Poll on Food Scale
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Nillabee
Posts: 7
I know this has been asked a million times before and I have spent quite a bit of the day reading the forums on food scales etc...however, how many of you use one? Do you find it absolutely necessary? Why not just read the food label?
If you use one, does the scale have the calorie, fat, carb, option etc?
If you do not use one--why not?
I'm still on the fence about a food scale...just not sure it's worth the time or really going to make that huge of a difference. I have been looking at a scale that also displays the calories, carbs, and fats based on the weight of the scale (not sure if I even need that).
Sorry for sounding a little naive, but after a day of researching this I'm still just not sure about it...Thanks for the advice!
If you use one, does the scale have the calorie, fat, carb, option etc?
If you do not use one--why not?
I'm still on the fence about a food scale...just not sure it's worth the time or really going to make that huge of a difference. I have been looking at a scale that also displays the calories, carbs, and fats based on the weight of the scale (not sure if I even need that).
Sorry for sounding a little naive, but after a day of researching this I'm still just not sure about it...Thanks for the advice!
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Replies
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If you are not using a food scale, you are not counting calories.0
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I use a food scale, well for now I'm using a mailing scale until I can get a food scale.
I do measure my food and I try to be as accurate as possible.0 -
YES YES YES to having (and using) a food scale. It's on my counter, sitting right there, used many many many many times during the day.
You ask: "Do you find it absolutely necessary? Why not just read the food label?"
If a label says 2 oz pasta dry, how would you know to eat 2oz dry if you don't have something to weigh it on? Seeeeeee?0 -
i like to use mine because it makes measuing easier for recipes, and because i am anal that i am actually eating the amount that i think i am. i love it, i use it several times a day0
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I just bought one!!!! It did come with a manual that had a list of foods and calories per ounce, etc. but it is important because I realized I was not accurately taking into account my calories. Like today for instance, I am going to have a piece of frozen chicken breast. The serving size on the label says 4 ounces, and each piece of chicken should be 4 ounces right? WRONG!!! This piece of chicken was almost 8 ounces!!!! 2x the amount I was accouting for before I got the scale!!!! So, I would say yes a food scale is important!!!!0
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Go look at this though perhaps you've seen it:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think
My scales has oz/lbs and once I watched the youtube video within the above post, I realized that I need a new scale that does grams. I wouldn't take it to a restraurant with me but I do weigh at home.0 -
YES YES YES to having (and using) a food scale. It's on my counter, sitting right there, used many many many many times during the day.
You ask: "Do you find it absolutely necessary? Why not just read the food label?"
If a label says 2 oz pasta dry, how would you know to eat 2oz dry if you don't have something to weigh it on? Seeeeeee?
The 2 ounces of pasta thing - IF you want me to eyeball 2 ounces of pasta - i could feed a family of 4. However, when I weigh it, I can only feed myself.0 -
I don't use one. I've tinkered with serving size enough that I'm hitting my weekly target without one. If you find that you're not meeting your goals then I would suggest one.
Also, calories in food can be off based on how the FDA allows them to be labeled so even prepackaged food may be off when using a scale.0 -
Well I guess I've always just kind of taken the nutrition info from label...ie 14 triscuits, 1 cup of pasta, 1 egg, 1 piece of toast, etc. Like for breakfast I have a piece of toast, an egg, 2 turkey sausage links. Why would I need a food scale for that? For dinners I cook a lot of recipes off skinnytaste.com and just use her nutritional info...how would the scale help that? I really don't count veggies in my diary because I feel they are so low calorie they don't really need to be counted.
Again, not trying to sound naive, just looking for awesome advice
Thanks!0 -
Well I guess I've always just kind of taken the nutrition info from label...ie 14 triscuits, 1 cup of pasta, 1 egg, 1 piece of toast, etc. Like for breakfast I have a piece of toast, an egg, 2 turkey sausage links. Why would I need a food scale for that? For dinners I cook a lot of recipes off skinnytaste.com and just use her nutritional info...how would the scale help that? I really don't count veggies in my diary because I feel they are so low calorie they don't really need to be counted.
Again, not trying to sound naive, just looking for awesome advice
Thanks!
You might not need to weigh a piece of toast but what if you want peanut butter or butter on that toast? It's much more accurate to weigh things like that in grams.0 -
I do not use one but am thinking about getting one. I am a month in to this and would like to make sure I am doing everything correctly. I measure a lot or count (nuts/chips) so I dont think I am tooo far off although maybe I am. As far as ounces go I guess, I had a baby so i am familiar with ounces and measuring formula in bottles. I know that sounds weird but that is how I am doing it until i get scale should I decide to get one.0
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I have a food scale, but I have to admit that I don't use it that often. I know that it would be more accurate, but really calorie counting is estimation anyway. I look at serving size, and try to estimate based on that...so if say I have a can of beans, and it says that there are two servings in there, I try to get about half. I figure I'll eat the other half the next day anyway, so what difference does it make? So at the end of the day am I really netting 1326 calories? Probably not. But I figure if I'm losing at a reasonable safe rate, then I'm guessing close enough.
Now if I were not losing at what MFP says that my calories should be, that's the first thing I would do...is start weighing and measuring more, because then I would figure my estimations were off.0 -
Can't just use the food label on foods that don't come with labels, like most vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, cuts of meat, etc.
I love having the scale which takes all the 'guesstimation' out of how much spinach to pack into a one cup measurer, for example. If I'm going to take the time to log, I might as well be as accurate as I can be. I've rarely had to edit or correct any food in the database that is listed by grams.0 -
I use the scale all the time. One reason is most of my foods do not come with nutritional labels. The ones that do are off on their serving sizes. For example, my carrots say a serving size is about 5 carrots or 28g. When you weigh out the carrots it more like 10 carrots.
If I want to accurate I need to weigh. It's that simple.0 -
I'd probably rate food scale as the most helpful tool thus far for me. I was way off of everything I estimated before I got a food scale. I am way better at estimating now that I know what certain weights of my most used foods look like, but I still use the scale to be sure.0
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I use my scale every every time I eat. Mostly convert it to grams to be exact.0
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When I got serious about our food habits I bought 3 things- measuring spoons, measuring cups and a food scale. I had a manual one but adding the digital model that can measure oz, grams and pounds is great! I think you really need to portion your food to know how much you are eating. That along with reading and understanding the labels are critical. Ever try to figure out a 42 gm portion without a scale???
Good luck with your journey!0 -
I have a small digital one. I use it constantly.0
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I need to buy a food scale soon.0
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If you are not using a food scale, you are not counting calories.
THIS
Especially for volume measurements of non-liquid items. For example, how many strawberries is in 1/2 a cup? No way to know without knowing how big the strawberries were and how tightly they were packed. The same thing is true for flour which is why many bakers, me included, use weight measurements to make bread.
As to scales, all you need is a $20 digital one from a big box store or online. Digital means you can measure in either English or metric and can set the tare button to add a second ingredient.
For example, I most recently ate 1 serving of cottage cheese with one serving of raisins stirred in (and a little cinnamon which I didn't bother to weigh). Right on the cottage cheese container it tells me 1 serving is 114 grams for 110 calories. On the raisin bag it says 40 grams is a serving of raisins. Put the bowl on the scale and clicked the "tare" button to get it back to zero. Then I measured in the cottage cheese, put the dirty spoon in the bowl and reset to zero. Next I measured in the raisins. Voila. Done. And no extra measuring cups dirty either.0
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