Do you weigh/measure your food?

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  • srogers89
    srogers89 Posts: 190 Member
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    My meat, pastas and veggies yes, but not so much my salad/spinach/herbs/spices.
  • rosebette
    rosebette Posts: 1,659 Member
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    I think it's the only way to ensure portion control, although my family hates it when I do it. I even brought my food scale on vacation. The "up" side is that I serve myself first and insist on getting my 4 oz. of protein. I'm in a house with 3 adult males. If they went first and I got what was left, I 'd end up with 2 oz. of meat or fish or whatever..
  • kimnsc
    kimnsc Posts: 560 Member
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    I measure and weigh everything. I stopped for a bit and just "eyeballed" it.....didn't work out well for me.
  • derrickyoung
    derrickyoung Posts: 136 Member
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    If I make it at home or eating it at home I weigh it. If I am eating out I use the provided nutritional information from the web site. If i can not get the nutritional information in advance i don't eat there. 100% of the time without fail
  • Snip8241
    Snip8241 Posts: 767 Member
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    I weigh solids, no exception. I measure liquids no exceptions. It works.
  • iMikky
    iMikky Posts: 30
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    I don't weigh my food anymore, what's the point. Whether I eat a strict 1500 everyday and feel like a miserable bean bag of flesh or I eat whatever I want and be as happy as a cricket, my weight will be what it will be. I eat what I want, I don't even count my calories anymore. At first I had a food addiction and I came on this website for help losing weight but everybody ignores me. Hell, they might even ignore this. The addiction is over now and now I only see food as energy and nothing more. My body tells me what to do.
  • joanthemom8
    joanthemom8 Posts: 375 Member
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    I didn't used to, but then when I started, I realized how much I was not estimating correctly. For example, I would just pour in my coffee creamer and count it as one service (1TBS = 35 cals) and I logged it once. BUT when I measured it, I was putting in 2 TBS, for each cup of coffee and I had 2 cups in the morning. So I was only logging 35 cals for creamer when in fact I was using about 140! Big difference. Made me realize all the other things I'd been doing wrong......:sad:
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    I weigh all of my solids and mushy stuff and measure all of my liquids. The only exceptions are things like green leafy vegetables or zero calorie items.

    One thing I measure instead of weigh is my oatmeal. It is just easier to keep the 1/2 c measuring cup in the container and scoop out a level 1/2 c. One small exception is not going to derail all the rest of the precision.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
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    I weigh everything (except at restaurants). I also quiz myself as I weigh things. For example, I parceled out what I thought 1 serving of pecans is to put on my salad for dinner. Then I zeroed out the scale and weighed the pecans. That way I'm actually learning instead of relying on the scale 100%. I've got most dry goods down pat. I'm a very bad guess when it comes to sauces and creams.
  • Atrocity108
    Atrocity108 Posts: 328 Member
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    I weigh everything at home, or I measure it.
  • melindanew
    melindanew Posts: 150 Member
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    Calorie dense things, when I'm at home. I don't bother with veggies and the like.
  • kristinhowell
    kristinhowell Posts: 139 Member
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    I weigh and measure as often as I can. I don't stress out when I don't/can't, though. Sometimes I just eyeball if I'm eating leftovers and I measured or weighed out a portion the day before.
  • allyphoe
    allyphoe Posts: 618 Member
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    I eyeball, but I know from experience that I tend to eyeball high, not low.
  • eomuno215in541
    eomuno215in541 Posts: 201 Member
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    I dont have a food scale. I do measure by tablespoon and cup. I eyeball low-cal things like leafy greens and berries. And remember dry and wet weigh differently. I'm sure when I have to get more precise I'll get a food scale.
  • Jetta_C
    Jetta_C Posts: 58
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    Thank you guys - this is sooooo helpful! My challenge is that I travel for work so I am eating at least 3 nights a week on the road probably 35+ weeks of the year. My idea of what a "portion" is has gotten all out of whack. I think buying a good scale for when I am home would really help me.
  • Curtruns
    Curtruns Posts: 510 Member
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    A food scale was a real "eye opener" for me. I usually cook in bulk and if the package indicates 6 servings, I will measure the whole amount and divide by 6, then sticky note the serving weight to the tupperware container in the fridge.
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
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    I always weigh my food. I even weigh my caloric liquids, although that's just me being anal and not wanting to mix and match measuring with weighing :p

    And it might be anal but if you buy a food scale.. you could bring it with you sometimes to understand what restaurant servings are like. But really, lets say you buy something pretty basic like a steak with mashed potatoes and a veggie. The menu will probably tell you the size of the raw steak, so use that as an entry on MFP. Or if it doesn't, then try to estimate the cooked weight with your hand. For me, the circumference and thickness of my palm equates to ~3.5oz of cooked meat, for others (I'm guessing smaller hands) it's closer to 3oz. There are diagrams for things like this that are useful to memorize or have saved on your phone when you can't weigh things.
  • Catter_05
    Catter_05 Posts: 155 Member
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    I weigh food if I am home and annoy my husband with information like, "honey, did you realize this was one serving on cottage cheese?" And I show him the small dish of cottage cheese I just measured out. My 9 year old has started measuring out a serving size of snacks. At least I know the good habits are rubbing off :smile:
  • BruceHedtke
    BruceHedtke Posts: 358 Member
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    For most things, yes. It's not hard to do once you get in the habit. For eating away from home, I'm ok with "getting close enough".

    For fresh fruit and produce, I try to buy everything in the same size. So, if I'm buying six bell peppers, I want all six to be roughly the same size. The same goes for apples, oranges, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. It's not difficult as most things tend to be pretty much the same size as far as produce goes.

    That way, I can weigh one pepper (or apple, orange, etc) and use that weight for the rest of the peppers. I used to weigh every vegetable/fruit but the difference in calories for a pepper that weighs 150 grams versus one that weighs 100 grams is about 10 calories. And that's a pepper that is 1.5 times bigger than the smaller one. There just isn't a big enough calorie difference to pull the scale out every time I have a fruit or vegetable.

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