How to measure food properly?

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stephanieann215
stephanieann215 Posts: 37
in Food and Nutrition
For example. I am making corn bread. Calorie intake after adding all ingred. and baking is 140 calories for a 1/4 cup. How would you measure bread in cups.:huh:

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  • explosivedonut
    explosivedonut Posts: 419 Member
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    You should use weighted measurements. Corn bread doesn't rise too much, so the only thing you have to worry about is loss of liquid. Pretty simple to do this. Weigh everything before you mix it and put it up, then weigh the corn bread after you take it out of the oven. You can now measure how much a 50 gram (or whatever size) piece of corn bread is.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    Did you use the recipe builder? If you use the recipe builder you'd use # of servings vs cups of cornbread and it would likely be a lot more accurate.
  • tmpecus78
    tmpecus78 Posts: 1,206 Member
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    it should say an amount of grams after the 1/4 cup.
  • bridgie101
    bridgie101 Posts: 817 Member
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    If I make something, eg spaghetti bolognese, I always build a recipe. I add in all of the ingredients used to make it, and work out the total calories for that - and then work out how many serves there are in that recipe. I do that by weighing the whole thing after it's cooked, and then weighing what I chose for my portion. And then I divide it and see how many portions that is.

    The recipe builder will ask: "how many serves" and when you tell it it will plug in the number of calories you've eaten.

    :D I've no idea what 1/4 cup of cornbread is. :D 2 ounces?
  • stephanieann215
    stephanieann215 Posts: 37
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    Thanks so much. I thought it was funny about the 1/4 cup. I really did not want to jam cornbread into a measuring cup. lol
  • nic632
    nic632 Posts: 295 Member
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    I've just started Insanity and after reading the Nutrition Guide I've noticed as lot of foods have to be 1 cup, 1/2 cup etc - how big is a cup in the first place?

    I'm only used to weighing foods/liquids in grams and oz, so it's all a bit frustrating.
  • Amym26
    Amym26 Posts: 83 Member
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    Just saving my spot because I struggle to measure my recipes.
  • _TastySnoBalls_
    _TastySnoBalls_ Posts: 1,298 Member
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    best bet is adding it to the recipe builder....i love that thing!
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,520 Member
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    I think someone else mentioned "servings." What do when I make something from scratch is...add up the calorie total (from all of the ingredients) and then divide the total by how many servings I want to get out of the entire dish. And of course, physically divide the dish into that many servings.

    I find this method to be a little easier than weighing the final product/serving with a food scale...or using measuring cups to serve.
  • teresamwhite
    teresamwhite Posts: 947 Member
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    I've just started Insanity and after reading the Nutrition Guide I've noticed as lot of foods have to be 1 cup, 1/2 cup etc - how big is a cup in the first place?

    I'm only used to weighing foods/liquids in grams and oz, so it's all a bit frustrating.

    They mean a measuring cup (the set of nested ones...typically 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup for solid foods and the one with the spout for liquids). And a cup is 8ounces. Those are good for measuring the volume of food, but the best and most accurate way to measure is with a scale to get the weight. The volume of food is not equal to the weight of food. So 1/4c of cornbread is not the same as 2oz by weight of cornbread. (the saying is, "A pint's a pound the world around" and only applies to liquid eggs, milk and water...so in those cases a 1/4c of water is the same as 2oz by weight of water.)

    Like someone else said, I build the recipe, then divide by the number of servings and let MFP do the rest.
  • nic632
    nic632 Posts: 295 Member
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    Thanks for the advice, but I was thinking along the lines of when it says 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, 1/3 cup rice, 1/4 feta cheese, 1 cup berries etc - that's what is confusing.

    You can weigh out 30g of something, but if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup for example, there will be gaps if you're measuring some foods ie broccoli. So unless you are using hardly any stalks and just the tops, then there isn't much of a portion size compared to weighing out 30g - if you know what I mean?
  • Kitpurr
    Kitpurr Posts: 26 Member
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    Thanks for the advice, but I was thinking along the lines of when it says 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms, 1/3 cup rice, 1/4 feta cheese, 1 cup berries etc - that's what is confusing.

    You can weigh out 30g of something, but if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup for example, there will be gaps if you're measuring some foods ie broccoli. So unless you are using hardly any stalks and just the tops, then there isn't much of a portion size compared to weighing out 30g - if you know what I mean?

    You're probably over-thinking it. Anything that isn't that calorie dense like broccoli just add as much as you think will taste good and weigh it before you put it in. Unless you're baking it won't matter to the recipe if you're not spot on. Anything that is calorie dense like cheese, rice, flour, pasta, oils and butter etc. you should definitely be weighing, because if you mess up you're probably getting a lot more cals than you bargained for. I just google "how many grams in a cup of ..." I usually get a result from this site: http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/rice_amounts_converter.html which has a lot of really nice converters(even though the layout is awful).

    So if it is calorie dense find out what grams or ounces or whatever it is in a cup and then weigh that out. If it is not calorie dense just get as much as you want, weigh it and throw it in.

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