Weighing foods

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missyjg99
missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm weighing everything that I eat. I usually weigh my food out as I pack my lunch in the morning. But as I sit here eating my apple and banana it got me thinking. Do you weigh your fruit? Am I eating a small or medium apple/banana? And then for a banana, the skin weighs about 1/3 I'm guessing. Do you just learn how to judge the size of fruits and veggies? I know this seems like a petty question but as I went through my diary, I saw that miscalculating sizes, my fruit especially, can add up to a lot of calories.

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  • sarahtsabo
    sarahtsabo Posts: 28 Member
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    I recently did start weighing my fruits and vegetables. Especially bananas - without the peel! My previous "estimations" were really off, now that I look back. I weigh in grams instead of cup/tbsp/whole fruit, etc. It helps me. :)
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    A few points to consider at which point you can make your own decision:

    a) Can you make reasonable progress without weighing your fruit and/or other items? If the answer is yes, then I would suggest that you do not need to weigh those items.

    b) Does weighing your fruit or other items have any negative impact on your lifestyle or adherence to your diet?


    Using a food scale can be a very good idea. Meticulous use of it can also be a good idea in the short term as it will help you become adjusted to proper portion sizes. But the above questions, in my opinion, are important considerations.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I weigh my fruit. Of course there are times when that's not so convenient and I go by size, but if I want to be accurate I measure it.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    I'm weighing everything that I eat. I usually weigh my food out as I pack my lunch in the morning. But as I sit here eating my apple and banana it got me thinking. Do you weigh your fruit? Am I eating a small or medium apple/banana? And then for a banana, the skin weighs about 1/3 I'm guessing. Do you just learn how to judge the size of fruits and veggies? I know this seems like a petty question but as I went through my diary, I saw that miscalculating sizes, my fruit especially, can add up to a lot of calories.
    Unless you're planning to cut and/or skin your fruit to weigh it, or bring your scale to work, I don't think you really need to worry about it. There was a great thread here the other day in which we were discussing the accuracy of food labels and calorie burns as measured by a heart rate monitor. You need to understand that everything is really just an estimate. Fruit can have different calorie amounts due to ripeness, soil quality and other factors. Don't worry about trying to be exact because as hard as you try, you won't be. Sometimes you're going to be over and sometimes under; things will come out pretty close to a wash in the end.

    Edited for poor grammar. :)
  • lishie_rebooted
    lishie_rebooted Posts: 2,973 Member
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    I've cut & weighed so many apples and bananas at this point that I feel alright guessing the weight of them.
    But when I started, I weighed everything. If I'm at home and have access to my scale, I still weigh it. But I don't worry about it if I'm out, I just guess
  • missyjg99
    missyjg99 Posts: 246 Member
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    A few points to consider at which point you can make your own decision:

    a) Can you make reasonable progress without weighing your fruit and/or other items? If the answer is yes, then I would suggest that you do not need to weigh those items.

    b) Does weighing your fruit or other items have any negative impact on your lifestyle or adherence to your diet?


    Using a food scale can be a very good idea. Meticulous use of it can also be a good idea in the short term as it will help you become adjusted to proper portion sizes. But the above questions, in my opinion, are important considerations.
    a) Yes most definately. I was almost at goal before my last pregnancy and only weighed my meats/nuts/breads.
    b) I'd have to say no. I haven't weighed my fruit before.

    I am trying to get a good sense of portion/sizes of foods right now. I'm hoping that I don't have to weigh foods the rest of my life, but before I started to get a better idea of what 2 tbsp of something really was or how many almonds a serving really was. That's where I'm at right now.
    Thanks for the input.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    I weigh what I can- but I tend to pick the closest- or next largest size up in for fruit and just ball park it. I can make good progress being honest with myself and what I'm eating.

    SideSteel is correct- if you can manage and ARE managing without doing it- there is no need to change what you are doing.

    If something isn't working- then it's time to get religious with it.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    I weigh everything and round up to the third decimal. Even packaged food (that's where I got the biggest surprises actually). I just weigh the portion of fruit I eat though.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    No, I don't usually weigh things like bananas and apples. I probably only weigh about half my food. It hasn't effected my progress which would indicate that I'm decent at estimating. If it does start to have a negative impact, I'll start being more meticulous.
  • suziepoo1984
    suziepoo1984 Posts: 915 Member
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    I did weight some of the foods initially and now i have a decent idea about the portions. I have done decent progress with just calorie counting and estimating recently! But thats only come with experience.
  • StriversNYC
    StriversNYC Posts: 14 Member
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    i don't weigh fruits
    i add fruit macros but nothing specific

    i never weigh vegetables
    if you want to track micronutrients u could but don't have to if you just take a multivitamin or take a greens supplement
  • UmmSqueaky
    UmmSqueaky Posts: 715 Member
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    Higher calorie fruits like bananas definitely. And now that sweet corn season is upon us, I weigh the cob before I eat it and then after I eat it to find out how much corn I've eaten.
  • AlliSteff
    AlliSteff Posts: 211 Member
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    I do but I also make sure that I do this at home-

    with things like apples and cherries, you are not eating part of the fruit (pit, core, etc)

    So at home, I will weight everything, then weigh what is left. I use that percentage as my reference when packing my lunches, etc. So if my cherries add up to about 105 grams, in my experience, the pits and stems tyupically account for about 10 grams of that, so after I weigh them, I log them minus the 'scientifically' estimated pit amount. I know it is not 100 % accurate, but really really close.

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