I'm from the UK - a 'cup' means nothing to me

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Replies

  • AliceRabbit13
    AliceRabbit13 Posts: 138 Member
    Use the scale and weigh everything...but if all else fails....

    www.onlineconversion.com

    :)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I was thinking the exact same yesterday.... 8 glasses of water a day is advised, but how big is the cup. Not very specific!

    250ml

    Are you sure? Because I have a feeling somewhere that I've seen American cups (as in the cooking/baking type) are smaller than our standard 250ml. I think I have seen them listed as 240ml, or even 236.6ml (which, presumably one rounds to 240ml).

    P.S. Australian. Weighs everything in grams. Has no idea how you are meant to measure out a cup of cooked string beans...?!

    Yes 1cup=250ml=8 fl oz...we measure in cups in Canada too...they will have ml/oz/imperial measurments on them..

    350ml=1.4cups...

    and 8 cups of water is 8@8 fl oz not weighed oz fluid oz...you can't weigh liquids you need to measure them.

    And if you saw cups = anything but 250ml it's not a cup...it's less than a cup...

    Not sure how we are North americans are the only ones who use this measurment...

    Mind you I wish I could find recipes in weights over here but I haven't had much luck....
  • lisaabenjamin
    lisaabenjamin Posts: 665 Member
    If you're in the UK and are using things from the MFP database that are measured in cups, you're more than likely using the wrong entries! Branded foods that are sold in different countries often have different ingredients and amounts of ingredients in them, or may be sold in different sized packages - e.g. a Mars bar over here might be smaller than an American mars bar, or have different ingredients in the chocolate etc. Always try to use the correct labels for the food you are actually eating - you can do this easily by using the phone app and scanning in your product labels with the barcode scanner.

    If you're in the UK, NOTHING you enter into your diary should be measured in cups - it just doesn't exist here! I would also argue that you shouldn't measure anything in teaspoons/tablespoons without using a weighing scale either. Weigh solids in grams and liquids in ml.
  • PowerKickChic
    PowerKickChic Posts: 108 Member
    Here is a chart
    http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/convert/measurements.html

    I found the best way is just to weigh everything lol
  • mlk0812
    mlk0812 Posts: 19
    I always thought 8oz was a cup
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,262 Member
    WAITRESS: Chef, how big is that tool you have there?



    CHEF: About a cups worth.....how you doing.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    I always thought 8oz was a cup

    depends where you are, and what an oz is too.
  • Olectra
    Olectra Posts: 21 Member
    Use the scale and weigh everything...but if all else fails....

    www.onlineconversion.com

    :)

    I LOVE this site, I use it for everything.

    I prefer to weigh everything in grams. 1oz=28 grams. I hate using cups especially for fruit, vegetables, cereal, etc. The metric system is WAY easier than the USA's system of nonsense.

    ps... I am an American ;)

    And why is it the we drive on the wrong side of the road as well?
  • umer76
    umer76 Posts: 1,272 Member
    Cups come in all shapes and sizes!
  • licorice_tea
    licorice_tea Posts: 59 Member
    Cups are notoriously inaccurate anyway, and to make matters worse, teaspoons and tablespoons are actually DIFFERENT VOLUME in the US vs. the UK, and there's no way to know which one the nutrition info is referring to in the database sometimes (US tablespoon is like 14 ml, UK is like 15, which you know when measuring oil these things add up...).

    Just pick up a cheap digital scale. Way better :)
  • SunnyDuckling
    SunnyDuckling Posts: 204 Member
    Use the scale and weigh everything...but if all else fails....

    www.onlineconversion.com

    :)

    I LOVE this site, I use it for everything.

    I prefer to weigh everything in grams. 1oz=28 grams. I hate using cups especially for fruit, vegetables, cereal, etc. The metric system is WAY easier than the USA's system of nonsense.

    ps... I am an American ;)

    And why is it the we drive on the wrong side of the road as well?

    I thought that Americans drove on the right side of the road :wink: To be fair, most countries drive on the right hand side of the road. Australia, UK & Japan are the (biggest/most populated) countries that don't.

    I love the metric system. It's all I've even known and it's GREAT!
  • MrsSWW
    MrsSWW Posts: 1,585 Member
    Weigh solids in grams and liquids in ml.
    Liquids should be measured in pints; half pints if you're a laydeee. :drinker:
  • slk_5555
    slk_5555 Posts: 177 Member
    I weigh everything on the scales as I think its more accurate than by the cup. I can usually find most ingredients in the database already in terms of weight rather than cups, its just a case of looking. If I don't find what I want in the data base I enter it myself, using the Nutritional info on the packet. Also I weigh everything before I cook it - so I use raw and/or dry weight nutritional info.
  • GreenIceFloes
    GreenIceFloes Posts: 1,491 Member
    I only log in grams. No ounces and cups and whatever, I'm not used to it, so why complicate things. A cup is pretty much the most vague way to measure anything in my opinion, specially if you don't know if it is supposed to be a metric cup, or an imperial cup, or US legal cup, or Japanese cup, or the fifty other definitions and measurements assigned to a cup.
    Which is why, if you don't find pre-existing data that is accurate and correct, it's always better to create your own foods.
  • Zoe_lifts
    Zoe_lifts Posts: 120 Member

    Overall the cup measuring system is simply stupid.

    HAHAHAHA. I'm all for the metric system.

    Yes, me too. Yay for metric :D
  • SuMcP
    SuMcP Posts: 244 Member
    The only way to log accurately is to weigh your portions and do the maths. Sorry, there is no "easy" way, but it's not that difficult either :laugh:
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
    I'm so glad MFP forced me to finally start learning and using metrics. I don't even really use cups anymore, except to use them as scoops to move the product to and from the scale. Everything gets weighed out in grams for accuracy. Measuring with cups seems more like guesstimating to me now.
  • Ariadne83
    Ariadne83 Posts: 36 Member
    Agreed, I am in the UK and not a fan of 'cups' either. It never feels like a good measuring system as there is too much margin for error. We have an old set of measuring cups so when I can't find an item in grams, I estimate how much of the cup an item would fill but mostly I tend to look for things measured in grams and add those for accuracy. It's the same with recipes - I've discarded countless tasty looking recipes online when I see all the measurements are in cups!
  • Quasita
    Quasita Posts: 1,530 Member
    According to my calculations, based on estimations found on nutritional websites, 350ml of "singapore noodles" made traditionally is around 503.2 calories.

    The preparation of it can vary widely, so you really have to be specific to what YOU are using, and not necessarily what has been logged by someone else on the MFP database.

    I live in the US and I guess I don't really understand how measuring in cups is difficult. All a cup is is 8 ounces. Eight ounces equals 237ml. MFP doesn't require you to use cups though. You can change you settings to metric, and it'll do all the information in metric.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Yeah a cup is less than 250 ml. I'm sure you could find the right answer with google though.

    And yes for solids you need a scale anyway. Most labels in the US give the nutrition info in grams too (although why they even put it in volume is beyond me), but most people enter the info with only the volume on MFP for some unknown reason.
  • ashenriver
    ashenriver Posts: 498 Member
    I always thought 8oz was a cup

    8 fl oz is a cup. A cup meaning a unit of measurement. In Canada 1 cup is = 250ml, slightly less in the US.

    It is a measuring cup, not a drinking cup. Though some tea/coffee mugs are 1 cup.

    To the OP, you have two choices. Start cooking and weighing your foods while paying attention to nutrition labels. Or start helping your girlfriend cook and weigh your foods while paying attention to nutrition labels.

    Weigh solids, measure liquids.

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