weighing food

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Replies

  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member
    You cant measure an ounce of almonds in a measuring cup. You can measure a quarter of a cup that way...which might be close, but might not. To know you have an ounce you need a scale. I'm a cooking pro...I'm pretty good at eyeball measuring, but I use my scale all the time too. If you don't use a scale or the appropriate measuring device for your product (cups, spoons.. whatever) you don't really know. As to your question about soup....prepackaged soups you can read the label and then measure. For homemade, you have to figure out the calories ingredient by ingredient to figure out the whole batch ....then measure and divide.
    How would you divide a HUGE pot??
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    Thanks for not getting smart with me.

    Not knowing is not a problem. Not asking, now that would be stupid. But you did ask. :smile:
  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member
    All of the above. We lost control because we lie to ourselves. "I didn't eat that much today." Right, I gained all this weight drinking water. The scale lets you know exactly how much you are eating. Time to face the truth.
    Im facing the truth. That is why Im on MFP posting questions to learn to do it right. Some dont want to explain but just want to be smart about it. Thanks:smile:
  • csmith822
    csmith822 Posts: 46 Member
    I started out counting calories and added calories for 2 oz of chicken. When I bought a scale, I realized that my 2 oz of chicken was really 4 ounces (and thus double the calories)

    This was me, too!
  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member
    Thanks for not getting smart with me.

    Not knowing is not a problem. Not asking, now that would be stupid. But you did ask. :smile:
    I agree and thanks for that! I hesitate on asking sometimes for the one reason of feeling stupid and some people insist on making others feel that way.
  • csmith822
    csmith822 Posts: 46 Member
    :blushing:
    Figuring out how to quote and post...
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    I put the pot on the scale :))) At least my scale can deal with stuff up until like 15 kg.

    For example, the scale shows I am having a 70 ounces of soup in the pot. So when I eat a certain portion, I can measure that (i.e. in my plate) and then I know I am currently eating 7 ounces of it. So my calorie consumption will one tenth of the entire pot. You can use a calculator if you need to, to divide the calories with the same number.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    You are probably not very off but beware of the cup/ounce/serving size Bermuda triangle where many things get lost...

    I make all my food so for the me the rule is, put the butter/olive oil on the scale (we use grams so that is very precise), put the onions on the scale, put the vegetables, the meat.. even a spoonful of flour needs to go on the scale. That way I have everything that I put in my soup - I will know exactly how many calories are in my pot.
    Luckily, MFP can save "My Meals" however I tend to not make the same foods again over and over but it still comes handy.

    And the differnences between volume and weight measurements are so significant that a lot of the world cooks by weight not volume. And all my King Arthur baking books strongly suggest using weight for baking, not volume, as does Alton Brown. I got my food scale just because I like to cook and wanted to be able to use European recipes, not because I was tracking my intake with it.
  • littlebudgie
    littlebudgie Posts: 279 Member
    You cant measure an ounce of almonds in a measuring cup. You can measure a quarter of a cup that way...which might be close, but might not. To know you have an ounce you need a scale. I'm a cooking pro...I'm pretty good at eyeball measuring, but I use my scale all the time too. If you don't use a scale or the appropriate measuring device for your product (cups, spoons.. whatever) you don't really know. As to your question about soup....prepackaged soups you can read the label and then measure. For homemade, you have to figure out the calories ingredient by ingredient to figure out the whole batch ....then measure and divide.
    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    One option would be to weigh the pot when empty, then add all your stuff in, do your cooking, and then weigh the pot again. Subtract the weight of the empty pot from the weight of the full pot, and then you'll have the total weight of what you made. Then when you go to eat some, weigh how much you serve yourself, and you can say "Oh, this is an eighth of what I made" (or however much) "so the calories are 1/8 of what the total recipe made."
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    And all my King Arthur baking books strongly suggest using weight for baking, not volume, as does Alton Brown. I got my food scale just because I like to cook and wanted to be able to use European recipes, not because I was tracking my intake with it.

    All of my European "gramma" and modern cookbooks have grams EXCEPT for the best one, the friggin' "The cook's book" by Jill Normans, an ABSOLUT MASTERPIECE and all of the recipes are with cups and ounces and it is driving me bonkers! :sad:
  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
    All of the above. We lost control because we lie to ourselves. "I didn't eat that much today." Right, I gained all this weight drinking water. The scale lets you know exactly how much you are eating. Time to face the truth.
    Im facing the truth. That is why Im on MFP posting questions to learn to do it right. Some dont want to explain but just want to be smart about it. Thanks:smile:

    I don't see that as being smart with you. You will be surprised what an actual serving of pasta is, or how big an actual serving of nuts is. And that poster is correct, a lot of people are here because they never realized how big or how small a serving is until they weighed their food. Some people are going to be blunt on this forum....that doesn't mean they are being smart with you. They are just being truthful.
  • cordianet
    cordianet Posts: 534 Member
    Just wanted to mention that you don't have to weigh EVERYTHING, mostly just calorie dense foods. For example, if there's an entry in the database for a cup of onion, I'll just measure and use that. I'm not going to weigh a onion that I use in a recipe because if you think about it, it's only going to potentially be off by a calorie or 2 anyway. Plus, because these are natural items we're dealing with they can vary a bit from one item to the next, even if they weighed the exact same. Now that said, if a recipe I'm using says 6 oz of chicken per portion, I'm going to weight my chicken, because just saying "1 breast piece", that could vary from say 5 oz to 12 oz. That would be a huge difference and is worth knowing about.

    Ultimately, we want to try and get pretty close here, but it's impossible to know exactly how many calories actually were in ANYTHING you ate. Just try your best and be honest with yourself.
  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member
    You cant measure an ounce of almonds in a measuring cup. You can measure a quarter of a cup that way...which might be close, but might not. To know you have an ounce you need a scale. I'm a cooking pro...I'm pretty good at eyeball measuring, but I use my scale all the time too. If you don't use a scale or the appropriate measuring device for your product (cups, spoons.. whatever) you don't really know. As to your question about soup....prepackaged soups you can read the label and then measure. For homemade, you have to figure out the calories ingredient by ingredient to figure out the whole batch ....then measure and divide.
    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    One option would be to weigh the pot when empty, then add all your stuff in, do your cooking, and then weigh the pot again. Subtract the weight of the empty pot from the weight of the full pot, and then you'll have the total weight of what you made. Then when you go to eat some, weigh how much you serve yourself, and you can say "Oh, this is an eighth of what I made" (or however much) "so the calories are 1/8 of what the total recipe made."
    Shew! I would need another bowl of soup to support the brain function for all of that math..ha ha! Just joking. That is what I thought but hoping it was simple.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    You cant measure an ounce of almonds in a measuring cup. You can measure a quarter of a cup that way...which might be close, but might not. To know you have an ounce you need a scale. I'm a cooking pro...I'm pretty good at eyeball measuring, but I use my scale all the time too. If you don't use a scale or the appropriate measuring device for your product (cups, spoons.. whatever) you don't really know. As to your question about soup....prepackaged soups you can read the label and then measure. For homemade, you have to figure out the calories ingredient by ingredient to figure out the whole batch ....then measure and divide.
    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    As others say, you can weigh it (need to know how much the pot weighs).

    I also have a very large measuring cup (really, a bowl with a spout marked for volume. Soups are one thing where oyu really can go by volume if you want to. So I calculate the total of everything that goes into the pot. then, one of two things:

    I figure out how many servings I get from a pot, and divide by that.

    I figure out the volume in the pot, either by pouring it into a measuring container or by using markings on the pot itself (I have one pot for canning that is marked with quarts). Generally, divide the total calories in the batch into cups and then use that to calculate what i actually eat.
  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member
    All of the above. We lost control because we lie to ourselves. "I didn't eat that much today." Right, I gained all this weight drinking water. The scale lets you know exactly how much you are eating. Time to face the truth.
    Im facing the truth. That is why Im on MFP posting questions to learn to do it right. Some dont want to explain but just want to be smart about it. Thanks:smile:

    I don't see that as being smart with you. You will be surprised what an actual serving of pasta is, or how big an actual serving of nuts is. And that poster is correct, a lot of people are here because they never realized how big or how small a serving is until they weighed their food. Some people are going to be blunt on this forum....that doesn't mean they are being smart with you. They are just being truthful.
    Yes, Im sorry. Just felt like people were firing off at me and Im trying to learn so I asked a question. I was being truthful with myself but I didnt know I was not doing it right until now. I do appreciate your response.
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    I'd be careful with that statement. I would say you can go with volume on "clear" soups, but if you saw my carrot-butternut-coconut milk heavy red lentil soup (heavy and dense and calorific as hell)... that would be very very off by volume.
  • cordianet
    cordianet Posts: 534 Member

    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    I recommend just portioning it out after it's made. If you use the recipe builder and know the calories for what went in, just divide out the pot of soup or whatever into the appropriate number of servings. For example, I had Thai Curry this evening. I input everything into the recipe builder, and guessed at the number of servings i thought it would make. After it was done, I measured how many cups of curry I made. I came up with ten cups and one cup seemed like a nice portion size, so i went back into the recipe and changed the 8 servings I guessed at to equal 10 servings. No weighing needed.
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    Shew! I would need another bowl of soup to support the brain function for all of that math

    I suggest dedicating a notebook, take it to the kitchen with you, you can write down everything right there (weights) and calculate while the soup is boiling. :)

    Much better to have a greasy notebook imho than a greasy smartphone/laptop (so much for MFP lol).
  • cindybpitts
    cindybpitts Posts: 213 Member

    How would you divide a HUGE pot??

    I recommend just portioning it out after it's made. If you use the recipe builder and know the calories for what went in, just divide out the pot of soup or whatever into the appropriate number of servings. For example, I had Thai Curry this evening. I input everything into the recipe builder, and guessed at the number of servings i thought it would make. After it was done, I measured how many cups of curry I made. I came our with ten cups and one cup seemed like a nice portion size, so i went back into the recipe and changed the 8 servings I guessed at to equal 10 servings. No weighing needed.
    Thanks for all of your help.
  • EmiBun
    EmiBun Posts: 84 Member
    I have a scale but its kind of obsessive to weigh all the time and it turns into an unhealthy habit, so during my recovery from anorexia my scale was put on limited use because its not seen as normal behavior.
    You shouldn't weigh your food, you should just estimate.
    Being dependent on a scale for telling you a portion is kind of stupid

    **I'm really just bitter because mine was taken away :( **
  • jshot278
    jshot278 Posts: 42 Member
    I have never felt the need to weigh my food. After cooking for so many years, I can estimate a cup, 1/4 or 1/2 cup. Maybe some cannot do it this way, then, they should weigh, if it helps them. I have never found any problem with my method and feel I get pretty
    darn close. The only time I've ever had a problem or gained weight is when I KNOW I've pigged out or eaten badly. I don't need
    a scale to tell me that. Just me...
  • Jewles1285
    Jewles1285 Posts: 119
    I think you may not get the entire calorie concept by any chance?

    Let's say you want to eat a handful of prunes. You know (or if you don't, you can google it or find it on MFP) that 100 grams of prunes have 230 calories.

    So you put your handful of prunes on the scale and see it is 70 grams... so you know this portion will have 230 x 0.70, that is, 161 calories.

    I want to tell you that this has actually helped me! i weight my foods but calculate the calories differently and never thought of it this way! thanks!
  • sofielein
    sofielein Posts: 539 Member
    You shouldn't weigh your food, you should just estimate.
    Being dependent on a scale for telling you a portion is kind of stupid

    This is a bit like an ex-alcoholic walking into a bar and telling everyone not to drink beer at all because he became addicted :D

    Not everyone develops obsession-addiction or disorders around certain substances. You can weigh your food and count your calories for a while and then drop it when you reach your goal and just weigh in should your clothes start to ill-fit...

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