Do you weigh Pre-Packaged foods?

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kennethshoe
kennethshoe Posts: 19
in Food and Nutrition
Hi. I'm curious, I know a lot of people on here weigh their food (myself included). But I was wondering if you way like everything such as pre- packaged foods a slice out of a loaf of bread, or a piece of cheese that is already sliced, or chicken nuggets (in the bag, not fast food). Those are just some examples. I wanted to know if you are supposed to weigh things like this along with the typical meat and stuff.

Thanks!

Replies

  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,998 Member
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    I must admit I do not.

    If the package says one serve weighs x amount, I just enter it as such.

    I think any differences average out.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    You should. On average, the weights will tend to be higher than advertised - no penalty for there being more food than advertised, but there is for less ...

    Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't - I've gotten lazy. Take care with bread if it's from a bakery (like Whole Foods). I've found their slices to be grossly incorrect.
  • nicsflyingcircus
    nicsflyingcircus Posts: 2,413 Member
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    I don't, though out of curiosity I noted that my large eggs, which list as 50g, weigh between 48 and 53. Averages out more or less. Same with bread slices. Since I eat maybe 3 or 4 a week, I don't worry about it(bread, not eggs. I eat alot of eggs/whites).
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    I do, most of the time, or at least when it's convenient (if I have to weigh before and after I eat to have the exact number because it has a container or a stick or something, I don't). But if I'm going to tare my scale later anyway, sure... For frozen stuff it's more annoying though, as there is often added water weight and whatnot when the bag has been open for a while, and I never know if it's the weigh before or after cooking...

    In my experience, bread slices are often 5% smaller to 10% bigger, cheese slices are all over, cereal bars are often 10% bigger as well etc. Taco shells are bad for that, in my experience. The worst ever was some 'waffle waffle' frozen waffles (which are amazing) - first one serving is 'half a waffle', but when you weigh them, each waffle is really 2.7 servings or something... and they end up 340 calories each or something ridiculous... when it's 130 calories a serving. So you'd be off 80 calories if you didn't weigh them... it adds up (especially as I used to eat the whole box).

    The only packaged food I've found is always 100% accurate is Special K pastry crisps.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    No...IMO, it's important to know your serving size and it is important to weigh out certain whole ingredients and food items...but some people get a little crazy here IMO.

    I'm seriously not going to worry if my slice of bread is a few grams more than the stated package...it's not going to make a hill of beans difference in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, logging 30 grams of almonds when you're actually eating 50 or 60 is a huge difference.

    You have to put all of this into context...people obsess about small things too much and fail to see the larger picture IMO.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    Absolutely.

    I weigh everything. If it goes in my mouth, it gets weighed.

    I weigh everything in recipes, and I weigh everything pre-packed.

    Bread, yogurt, chicken nuggets, etc all get weighed.

    The only thing I don't weigh is fast food/take away.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    No...IMO, it's important to know your serving size and it is important to weigh out certain whole ingredients and food items...but some people get a little crazy here IMO.

    I'm seriously not going to worry if my slice of bread is a few grams more than the stated package...it's not going to make a hill of beans difference in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, logging 30 grams of almonds when you're actually eating 50 or 60 is a huge difference.

    You have to put all of this into context...people obsess about small things too much and fail to see the larger picture IMO.

    Totally depends on how much packaged food you use.

    Let's say you're having a packaged roll with packaged sausage and packaged cheese... If everything is even just 10% heavier, you can be looking at a 100+ calories difference... Have that twice a day with a small deficit... your deficit is pretty much gone.

    So it's like everything else, if you have a big deficit, it doesn't really matter. If you have a small deficit, that's when it does.

    Question for people who weigh yogurt cups - how off is it, usually? The couple times I did it, it was like 20g under what it was supposed to be, so I stopped bothering and just figured it wouldn't hurt if I had a few less calories.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,624 Member
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    Yes, I do. The only items I don't usually weigh again are pudding cups and rice cakes.

    But for instance, I have 2 boxes of glazed donuts. They each say that 1 donut is 53g, yet each has come in at between 59 and 63 grams. Considering how calorie dense the donut is, I prefer to weigh it, and it's no trouble to do so. I have all of my regularly eaten foods created as personal foods with the corrected calorie count added to give me a closer estimate of my calorie consumption for when I'm adding food on the fly, so I've set it up that I can enter in individual grams instead of having to say that I'm eating 1.2 of a donut. A tin of cookies I Have says that 2 cookies is 45g, yet when I weighed them yesterday (to eat one for the first time) they came in lighter. The smoked Lilydale turkey bacon I used last night came in at 89g for 4 slices instead of 100g as it was supposed to, and this clearly is an important difference when one is anal about protein intake. 2 different muffin flavours are both listed as being 85g per muffin but the blueberry comes in at 81, the chocolate at 95.

    Perhaps when I'm maintaining or bulking next year I will not weigh things like this, but I'd rather be accurate with myself.

    ETA: if I consistently weigh something and it consistently is the same weight (or off by +/-1 gram) then I'd stop weighing it. But anything that has a weight that varies from the label, I weigh it. I even weigh popsicles, and have some that come in 4-5ml lighter. And people mentioning bread, idk if gluten-free foods (all of the food mentioned above is GF btw) are different, but I can weigh a piece of bread as being about 49g when label puts it at 35g. easier for me to just focus on being on target for the day than to assume it will all balance out.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    nope- do not have time- and it's not a priority.

    I actually don't weigh a lot of my food- but I'm okay with it- I do a good job as is- so if it aint' broke- don't fix it.

    I also <gasp> don't log my bacon grease that I cook my veggies and pop corn in.

    What ever will I do!!!!!!
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    nope- do not have time- and it's not a priority.

    I actually don't weigh a lot of my food- but I'm okay with it- I do a good job as is- so if it aint' broke- don't fix it.

    I also <gasp> don't log my bacon grease that I cook my veggies and pop corn in.

    What ever will I do!!!!!!

    Doesn't that fall into the "that doesn't count" category? IMO bacon itself should be in that category, let alone the grease.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    I do once or twice, if the brand seems to be consistently on point then I stop and just trust it. If it constantly varies then I weigh it every time.
  • sweetnlow30
    sweetnlow30 Posts: 497 Member
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    I weigh some items like deli meat where it says 2 slices are x amount of calories. Sometimes I can actually eat three slices for the stated weight. Today I weighed my pita bread since the serving size was half a pita and I wanted to cut it equally. I can't be bothered with things like eggs or 100 calorie snack packs. I occasionally buy pre packaged foods because of the convenience of not having to weigh ;) If my weight starts becoming effected I will become more diligent.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I have been cheated out of cheese by not weighing. Most brands are pretty consistent, and if that's the case I don't - but those cheater brands I do weight it! For bread we often buy a loaf that is round so all the slices are different sizes - I weigh as many slices as it takes to find the one that matches the package. For bread where it is all the same size I usually don't weigh it. So I guess for me it just depends on the item.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
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    You should. On average, the weights will tend to be higher than advertised - no penalty for there being more food than advertised, but there is for less ...

    Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't - I've gotten lazy. Take care with bread if it's from a bakery (like Whole Foods). I've found their slices to be grossly incorrect.

    Except that the same margin of error is allowed in the stated nutritional information too...so even if you adjust for that 90g serving actually being 105g, you'll still have the possibility that it isn't 120 calories/90g, but actually 105 or 135*.



    (* Totally fabricated numbers. No actual data was harmed or even used in the making of this post.)


    And full disclosure: I sometimes weigh them but more out of curiosity than any other reason. I've found that, at least for the foods I most frequently eat, most of them are very close to the stated nutritional information.
  • ChronicOptimist
    ChronicOptimist Posts: 558 Member
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    Nope. I love my food scale and the precision it allows me with foods that aren't pre-measured but when the package says one granola bar has 100 calories... I roll with it. Anything beyond that, for me, falls into the "where does it end?!?" category.
  • slimmingfairy
    slimmingfairy Posts: 58 Member
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    Yup I certainly do at the moment!
    I weighed 2 pork chops the other day, there was a weight on the pack which I was going to halve but my 2 weighed over the half so weighed all 4 out of curiosity and they were almost 175g heavier than the pack, which I think must just have been a minimum weight
  • mustgetmuscles1
    mustgetmuscles1 Posts: 3,346 Member
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    I do not. The numbers have always been close enough for my goals.
  • HellaCarriefornia
    HellaCarriefornia Posts: 102 Member
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    Generally, no I don't. I always figured that manufacturing standards would account for a little variation - but seeing that people here find so much discrepancy, it would be interesting to weigh some stuff I normally don't and see.

    I'm pretty obsessive about weighing everything else, tho. I guess I don't want to be too strict about it and I normally have some wiggle room in my day anyway. If I ever get to a point that my weight loss stalls even though I'm logging within my calories, I would consider weight those things as well.
  • Snip8241
    Snip8241 Posts: 767 Member
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    I love bakery sourdough and it comes in a boule. The slices are not the same size as the loaf is rounded. I will then go by weight in grams.

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