How to use a Food Scale?

LiftingStrong
LiftingStrong Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
I have a food scale, question. How do I use it to count calories, how accurate are these things? I have an Oneida 2 piece digital scale set btw. Try to be very clear as possible.

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,319 Member
    Food scales generally don't tell you calories. You weigh the food and then you look up or enter into an online database.

    I looked at the model you bought and it doesn't say anything about measuring calories. It's just a food weighing device. You have to figure the calories yourself.
  • bryoun2
    bryoun2 Posts: 11
    On every food item you use (chicken, cereal, rice, etc) there is a food label on the side. On the food label you'll see serving size. (Sometimes it will give you a measuring size like a cup or a tablespoon and sometimes it will give you a weight.) The entire label of calories, fat, carbs, etc is based on that one serving size.

    Take a box of cheerios for example. One serving size is 1 cup (or 28 grams). In that serving there is 100 calories, 2g of fat, 0mg cholesterol, etc. You can obviously measure out the cup or use your scale and set the device to measure grams.

    To weigh your foods, simply put a bowl on top of the scale and press the 'tare' button. That will zero out the bowl so it doesn't weigh the bowl along with your food. You then must decide what you need to weigh (mine has grams, mg, ounces and pounds) The most common are grams and ounces. Weigh your food and then multiply by how many servings you've had.

    To check how many calories you're using just go into your myfitnesspal app or on the computer and type what you're using. Use the appropriate serving size and weight indicator to get the proper reading of your calorie intake.

    I hope this made sense.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    Look at your food labels or for fresh foods look up online. Once you know how many ounces or grams are in a serving, it is much easier to get an accurate count of calories. One thing you can do is play around: often a serving has both a volume and a weight. Does one cup of cereal actually weigh what they said it would? Using weights also,means you can't cheat by grabbing a heaping cupful.

    First, you place a container on the scale and press TARE. The scale will show a zero. This way, you are only measuring your food, not your container.

    Place the food on the scale. When you are getting started, I suggest you always weigh out one serving, as you determined before you started.

    Enter your food in MFP!

    Fresh foods are weighed *before* cooking, unless otherwise stated. For example, a 1/4 cup of beans refers to the dry beans before you add water and heat. This includes meat and veggies.
  • bryoun2
    bryoun2 Posts: 11
    Oh, and scales are extremely accurate. They're more reliable than measuring because you get the exact amount. Alton Brown prefers weighing to measuring. Good luck!
  • ohenry78
    ohenry78 Posts: 228
    Oh, and scales are extremely accurate. They're more reliable than measuring because you get the exact amount. Alton Brown prefers weighing to measuring. Good luck!

    Alton Brown is my hero. My wife and I watch Good Eats religiously.

    Like others have said, the main reason to use a scale is for the sake of accuracy. Sometimes because of the shape, texture, density or size of foods you can't get a good reading on how much you're eating based on the measuring size. Ever tried to measure a cup of apple halves? :D

    So, you can weight the food. Just about any food will give you the weight of the serving size, and when the food is calorie tested the weight is what they go by to get the nutrition info on the label. So, weighing your food is going to create greater accuracy in your calorie counting, meaning greater potential for weight loss :)
  • Gapwedge01
    Gapwedge01 Posts: 494
    On every food item you use (chicken, cereal, rice, etc) there is a food label on the side. On the food label you'll see serving size. (Sometimes it will give you a measuring size like a cup or a tablespoon and sometimes it will give you a weight.) The entire label of calories, fat, carbs, etc is based on that one serving size.

    Take a box of cheerios for example. One serving size is 1 cup (or 28 grams). In that serving there is 100 calories, 2g of fat, 0mg cholesterol, etc. You can obviously measure out the cup or use your scale and set the device to measure grams.

    To weigh your foods, simply put a bowl on top of the scale and press the 'tare' button. That will zero out the bowl so it doesn't weigh the bowl along with your food. You then must decide what you need to weigh (mine has grams, mg, ounces and pounds) The most common are grams and ounces. Weigh your food and then multiply by how many servings you've had.

    To check how many calories you're using just go into your myfitnesspal app or on the computer and type what you're using. Use the appropriate serving size and weight indicator to get the proper reading of your calorie intake.

    I hope this made sense.

    Or use the label and divide the calories by grams to get a multiplier then whatever your weigh multiply by that factor.
  • josiereside
    josiereside Posts: 720 Member
    I bought a scale that has a feature that I can enter the food and it comes up in the database!
  • bryoun2
    bryoun2 Posts: 11
    I LOVE Good Eats! I got his cook books as a birthday present. He's the only cooking show I watch :)

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