Using a Food Scale

Options
wanderlustlover
wanderlustlover Posts: 84 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My food scale arrived today! And I have started with weighing my lunch lean porkchop (which IS lower in ounces than I'd been earlier counting the food as).

What other things are good for me to weight? What are things I should know about having/using a scale, etc? Any advice and notes anyone would be willing to share with a girl trying to get more specific and correct readings for logging daily?

Replies

  • CherylP67
    CherylP67 Posts: 772 Member
    Options
    I weigh everything except liquids!

    Does your scale have a tare feature? I love that feature.
  • wanderlustlover
    wanderlustlover Posts: 84 Member
    Options
    Yep!

    Though I have no idea how to use it or what that does?
  • frenchfacey
    frenchfacey Posts: 237 Member
    Options
    i weigh everything. some food is SO MUCH MORE than i ever thought and its the best feeling

    then suddenly, you weigh something and youre like GASP one ounce is so much less than i thought

    its just great knowing
  • thisismeraw
    thisismeraw Posts: 1,264 Member
    Options
    Yep!

    Though I have no idea how to use it or what that does?

    The tare is great! Put a bowl or plate or any sort of container on the scale and press tare. It will zero it out and than you add your food to get just the measurement of the food. Makes clean up easy as you don't have to put food directly onto the scale.

    I use my food scale for everything but liquids. My scoop of protein powder for example is 5g more than what the label lists. I weigh everything.
  • Smallbluepebble
    Smallbluepebble Posts: 49 Member
    Options
    I weigh everything and measure liquids accurately.

    The tare facility will set the balance back to zero. So, if you're making a salad for example, you can put your lettuce/salad leaves in the scale and see the weight - then you can leave them there, press tare and then weigh your tomatoes, press tare and weigh your cucumber etc.

    I couldn't manage without it!
  • marsellient
    marsellient Posts: 591 Member
    Options
    Most of the raw fruit and vegetable entries in the data base (the ones without asterisks) have 100g counts. Especially with the fruit it makes me feel like I'm being more accurate when I weigh it. Love the food scale!
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,287 Member
    Options
    not really a tip on measuring, but something I started doing when I moved to my new house is I keep it in a drawer by the cutting board, all I have to do is open the drawer, weigh, then close the drawer. No leaving it on the counter to get dusty, no picking it up and constantly putting it away. I wish I had thought of it sooner!
  • wwwdotcr
    wwwdotcr Posts: 128 Member
    Options
    My food scale arrived today! And I have started with weighing my lunch lean porkchop (which IS lower in ounces than I'd been earlier counting the food as).

    What other things are good for me to weight? What are things I should know about having/using a scale, etc? Any advice and notes anyone would be willing to share with a girl trying to get more specific and correct readings for logging daily?

    Weigh everything that shows serving size : oz / g . Sometimes I find with my steamers especially I'll just plan how many bags to eat for the whole day to save the trouble of weighing.

    I also highly recommend "Medicine measuring cups". You can get 100 of them for around $4. I use them to measure the amount of tablespoon i am putting in. Helps a lot in counting actually calories.
  • apothecarist
    apothecarist Posts: 193
    Options
    I weigh out everything too, even peanut butter and Reddi Whip! I found it came in very handy when weighing slices of bread that I bought from Trader Joe's. It's the Rustic Sourdough Loaf and the label reads 80cals for 1 slice (31g). The thing is, not each slice is 31g, with some weighing close to 40grams. So, weigh out everything and you can't go wrong w/calorie counting!
  • wanderlustlover
    wanderlustlover Posts: 84 Member
    Options
    Thank you so much to all of you! Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day getting to measure everything anew!
  • banana_milk
    banana_milk Posts: 40
    Options
    I weigh every single thing I eat... veggies, meat, anything. I love my food scale.
  • Joehenny
    Joehenny Posts: 1,222 Member
    Options
    My food scale arrived today! And I have started with weighing my lunch lean porkchop (which IS lower in ounces than I'd been earlier counting the food as).

    What other things are good for me to weight? What are things I should know about having/using a scale, etc? Any advice and notes anyone would be willing to share with a girl trying to get more specific and correct readings for logging daily?

    I weigh everything, including liquids. I weigh them in ounces.
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
    Options
    I weigh everything except liquids!

    Does your scale have a tare feature? I love that feature.

    Same for me--I weigh everything from pasta (2 ounces per serving) to butternut. It really does make all the difference.

    Congratulations on your new tool/toy!

    Kris
  • jody664
    jody664 Posts: 397 Member
    Options
    not really a tip on measuring, but something I started doing when I moved to my new house is I keep it in a drawer by the cutting board, all I have to do is open the drawer, weigh, then close the drawer. No leaving it on the counter to get dusty, no picking it up and constantly putting it away. I wish I had thought of it sooner!
    I also highly recommend "Medicine measuring cups". You can get 100 of them for around $4. I use them to measure the amount of tablespoon i am putting in. Helps a lot in counting actually calories.
    I love these two tips! I'm going to do both. Thanks!!
  • MarineVeteran
    MarineVeteran Posts: 21
    Options
    Food scaling is great to track your foods. Measuring liquids is a plus as well. Personally, I do them both.
  • tlblood
    tlblood Posts: 473 Member
    Options
    Most of the raw fruit and vegetable entries in the data base (the ones without asterisks) have 100g counts. Especially with the fruit it makes me feel like I'm being more accurate when I weigh it. Love the food scale!

    This!

    I also weigh everything! Fruits, veggies, meats (raw or cooked, just be sure to specify in MFP), anything with a serving size in grams or ounces gets weighed.

    Tare is also nice because if you're making a recipe or putting together lots of foods, you can weigh out the first, then tare and weigh out the next, etc. all in the same bowl.
  • proudjmmom
    proudjmmom Posts: 145 Member
    Options
    I weigh everything, including liquids. Best tool ever!
  • Cp731
    Cp731 Posts: 3,195 Member
    Options
    I have one. I used to weigh. Its a lot of work and time. Being that Im a Chef, irl, I have the eye for what food weighs.
    I should sell scale. :frown:
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    Options
    Serving sizes listed on packaging can be off by quite a bit. For example, for one of my cereals, the box said a serving size was 1 cup or 50 grams. When I weighed out the 1 cup it was over 70 grams. That's almost 1.5 servings. I don't mind eating 1.5 servings, but I need to know that I am eating all that so I can make adjustments elsewhere.

    Another example is grated cheese. Different kinds of cheeses and different shred sizes make a difference in volume, so it's better to weigh your cheese than measure the volume of it in a cup. I had been counting 1/4 cup (supposedly = 1 ounce) as a serving (as the package directed) and then found out from my scale that I was getting ripped off. For some types, 1/4 cup was only .8 oz. and for others it was 1 oz. If I'm gonna be charged for those calories, I want my full serving of cheese, ya know? Gimme my .2 oz of cheese! I need it. :explode:

    In conclusion, using a scale is a LOT more accurate.
  • AmykinsCatfood
    AmykinsCatfood Posts: 599 Member
    Options
    I just bought one too! I love it! I was portioning out some lean ground pork and was so pleased that I could make each bag roughly the same amount xD I'm such a nerd sometimes. Tonight I weighed my yogurt and was super surprised at how much 175g actually was.. I thought my bowl was never going to end (was plain greek yogurt with not enough melted peanut butter to make the taste pleasant. Practically had to choke it down >.< ) The tare feature is great.. you put your bowl or plate on it and press Tare and it resets the scale to zero so you can put food on the plate and only weigh the food! If you have multiple things to weigh on the same plate, just press Tare after each one so you can keep adding to the same plate. Looove my scale :)

Categories