Appeal: Please use serving size as grams
Replies
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Don't do cups of measuring in the UK. My scales cost me under £10, they measure in grams, that is the only food measuring/weighing I use.
Stuff in cups, I disregard. One cup of rated cheese for instance, depends on how well packed down it is, grams I cannot go wrong with.
Unfortunately seeing as to how many of those in the US do not have food scales and many of those in the UK have never measured solid food in cups, the cups and grams measurements must remain IMO. Having one or the other, means one group of people is omitted.0 -
All y'all must be hangry........:laugh:0
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1 cup (US measure) is a measure of VOLUME = 8 FLUID OUNCES.
In terms of WEIGHT, if it's water or other liquid that's mostly water (milk, wine, beer...), that = 8 OUNCES. Less if it's something lighter than water (less dense, really), like olive oil or flour.0 -
I am happy, calm down.For Pete's sake, can't you just be happy that My Fitness Pal is available to us and is free? I am over the moon with this app and am happy that I have lost 45 lbs, despite the little difficulties.
I loved that. Quite funny0 -
Hey, folks, take another look at the request. NOBODY'S SAYING "GET RID OF CUPS"-- just "put it in grams like the civilized world uses".
I'm American, but we're the only major country in the world that still uses an antiquated measuring system. And to think we used to laugh at the English for their pre-reform currency, with 12d (pence) to the shilling and 20s to £1 (pound).0 -
They're not trying to measure weight. They're trying to measure volume. But with no way of controlling for the density (coarsely-chopped vs. finely-chopped vs. packed), it's destined to end in a lot of error.Using cups is just an illogical way to measure weight. Think of an actual 8 oz drinking cup - you can fill the cup with rocks or feathers. Does a cup full of feathers weigh the same as a cup full of rocks? "But wait, they are both in 8oz cups, they have to weight the same!!! A cup is a cup!!" Sigh...use kgs or ozs.
Why does anyone care about volume or density? I want to know how much of something I am consuming so that i can calculate the calories, protein, carbs, fat, etc. I weigh something on my food scale, get a measurement, attempt to log it, and find that the scale on the package is in 1/4 cups. If there are no kg or oz stats, what am i supposed to do, cram whatever I'm eating into a measuring cup? I have to take the kgs, go online, find out the conversion for a cup of that type of food (liquid, power, fruit, nuts, etc.), and covert it - it doesn't have to be that complicated!0 -
it also appears that people take a food scale with them everywhere they go and get food or they never go out and are teathered to their food scale. When was the last time your scale was calibrated? Is it even accurate?
The point, its all relative to your surroundings. You want things in grams? Then measure it in grams and log it yourself.
But i do like the idea of measuring things in pizzas so Im gonna begin to append some food items now.0 -
hmm - I am the opposite. I would much rather see things as 1 cup - I don't do grams...
Me too0 -
Don't look now but..http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/11/myfitnesspal-funding/.0
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I'm in the US and I have to disagree with both points. It's extremely rare to find a packaged food that doesn't list it's serving as /g. I'd challenge you to find a food that doesn't list it's serving in grams. As far as weighing prepackaged food, I have to do this. I'm very small and my deficit is not large. There is no room for error. Weights on prepackaged foods are always wrong. Discrepancies can equal up to 100 calories, and suddenly I'm no longer in a deficit. Call it anal if you want, it works. Not weighing my food didn't.I'm not sure where you live but here in the U.S. a lot of food items are not given a gram serving size. Instead it could be in ounces, cups, etc. And I think you're being awfully anal weighing prepackaged foods.
I don't mean to be contrary and i certainly didn't mean to rustle any jimmies... I get your second point but honestly, I'll never pull a granola bar out of it's wrapper and weigh it to see the discrepancy between it's weight and the weight listed on the package.
As for your first point, I may just buy odd things but in my house right now, the following things do not have grams listed: block mild cheddar (listed in oz), international delight coffee creamer (TBSP and mL), Pace black bean dip (TBSP and mL), and Shopper's Fench bread. That's just a quick glance around. For some of these, I will carefully measure out the serving size and weigh it so I don't have to dirty measuring spoons again.
1 oz = 28g. It's still a weight measure, not a volume measure. Creamer is a liquid, so it doesn't come in weight anyway. The dip I guess is arguable, they consider it a liquid, which is kinda annoying (I'm clueless when it comes to measuring liquids). For the bread, I'm guessing it doesn't come in volume unit either, but ounces too.
So his point is valid. For packaged foods, even in the US, it always comes in at least some kind of weight unit, as long as it's not a liquid, so there's no excuse really to use inaccurate cups and measuring spoons.0 -
Insisting on 'cups' is a very narrow minded American trait. In the UK we have no idea what size a cup is or how much it's supposed to represent. I agree that a simple uniform system such as grams is the best way, then everyone can access it.
If you don't weigh your food, then you're having to rely on the packaging figures anyway rather than the food database so you lose nothing.
I live in the uk and people here of a certain age will remember predecimilization and cope perfectly well with cups and ounces as well as grams . As to 1 pizza is this a little chicago town microwave pizza or a giant dominos stuffed crust?
How a bout making your own pizza then you will know the exact measurements of all the ingredients.0 -
in US measurements a "Cup" is a consistent measure....not in the UK or elsewhere. I find measurements in grams daunting...I didn't grow up measuring anything that way, while I know exactly what a cup of something looks like. It isn't a big deal to list a food both ways though, on most packaging in the US there is a gram measurement on the package somewhere.0
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I'm losing weight using the less specific measurements, and not weighing anything. I measure things at home with cups and tablespoons, but if I'm out to dinner I eyeball it or use the restaurant's listing for "half a pizza." Having a general idea is apparently good enough to stop me from grossly overeating, because I am losing steadily.
This post doesn't apply to me because I don't put the listings I make in the database, but for some people who were eating 4000+ calories a day before, the slightly less specific measurements such as half or whole pizza work just fine.
Also I've never had to use grams so they make no sense to me, whereas it's becoming easy to visualize a cup or tablespoon of something after months of measuring things out =] To each his/her own. That's why there can be multiple listings for things in the database.0 -
The US population is quite stubborn about adopting the system of measurements used by virtually the rest of the planet (to the distress of many of us with scientific backgrounds). We're stuck with the outdated system that we use and thus all the measuring cups and spoons I have are based on Cups, tablespoons, etc because that is what I can buy when I'm in the kitchen utensils and gadgets sections of most stores, and all the recipe books I buy and read are also based on those units.
It's not about being stubborn. I can only speak for myself but I happen to enjoy using my vast cookbook collection (as well as online recipes and magazines) and they all use cups, tablespoons, teaspoons. I would be completely lost if all of the sudden the measurements that I've used my entire life suddenly vanished!
while I agree I'd hate to lose all my cookbooks...like you, all my books were published in America for American cooks. The same books published in other countries are probably converted to grams, and the food comes out the same, for the most part. We in the US are the ones behind the times, most of the rest of the world has gone with the other system. I admit I feel a little uncomfortable with it...I learned metric in school in chemistry class, but I still have no visual memory of how much a gram of anything is, or a liter of anything is. (I can eyeball ounces or cups pretty darn well....professional cook)0 -
Insisting on 'cups' is a very narrow minded American trait. In the UK we have no idea what size a cup is or how much it's supposed to represent. I agree that a simple uniform system such as grams is the best way, then everyone can access it.
If you don't weigh your food, then you're having to rely on the packaging figures anyway rather than the food database so you lose nothing.
In america we have no idea what size a gram is or how much it's supposed to represent, at least I don't. I'm in college and all of my science labs have used cups. No one teaches us grams and it isn't our fault. So wouldn't having both available be the better answer than grams OR cups? You being confused isn't worse than me being confused; no one should have to be confused.Grams aren't more simple for everyone just because it's what you use, and cups are as uniform as grams are(it's not any old cup in your kitchen, it's a specific number of ounces etc).0 -
Same. Not everybody weighs and I know when I look up say 'toastino's pizza rolls' and see them listed by grams I immediately look for something else because huh? I can't remember what I saw that was 356g's, it was steak or something, and I honestly have no idea how to eyeball that.I am on the opposite spectrum as you. I don't weigh out my food on a gram scale (sanity reasons for this). So if all the foods in the database were listed only by grams I wouldn't be able to calculate. I have to accept that different people prefer things different ways.
I think restricting folks who are trying to do a good thing for themselves because it doesn't fit how you want to do that good thing for yourself is not the right answer.
Pip0 -
If just 40 calories makes such an extravagant difference for you, I can almost guarantee you that you are eating too little.
If you are eating a reasonably healthy amount of food, 40 cals won't mean the difference between fat and fit in the end, so don't sweat it.
this totally this!0 -
\Insisting on 'cups' is a very narrow minded American trait. In the UK we have no idea what size a cup is or how much it's supposed to represent. I agree that a simple uniform system such as grams is the best way, then everyone can access it.
If you don't weigh your food, then you're having to rely on the packaging figures anyway rather than the food database so you lose nothing.
Or if you see something in cups and that bothers you, just put it in a different way instead of being irritated. The more options the better. Sheesh.0 -
Insisting on 'cups' is a very narrow minded American trait. In the UK we have no idea what size a cup is or how much it's supposed to represent. I agree that a simple uniform system such as grams is the best way, then everyone can access it.
If you don't weigh your food, then you're having to rely on the packaging figures anyway rather than the food database so you lose nothing.
In america we have no idea what size a gram is or how much it's supposed to represent, at least I don't. I'm in college and all of my science labs have used cups. No one teaches us grams and it isn't our fault. So wouldn't having both available be the better answer than grams OR cups? You being confused isn't worse than me being confused; no one should have to be confused.Grams aren't more simple for everyone just because it's what you use, and cups are as uniform as grams are(it's not any old cup in your kitchen, it's a specific number of ounces etc).
In America I know exactly what a gram is and measure all of my good that way. All of my science labs used mL or grams, never cups, and scales where applicable. :huh:
So. Don't say we.0 -
I'm not sure where you live but here in the U.S. a lot of food items are not given a gram serving size. Instead it could be in ounces, cups, etc. And I think you're being awfully anal weighing prepackaged foods.
On the packaging, usually, next to the volumetric serving size, in parentheses, there is usually an amount in grams. THAT'S what she's talking about.
And she's not really weighing prepackaged foods -- just foods that have more than 1 serving per package, like bulk frozen fruit, or peas, or a frozen pizza.0 -
Before this thread dies, I have a question.
Why are there no funny gifs in this thread? Only one serious one pointing out the solution to a math question. That's just not right.0 -
Yes, there should be more funny gifs! I don't know where all the funny animated gifs come from, alas!
Also, get a cool scale that toggles between g and oz and that makes it more awesomer!
I told the apple fritter story before. But, weighing food does matter. If you're good at estimates that's great, and of course I have to approximate when I'm out or research where I'm eating or where I ate and read their nutritional info (if available). I don't bring my scale with me, but gosh darn it, I love my kitchen scale.
But, I guess some people don't like scales.
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Insisting on 'cups' is a very narrow minded American trait. In the UK we have no idea what size a cup is or how much it's supposed to represent. I agree that a simple uniform system such as grams is the best way, then everyone can access it.
If you don't weigh your food, then you're having to rely on the packaging figures anyway rather than the food database so you lose nothing.
In america we have no idea what size a gram is or how much it's supposed to represent, at least I don't. I'm in college and all of my science labs have used cups. No one teaches us grams and it isn't our fault. So wouldn't having both available be the better answer than grams OR cups? You being confused isn't worse than me being confused; no one should have to be confused.Grams aren't more simple for everyone just because it's what you use, and cups are as uniform as grams are(it's not any old cup in your kitchen, it's a specific number of ounces etc).
In America I know exactly what a gram is and measure all of my good that way. All of my science labs used mL or grams, never cups, and scales where applicable. :huh:
So. Don't say we.
"at least I don't," or did you not read to even the end of the sentence? OR more importantly the post I was quoting and replying to? I'll help you: The blanket statement was in sarcastic response to their blanket statement, "In the uk we have no idea what size a cup is...." (I bolded it above) or are you not bothered by their use of 'we' to represent millions of people? I was. I thought the exact same wording(up to where I revoke my blanket statement at the end) made the intention clear, my bad(edit: there's that sarcasm again; I can't seem to help it today):huh:
Regardless of my misinterpreted sarcasm I stand by the statement that cups as a unit is more widely used here because it is what's taught here and what people are more likely to be familiar with. It isn't a "narrow minded american trait" any more than using grams is a "narrow minded rest-of-the-world trait." What's narrow minded is thinking one is more simple/accurate than the other because it is what the other poster happened to grow up with.0 -
All this could be solved if everyone just un-checked the box to allow other people to use their entries. You can still see all the things you enter and then wouldn't have to spend hours trying to sort through all the other duplicates that don't fit into your standards. That is all I ask.. Just don't clog the database with entries. Use them for yourself and let everyone else use their own. I wish they would just purge everything from there that isn't a default entry.0
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1 cup = .24 liters.
Here in Australia, 1cup=250ml or .25 litres, standardised.
Also, please note, 'half a cup' of oats... Depending how you fill your measuring cup can be anywhere from 40-60g.
And please tell me what a cup of broccoli is. Do you count the air between the broccoli pieces?0 -
All this could be solved if everyone just un-checked the box to allow other people to use their entries. You can still see all the things you enter and then wouldn't have to spend hours trying to sort through all the other duplicates that don't fit into your standards. That is all I ask.. Just don't clog the database with entries. Use them for yourself and let everyone else use their own. I wish they would just purge everything from there that isn't a default entry.
this! very rarely do i make any of my recipes public. i spent several minutes this morning trying to figure out how to log 3 tablespoons of kraft 2% shredded cheddar cheese. finally just said screw it and put in 1/4 cup. oh well i'd rather be over then under.0 -
ummmm. I think a cup is 8 oz and a 1/2 cup is 4 oz.
Well I just did a little experiment - I weighed a cup of flour (level) - it was 160g or 5 5/8 oz, and a cup of penne pasta (as level as poss) and that was 95g or 3 1/4 oz.
I'll stick with my scales.
really? that's like saying that gram of flour equals 1 litre of flour. This is just not a fact. 8 fluid ounces of flour does not equal 8 weighed ounces of flour.
I thought the same thing. Ounces in volume do not equal ounces in weight.
I was talking about weight - I don't measure dry ingredients in fluid ounces. In fact I don't use fluid ounces for anything - I use mls.
All this proves is that some people prefer to use cups and spoons to measure volume, some people prefer to weigh either in metric or imperial, and so we understand each other according to our preferences.
Surely what's important is that we measure, one way or another to be sure of what we're eating?
The world's a big place, there's room for us all, and the beauty of MFP is that you can make the database do what you want it to do to suit your prefered system. 0 -
MFP's programmers could solve this easily enough by allowing multiple serving size entries, so if the package says 1/3 cup (50g), we could enter both the weight and volume so those who like to be accurate can be, and those who measure steak in cups can still be nuts.
I agree!!!0 -
WOW....lol....who truly doesn't know what a cup is. I am sorry to laugh but they must not be from the USA,
Well, something like 6.8Billion people aren't..0 -
Don't do cups of measuring in the UK. My scales cost me under £10, they measure in grams, that is the only food measuring/weighing I use.
Well but we do actually, or did.
I remember learning to bake by adding level, heaped or rounded spoons of flour, sugar * etc. My mother had a set of scales but measured in spoons and cups and that's what she taught me - a rounded tablespoon of flour was approximately an ounce. I can still guess an ounce of butter almost by eye (Stick?????) At school I learned imperial measurements. But now I use metric weights because I'm surrounded by them and used to them and trust them.
ed: * try measuring a heaped spoon of sugar, go on try! :laugh:0
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