do you weigh you food

raymondasare
raymondasare Posts: 4
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
I was wondering how many people that actually weigh their food in order to find out exactly how many calories they intake,,
because on my fitnesspal alot of food is in * grams and cups*

could somone please give me advise

Replies

  • stella77
    stella77 Posts: 282
    No way. I am satisfied with "approximate" figures.
    Otherwise I would be obsessing and thinking about food all the time.
  • HeidiMightyRawr
    HeidiMightyRawr Posts: 3,343 Member
    I do with main things like pasta and meat as it's simple enough to do, but not with little things such as butter and other spreads, with those I just estimate.
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    I weigh everything.
    Try it and see how wrong you've been! It's an eye opener. People who estimate tend to estimate high and end up eating maintenance instead of deficit and wonder why the scale isn't moving.

    Start with something like 1/2 cup dry oats for oatmeal. put the 1/2 cup measuring cup on the scale, turn it on and set it to grams, then fill to the amount of grams it say on the canister (I think it's 40), you'll see that 40 grams does not even FILL the half cup and most people do a full level measuring cup or even slightly heaping. You could be adding 100 extra calories here and there throughout the day killing your deficit.
  • vickiele1
    vickiele1 Posts: 394 Member
    I weigh things that can't be measured other ways. For example, I weigh my meat - I have a tendency to have a higher protein diet, which I have read isn't necessarily the best thing. I also weigh things like noodles and rice (not that eat much of it - but want to be somewhat precise). I measure any thing that can be put in a measuring cup. The scale I have is one that I got from Target, I think. It has the capacity to weigh the item you are putting the food into/onto, then you can zero out and weigh the food with precision.

    Vickie
  • Kate_UK
    Kate_UK Posts: 1,299 Member
    I weigh practicaly everything too, its the only way to know that you are getting the calories that you think you are. Its very easy to over estimate otherwise!
  • raymondasare
    raymondasare Posts: 4
    Thank you all for the advise i will purchase a food scale today and see because ive been a bit worried about the amount of chicken breast i eat,
  • AnnieeR
    AnnieeR Posts: 229
    I find that when I get lazy and stop weighing and measuring (I'm in the UK so I mostly weigh) my portions start to creep up. I weigh pretty much everything except stuff like frut and veg. I especially find that I under-estimate things like butter (I have a tiny little glass dish that is easy to wash and always by the scale so it's simple to do and doesn't take much effort) and cereal.
  • championnfl
    championnfl Posts: 324 Member
    We bought, digital scale and do indeed weigh items. Need to be able to get accurate info for this program to work. Or its just going thru the motions... Accurate data in gets accurate info out...... Good Luck!
  • akaDumbo
    akaDumbo Posts: 187
    I weigh or measure anything high calorie e.g. butter, oil, meat, cheese, pasta, rice, potatoes, but I dont weigh things like fruit & veggies
  • catcrazy
    catcrazy Posts: 1,740 Member
    I dont weigh, but I want to get some scales so I can weigh certain foods out. Rice, pasta etc are estimates but I'd say I'm pretty good at my estimates and then always add a few extra calories just in case. Its working for me but would prefer the scales to confirm with just a few foods.
  • annetten83
    annetten83 Posts: 20
    I have yet to buy a scale, but I measure almost everything out. It has been an eye opener to realize how much extra I was eating.
  • pickledlilly
    pickledlilly Posts: 98 Member
    I weigh everything, the amount of pasta and rice is, as said before, an eye opener. Oh. nearly forgot cheese, a mouse can eat more than us.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
    I was wondering how many people that actually weigh their food in order to find out exactly how many calories they intake,,
    because on my fitnesspal alot of food is in * grams and cups*

    could somone please give me advise

    I weigh some things and measure others.

    You can get a pretty cheap but good electronic food scale online if you look.
  • heathersmilez
    heathersmilez Posts: 2,579 Member
    I weigh meat since its odd shaped to put into a cup to verify and found I could eat a lot more!

    A chicken breast is 100g but when you put that on a scale I saw that it was larger than the recommended "palm-of-your-hand" meat measure. Perhaps I have small hands for my body or I was grossly underestimating how thick it could be but I have been very pleased with this investment.

    I just bought the cheapie kind by Salter, it’s a bucket on a scale, very old-school since the digital ones are all about $30 and I knew it was just a phase (since eventually you don't need to weigh any more, you'll be on maintenance and you'll know what a proper portion should be) so might as well save the pennies for my 11th bikini (I’m addicted).
  • darcibean
    darcibean Posts: 86
    I recently started MFP so I do not have a scale yet, but it's on my list of things to get.

    I do however measure out anything as much as I can like cereal, milk, butter, condiments, anything I can measure with a measuring cup or spoons, I do it. Everything else I kind of eyeball, but I try not to shoot high...I go a little less than what I actually think!
  • potluck965
    potluck965 Posts: 529 Member
    When I stopped losing weight I gave myself a gift of a food scale. As others have said, it is an eye opener. What you think is four ounces of meat is probably closer to six ounces and pasta, yikes.

    I think you have to know how much you are eating in order for the figures and weight loss to make sense.
  • josparkle
    josparkle Posts: 141 Member
    I have digital scales - salter from argos but they look like this
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-Electronic-scale-animated-display/dp/B00140VYPU/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_0_0

    They are more accurate than the manual types as they can weigh even a couple of grams - useful for nuts, cheese etc.

    Also for cup measurements - you can pick them up quite cheaply in places like wilkinsons etc but if you want an amazon link try

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kitchen-Craft-Measuring-Stainless-Steel/dp/B0001IWW5C/ref=sr_1_4?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1286895895&sr=1-4

    Plastic ones are cheaper but can distort over time and especially if you use a dishwasher to clean them so metal are better in the long run.

    HTH
    x
  • Valtishia
    Valtishia Posts: 811 Member
    I use one. I originally bought it for weighing my meat but then I found other things were not proper weights. For example I like to eat raspberries, and the container says it is 170g so I used to just eat it and input 170g on the MFP. While I realize these containers cannot be exact, they are supposed to be pretty close. I weighed the 4 containers I bought the other day and they were all under 150g, including the container they came in. While that may not be a large amount of calories considering it is raspberries, what other foods are like this that may be higher in calories for small amounts that I am underestimating?
  • firedragon064
    firedragon064 Posts: 1,082 Member
    I don't count calorie but I do count serving. It's easier for me so I do meassure the starch each. Meat, I don't each much so it never really a problem.. but usualy my meat size is only size of my palm.
    I only count calorie and weight everything if my scale does not go down.
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