Weighing food... what did I do wrong?

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idolessecstasy
idolessecstasy Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Apologies if this is in the wrong section... I think this is the most appropriate one.

I recently started a new MFP account and deleted my old account since I realized a lot of the stuff on my old account was inaccurate. However after starting tracking again, I found posts telling me how much better it is to weigh my food than measure it in a measuring cup. So I have a food scale now.

What I have normally been doing is measuring foods with a measuring cup. But today, when I went to measure out my breakfast I noticed something strange... the amount that it took to get to the serving size of oatmeal was a ridiculous amount... I was shocked and said to myself that there was no way that I could eat that much oatmeal. So I halved it and ate (what-the-scale-said-was) 20g of oatmeal. Even that was too much and I couldn't finish it... Am I supposed to weigh oatmeal after it's cooked to make sure I'm not eating too much? :S Seems like it could be a waste of food...

If I already had this problem of not being able to finish foods I wouldn't be here... can someone suggest a way to fix this/tell me what am I doing wrong?

Thanks c:

Replies

  • 126siany
    126siany Posts: 1,386 Member
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    You'd want to weigh it dry, prior to cooking.

    So you are saying that when you were measuring your oatmeal dry with measuring cups you ended up with a smaller serving than you did weighing it dry?

    You may have always been eating less oatmeal than you thought you were.

    You may have been accidentally comparing cooked and dry weights.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    Agreed with previous poster. Zero-out your food scale and measure your oatmeal dry. Log that number. If you add anything other than water (I know some people use milk, honey, etc.), zero-out the food scale after weighing the dry oatmeal and then add the milk, log the weight, zero it out... etc.

    Oatmeal is very filling. You may never have had a full serving of oatmeal before.
  • pinkshiningstar
    pinkshiningstar Posts: 140 Member
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    Might seem silly to mention, but make sure you are on the correct measurement unit (ie grams versus ounces). :)

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