How to enter food measured on food scale

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kdg0189
kdg0189 Posts: 26 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I was thinking about getting a food scale so that I could be more accurate with my calorie tracking. The question I have is how do you put whatever you measure into your food journal. Say for instance I measure apple slices or a potato, how would I track it. So just to make some numbers up, say I measure some apples slices and it comes out to 50 grams. How would I put that into my food journal. If I search apple it doesn't come up with a way to just put a certain gram amount in. Or say I have pretzels and I scan the bar code. Say the bar code says its 10 pretzels for a serving, but instead of counting out 10 pretzels I used the scale to be more accurate. So how would I be able to adjust it to be the amount of grams rather than the number of pretzels. Sorry if this is confusing, I'm trying to word it the best way I can.

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  • Railr0aderTony
    Railr0aderTony Posts: 6,803 Member
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    if you look at a few entries in the database there are usually ones that will have a gram option. I just searched apple and the top one starts at 1 apple(med) but if you scroll down the options it has 100 grams. so lets say your apple is 83 grams you enter it as .83 servings of 100 grams. It might take a bit of work but if you want accuracy then it is worth it.
  • guacamole17
    guacamole17 Posts: 109 Member
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    For whole foods you'll need to find the original, non user input food. Those have the option of inputting per 100g. If its a packaged food, measure out by the serving based one the amount of grams per serving per the package.
  • Straitlover1965
    Straitlover1965 Posts: 39 Member
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    Most packaged stuff has the amount of grams per serving. So, it may say 10 pretzels, but in parentheses it might say 30g.

    A lot of stuff in the food section has gram weights. For apples, look for "apples, raw with skin". Select the 100 grams one. If your apples weighed 147 grams, then you would put in 1.47 servings of 100g. If your scale only weighs in ounces, multiply ounces by 28.35 to convert to grams.

    I weigh a lot of stuff rather than using measuring spoons - way easier. My Smart Balance peanut butter, one tablespoon is .56 ounce, so I weigh the jar before and after to see how much to log.
  • kdg0189
    kdg0189 Posts: 26 Member
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    Thank you all so much. I think I'm going to go ahead a get one. I was thinking of getting the Ozeri Pro Digital Kitchen Food Scale, 1g to 12 lbs Capacity. Does anyone know if this is a good one? I've been just measuring things per cups or tablespoons but I'm afraid I might be over estimating so the best thing would probably be to get a food scale. Has anyone noticed a big difference using a food scale compared to measuring with cups and spoons?
  • JDanKing
    JDanKing Posts: 13
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    It's worth getting the scale, even if just to measure meats. You need to find out how much 4 oz, for example, really looks like. We tend to under-estimate (and thus over-eat) the actual weight of foods.
  • barbaratrollman
    barbaratrollman Posts: 317 Member
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    I can't afford scales right now. I spend my dollars on healthy foods. But, I seem to have no problems with measuring spoons and cups, but then, I don't use rounded measurements. I use level measurements...except with my nutritional yeast, which states "rounded tbsp". Apparently it is working fine, since I am consistently losing.

    I would like a set of accurate scales. Someday...
  • Brad805
    Brad805 Posts: 289 Member
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    digital scale = $19 ----> success, skip three organic purchases and it pays for itself. manual scales much cheaper, but those do not have tare function which is very handy. The tare function is nice when measuring in something like a bowl or a plate.

    Its an easy conversion from gram to oz to.. There are about 28oz/g to convert those figures in the database not listed as g. You can also type the values into google and it will pop up the converted mass. Once you have the oz or grams you will need to do a simple calculation to convert to the base unit in the database. Some foods are only listed with 3oz units.

    This is totally worthwhile and will teach you to judge portions so much better.

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