This post was a real eye opener,I weigh everything now.

Thanks for such great information! :flowerforyou:

I am such a noob sometimes...jeez

I have my scale and it came with the nice little bowl to put the food in...and all these nice little features that allows it to go from g to oz, a zero button and a few other buttons...didn't really think about them...

I was measuring my fruit this morning in that nice little aforementioned bowl to dump into my smoothie cup then made a mistake and put my yogurt in next...damn it...now my protien powder will stick...jeez...

So I was like eh I will just keep adding the stuff and keep track of what weigh what so as I go to the protien powder I hit one of those "other buttons"....AMG:mad: it zero'd out my yogurt...then I am like wait a minute..that's what that is for..nice...:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Then I realize cripes why not just put it in my smoothie cup and dirty one less dish....

I love my scale...gonna read up on the rest of the buttons on it now...:drinker: who knows what I will find that could be useful.

The really annoying thing is either when you press the wrong button or leave it too long between activity so it goes to sleep.

I use the tare or zero function all the time. I try to use one plate/bowl. Just keep adding and zero'ing out. It is really quick and easy when you get into the habit.

I eyeball and am able to stay on track mostly. Condiments are important. Tracking EVERYTHING is important. When my weight loss stalls, I check for foods I might habitually underestimate, and then start weighing until I've identified the issue.

after reading this Im going TODAY and buying a scale

What helps with it greatly too.

Weigh the pot, pan, dish that it will be cooked in. Then weigh the finished product.

Now when you put it into that Recipe Builder, you can adjust the serving size to hit the calories you want out of it, and if 1/6 of the dish, you now know exactly the weight of your serving.
And suggest putting that serving weight in there too.

*smacks self upside head*

Why didn't I think of this before?

BRILLIANT. I can't wait to update all of my recipes as I make them again. I've actually decided NOT to make a recipe in the past because I didn't feel like figuring out how much constitutes a serving. I like the idea of being able to just weigh it by the ounce. This will come in SO handy when I make big batches of stuff and then dole it out into seperate containers for lunches.

I usually log everything by the ounce or gram, anyway. So, every time I eat a plum, pear, etc., I weigh it first. Or for packaged things (crackers, chips, etc). I weigh one ounce. It's never the 17 chips they claim you get for a serving, BTW. It's always way less.

I also like the "lick the spoon" method and will start using that for peanut butter, hummus, greek yogurt, etc.

What an awesome thread.

I have the Biggest Loser one, that I got at Bed Bath and Beyond for $19.99 (with 20% off coupon, of course). I really like it. I test it every now and again and it's been consistently accurate.

It will toggle between ounces/grams and has a tare function. I like to keep things simple, so that's all I really need as far as features go.

It has a glass top that can be taken off and washed, which I like.

ETA:

HOLY CRAP. It's on clearance right now for $14.99!

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/The-Biggest-Loser-reg-Digital-Kitchen-Scale/1015947047?Keyword=biggest+loser+scale

Bump

(I'm posting a comment here so I can find it easily when I want it again!)

I've been very good about weighing things, and we have and use the heck out of 2 digital food scales. I also use & love the recipe builder--that was the thing that really sold me on using MFP in the first place, because I cook. A lot. But there are a handful of hacks here for using the scale that I hadn't thought of at all, so thank you for those tips!

Some people upthread were discussing that sometimes the counts in the database can be wildly divergent; as an avid from-scratch cook, I have to put in a good word for the database items that come from the USDA nutrition database. They've been very accurate for me, and I really appreciate that they always have a 100g serving selection available. Of course, this doesn't pertain to brand items like yogurt or bread, but for fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and most fats, they are my gold standard.

This is a great video showing the inaccuracies and how the calories add up when measuring v weighing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Thank you.

The biggest culprit for me was Pasta. I bought a digital scale from Walmart for $19.99...and I actually weighed out a serving and got about 8 or 9 pieces of Penne LOL.

The biggest culprit for me was Pasta. I bought a digital scale from Walmart for $19.99...and I actually weighed out a serving and got about 8 or 9 pieces of Penne LOL.

Was that cooked with water weight added, or pre-cooked dry that the label is talking about?

Gotta ask, because another thread showed up a thought regarding that being missed for many foods that have water content when raw, but of course lose some when cooked.

And it is a bummer isn't it. What's really fun is find old packaging and see how the serving size was bigger in the past sometimes, but they made it smaller either to play in to the smaller calorie game, or to reduce package size while keeping servings the same for cost game.

Weighing pasta was a harrowing, tragic experience for me.

I can relate to this tragic experience...

Thought I'd just have a small baked potato with cheese and butter for my dinner tonight after a bit of a glut yesterday.

Decided to be conciencoius for once, so weighed the teeny potato, miniscule glob of butter and sliver of cheese. 467 calorie total!

:sad:

Out of curiosity I weighed out 2 oz. of dry pasta, cooked it and then weighed it again and it was nearly 4.6 ounces then.

bump

So you're supposed to weight pasta AFTER you've cooked it? Does the same go for brown rice?