Why I weigh EVERYthing by grams!

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Muzica1959
Muzica1959 Posts: 206 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Why I weigh EVERYthing! When making my oatmeal this morning I decided to actually weigh the oats instead of just scooping out a level 1/2 cup. To my surprise, when I weighed it out by grams by what is said on the box...it was only about 3/8 of a cup instead of a half cup. That might not seem like much but it all adds up.

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  • lhippen
    lhippen Posts: 16 Member
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    I have had similar experiences with many different foods, which has reinforced my decision to weigh everything to the gram. There is so much imprecision in the weightloss journey that cannot be controlled (e.g., Runtastic says my morning jog burned 556 calories, but MFP says it was only 422), but for foods I eat regularly I make sure to weigh them to the gram. It really isn't that hard to do once you get in the habit.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
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    because the law of small numbers?
    :laugh: I do it too =)
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Yogurt land or fro-yo- or WTF they are calling themselves.

    The nutritional information on the different yogurts is listed above- and it's 1 serving size is 120 calories for 68 grams (they mostly average out to that)

    of course- the scale they use- it's all in ounces.

    I.Want.To.Punch.A.BABY.

    seriously- it makes me fu*king crazy.
  • Naughty_ZOOT
    Naughty_ZOOT Posts: 4,309 Member
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    The FDA allows a 20% margin on food labels, which is huge in my opinion, so this does not surprise me at all. Weight is always more accurate than a volume measure of a non-liquid item. Another problem with measuring via utensils is that we can fudge the amounts by packing the food more densely in the measuring implement. Even cup and spoon measures vary and you can test this by comparing different brands in you kitchen drawers. I purchased a nutrition food scale at Bed Bath & Beyond that shows me everything in the same format as a nutrition label.

    Perfect Portions Food Scale + Nutrition Facts by Kitchen Gurus $39.99 (don't forget the 20% off coupons and BB & B coupons NEVER expire because they happily take them regardless and you might even be able to stack some).

    The scale does the following:
    2000 built in nutrition facts
    Add and weigh
    English and metric
    10 lb/ 5 kg capacity
    zero/tare to add additional ingredients or remove container weight
    nutrition read out is adjusted to your portion size automatically
    Customize 99 favorite foods in the nutrition facts
    glass surface and slender profile for easy storage in a drawer

    Thanks for the reminder!
  • ANTlSOClAL
    ANTlSOClAL Posts: 47
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    I love my scale. I used to pack my measuring cups full, and now I know how off that was.
  • Zoe_lifts
    Zoe_lifts Posts: 120 Member
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    I do it too and it's not much extra effort. it became a habit.
    Few days ago my boyfriend asked if i could scoop him some icecream and i automatically took my food scale and wanted to give him one serving.. Then i realized he can eat whatever he wants :P
  • Kitship
    Kitship Posts: 579 Member
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    Yogurt land or fro-yo- or WTF they are calling themselves.

    The nutritional information on the different yogurts is listed above- and it's 1 serving size is 120 calories for 68 grams (they mostly average out to that)

    of course- the scale they use- it's all in ounces.

    I.Want.To.Punch.A.BABY.

    seriously- it makes me fu*king crazy.


    LOL, that has to be terrible. I've been craving froyo lately and thought, "hey! they have their own scale, so it should be easy to figure out how much yogurt i'm eating!" nope. also, the weight includes the cup you put the yogurt in. :grumble:
  • mjrose514
    mjrose514 Posts: 60 Member
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    Yogurt land or fro-yo- or WTF they are calling themselves.

    The nutritional information on the different yogurts is listed above- and it's 1 serving size is 120 calories for 68 grams (they mostly average out to that)

    of course- the scale they use- it's all in ounces.

    I.Want.To.Punch.A.BABY.

    seriously- it makes me fu*king crazy.


    LOL, that has to be terrible. I've been craving froyo lately and thought, "hey! they have their own scale, so it should be easy to figure out how much yogurt i'm eating!" nope. also, the weight includes the cup you put the yogurt in. :grumble:

    With most digital scales you can put your cup on, zero it out and then add you item...
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    Yogurt land or fro-yo- or WTF they are calling themselves.

    The nutritional information on the different yogurts is listed above- and it's 1 serving size is 120 calories for 68 grams (they mostly average out to that)

    of course- the scale they use- it's all in ounces.

    I.Want.To.Punch.A.BABY.

    seriously- it makes me fu*king crazy.


    LOL, that has to be terrible. I've been craving froyo lately and thought, "hey! they have their own scale, so it should be easy to figure out how much yogurt i'm eating!" nope. also, the weight includes the cup you put the yogurt in. :grumble:

    With most digital scales you can put your cup on, zero it out and then add you item...

    yes- but this is not YOU'RE scale- you get your yogurt and toppings and then put it on the scale when you go to pay. I wonder- and I should ask- if they subtract the amount of the cup- which is probably only an ounce or two realistically- but it's still $$ that you're paying for and you aren't eating.


    It makes me a little crazy- seriously- I'm probably going to A. bring my own scale next time and B. make them take off the weight of the cup. It's such a money making racket- I HATE paying for frozen yogurt- but I like going out with my BF and I like the process. So we go once or twice a month. Grumble.
  • ajff
    ajff Posts: 986 Member
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    Actually, I asked at Orange Leaf (our FroYo place). They enter the dishes as you add your family's to the scale; the dish size is subtracted. I just use my measurement as the amount of yogurt, then log the toppings separately (like a total 4 oz dish is 4 oz of yogurt then log the ~ 1 Tbsp of chocolate chips extra) -- this way if I underestimate the chips, I got it covered! Life is too short to get hung up on calculating calories to the last chocolate chip!
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    I mostly like knowing not because I need every chip accurate- but because I'm an engineer.

    I don't really care one way or the other if I'm over- I just like knowing. I make them weigh mine first- so I know what mine ways instead of adding BF's to the scale.

    I've taken my food out to the brazillian all you can eat place- I have no shame- I'll take my food scale into the frozen yogurt place too if I must.

    Because. SCIENCE!
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,619 Member
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    I'm a regular at Menchie's and the first thing the guy said to me when I decided to start weighing my toppings (because I'm a little heavy handed with those sno caps) was the container was .4 ounces. Their scales make it easy to just slip the cup on to see how much something weighs and then add whatever else you're going to add since the customer can see the scale reading.

    I don't know why anyone would have a problem paying for the weight of the container tho. It's not like you're bringing your own so shouldn't have to pay for it.

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