120 Posts: 65 Member
    I just thought about weighing. Just ordered another food scale because mine was accidentally dropped in a sink of soapy water and died. That's definitely what I'll do next time.
  • Cindygutie
    Cindygutie Posts: 50 Member
    I got a great one at Costco when I started. Will keep it away from the sink :-)

    I pre weigh my snacks in baggies to take to work to. I'm a bit OCD but whatever works. I prefer to be accurate if I can.
  • starkitty78
    starkitty78 Posts: 48
    I always weigh verses cups, ounces, pieces, ect. I got some Triscuit crackers, and the weight per serving was way off the of pieces per serving.
  • Elleinnz
    Elleinnz Posts: 1,661 Member
    I mostly weigh my food - measuring using cups can be very hit&miss in my experience
  • WolffEarl
    WolffEarl Posts: 379 Member
    Found the same. 1/2 cup of rolled large oats was supposed to be 40 g. Actually it came to only 1/4 cup for that weight. And since calories are related to the mass not volume of food, always best to go with mass.
  • Yanicka1
    Yanicka1 Posts: 4,564 Member
    wrote this yesterday......always use weight
    Researches prove that people are really bad at estimating their calorie consumption and burn. We don’t do it on purpose and at first we are diligent and calculate every calorie. With time we get more complaisant….it get old after a few weeks. So we start eyeballing our portions, not logging that few mouthful of left over macaroni in our children plate……and how can you log those 3 M&M?
    Those calories count.
    Also, I have noticed that we can’t always trust the serving portion on labels. For example, the portion for this cereal is 1 cup and ¼ or 30g……… I don’t think so.
    7922987628_d8f47c0888.jpg
    IMG_20120903_113248 by yanicka, on Flickr
    Or I remember my boyfriend buying some pepper poppers in oil full of feta……on the label it was 10 calories by popper……I don’t think so. In packaged food the difference between the reality and label can be up to 100 calories!!!! Do you really use only one tea spoon of butter for 2 toast or is it more 2? Is a generic item really representative of what you are eating?
    (one tea spoon of butter on bread)
    7922997496_92906aec52.jpg
    IMG_20120903_114110 by yanicka, on Flickr
    Do you forget to log your oil you use for cooking? Did you weight your meat raw? Are you sure that one cup of pasta is one portion?
    Oh and don’t get me started about MFP calorie burn!!!!
    So you plateau can be because you actually eat at maintenance instead of a deficit. Before you try anything else, I would suggest you use your kitchen scale for a few weeks without changing your calorie goal. It might be exactly what you needed to make to scale go down again.
  • starkitty78
    starkitty78 Posts: 48
    Now I admit I didn't weigh before I drained, but I was measuring out Delmonte sweet peas today. Serving size 1/2 cup, 125 grams. well I measured 1/2 cup, which came nowhere near 125 grams, it was about 85. About 3 servings per can. I looked in the can when I poured out 125 grams and there wasn't even a full second serving left. So I decided to weigh the peas. There can said somewhere near 15 oz (it's in the trash now), but the peas only came out to 8.8 oz. And I know I didn't drain out 7 ounces of water. :noway:
  • zaph0d
    zaph0d Posts: 1,172 Member
    Go by weight. If the weight is way off, then return the product, as this would be a packaging defect.

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