Help measuring ingredients at home: grams, etc!

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natteenfatteen
natteenfatteen Posts: 3
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone - Does anyone have any good guides on how to measure ingredients at home? I cook a lot at home but find myself eyeballing ingredient amounts - especially with cheese and rice - instead of measuring, and I'd like to be a lot more accurate. Does anyone have any good guides to follow to make the process easier? Thanks!

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  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    food scale...buy one, use it...end thread/
  • MarineCodie
    MarineCodie Posts: 256 Member
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    I just got my first food scale. It's AWESOME.
  • RawCarrots
    RawCarrots Posts: 204 Member
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    You really need a kitchen scale, I was shocked to find out my portion of pasta, rice and good few other things, was actually two portions :wink: I used to measure everything, now I'm pretty good at estimating and only go back to measuring every few months to stay on track (my estimations tend to slowly increase over time:laugh: )

    You can use the recipe tool for meals you cook regularly.
  • boroko
    boroko Posts: 358 Member
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    Buy a good set of digital scales (they don't have to cost a lot) and use them. There really is no point in logging your food if you don't weigh accurately so you're wasting your time and fooling yourself if you think you can 'eyeball' things and get accurate results. After you have been weighing things properly for some time you will get a good feel for portion size but some things you always need to weigh.

    Use measuring spoons for oil - I discovered that the 'splash' of oil I used to cook with was far more than needed and added massively to my calories!
  • sunrise611
    sunrise611 Posts: 1,911 Member
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    I got the Eat Smart Precision Digital food scale (in silver) From Amazon and love it.

    It measures in ounces, pounds, grams and kgs. It also has a handy tare feature.

    http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Digital-Kitchen-Silver/dp/B001N07KUE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top/186-5751393-5378607
  • natteenfatteen
    natteenfatteen Posts: 3
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    How about for things like peanut butter on celery sticks? Do you just weigh the celery before and after peanut butter application?
  • CharityGC
    CharityGC Posts: 499 Member
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    Weigh the celery and PB separately, then add together. You just put a spoon on the scale, zero it out, and then put it back with the PB.
  • maiwong12
    maiwong12 Posts: 3
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    A kitchen scale works wonders!!! Since I also like to bake I have measuring spoons and cups so this really helps with keeping track of how much of everything I use/eat.
    Just make sure your scale can change between ounces and grams (unless you're really good at converting in your head :smile: )
  • maiwong12
    maiwong12 Posts: 3
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    What I would do is weigh the celery on the scale and then measure out a serving of peanut butter (1 serving is 2 tablespoons (I think)). At least that is how I would do it....
  • usmcmp
    usmcmp Posts: 21,220 Member
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    For peanut butter I put the jar on the scale and start scooping. Once I'm negative the number of grams for the serving I want I stop scooping. It means I can lick the spoon guilt free.
  • boroko
    boroko Posts: 358 Member
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    For peanut butter I put the jar on the scale and start scooping. Once I'm negative the number of grams for the serving I want I stop scooping. It means I can lick the spoon guilt free.

    This is how I weigh things from jars or tubes. Put the jar on the scale, zero it and then take out however much you need.
  • boroko
    boroko Posts: 358 Member
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    Another thought, if you are using spoons or cups for measurements ensure that it is a level spoon/cup full - a rounded or heaped spoon/cup will be considerably more! I try to use grams for everything as its more accurate.
  • snootmaster
    snootmaster Posts: 69 Member
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    Put the celery on the scale, weight it and then zero scale with celery still on it-then add your peanut butter to desired (or at least planned) amount.
  • ILiftHeavyAcrylics
    ILiftHeavyAcrylics Posts: 27,732 Member
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    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    Read this post-- there are lots of tips for how to be as accurate as possible.

    Use the recipe builder when you cook. It's a pain the first time but if you're like me you cook the same things more than once so after the first time it'll be very quick and easy. When searching for ingredients look for the entries in the database that don't have asterisks-- those have been checked against the USDA database. They're the most accurate and they will have an option for grams. Usually I set the measuring up on my scale, zero it out, and then add whatever I'm weighing.
  • teamAmelia
    teamAmelia Posts: 1,247 Member
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    Buy a food scale. This is my best and favorite weight-loss purchase. As you've said, you really have no idea how much you're really eating. You can get scales for as cheap as $8 at Walmart. That's the manual scale. I prefer digital scales and they're not that much more, maybe around $20. Worth it.

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