What is a cup!!!!!

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alanpryke
alanpryke Posts: 20
in Health and Weight Loss
When looking to measure calories I come up with measurements that say 1 cup. What sort of measurement is a f******* cup! How do u measure a cup of onions? Is it a little china tea cup a big mug or what? I can work out a cup of coffee, but need to know a bit more than 1 cup for measuring rice onions etc. Can someone please come up with a defenition of a cup in terms of actual weight or capacity before I explode
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  • EricMurano
    EricMurano Posts: 825 Member
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    1 cup is 250ml.

    250ml = 8.45 fluid ounces.

    You can buy measuring cups. They usually come in a set of 1/4, 1/2, 2/3 and 1 cup.

    You can't determine the weight of 1 cup of something unless you know it's density (science crap).

    For food I'd use weight (using scales) more than volume.
  • faithikins
    faithikins Posts: 679 Member
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    :laugh: :laugh: buy some proper measuring cups.
  • sweebeesmom
    sweebeesmom Posts: 148
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    hahaha, i get the same feeling when recipes are in grams.
  • jamiek89
    jamiek89 Posts: 105
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    Well im not sure how mfp 'officially' work it out but I have been assuming a cup refers to 1 australian standard cup which is a measured unit of 250ml.
    I have no idea if this is actually right or not but hopefully it helps!
  • wmartin8
    wmartin8 Posts: 22
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    I have this same problem all the time. The simplest way is just to convert everything to grams and figure out how many grams of stuff you need. Grams deal specifically with the amount of weight of the stuff you need so it's pretty straight forward. For instance in my morning cereal, it says a serving size is a either 1 cup or 60 grams. So I put a small bowl on my food scale and measure myself 60 grams of cereal and i'm good to go. The problem with the measuring 1 cup is that food comes in so many different shapes and sizes that you're never quite sure how much of it really fits in one cup. So converting everything to it's actual weight it's a lot more accurate in precise in my opinion.
  • alanpryke
    alanpryke Posts: 20
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    Thank you all for your comments I'm guessing cup values are not an english thing, sorry for the rant but I just wanted to know the calories of one medium raw onion to put into my curry recipe and couldn't find any thing in the database that wasn't measured in cups!!!! Now I know it is 250 ml this may well help me tho working out 250 ml of onions is going to be a bit tricky for my brain
  • mandykasase
    mandykasase Posts: 110
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    When looking to measure calories I come up with measurements that say 1 cup. What sort of measurement is a f******* cup! How do u measure a cup of onions? Is it a little china tea cup a big mug or what? I can work out a cup of coffee, but need to know a bit more than 1 cup for measuring rice onions etc. Can someone please come up with a defenition of a cup in terms of actual weight or capacity before I explode

    If you are in the UK go to a Pounstretcher store, you can get a set of 5 for a quid. Your profile does not say were you are located but that's were i got mine.
  • kidtechnical
    kidtechnical Posts: 146
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    The "cup" isn't a standard size so far as I'm aware, it varies in different countries and I'm guessing you're UK were we don't use the cup as a measurement. I really wish that there was an option that allowed us to filter the database to exclude measurements that users don't need, it'd save me wading through entries looking for one with grams!

    Oh and you can't really convert a cup to a capacity or weight because it's a measurement of volume, so the weight of what you put in it will be different depending on what you put in it... ie a cup of flour is going to weigh much more than a cup of cornflakes for example.
  • alanpryke
    alanpryke Posts: 20
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    It's like togs and duvets!!!! but thats an entirely different rant
  • faithikins
    faithikins Posts: 679 Member
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    It's like togs and duvets!!!! but thats an entirely different rant
    :laugh: I love this thread.
  • Debinapril
    Debinapril Posts: 53 Member
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    lol You are not alone in the confusion!
  • Lanfear
    Lanfear Posts: 524
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    Aha - poundstretcher here I come (I think we've got one in town!) :smile:
  • alanpryke
    alanpryke Posts: 20
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    faithkins look up rhod gilbert on youtube, he does a wonderful sketch about buying a duvet
  • faithikins
    faithikins Posts: 679 Member
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    faithkins look up rhod gilbert on youtube, he does a wonderful sketch about buying a duvet
    I won't get it, I'm an aussie and we have doonas :laugh:
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
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    LOL
  • Shofie_1910
    Shofie_1910 Posts: 39
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    I googled this and from what i can work out a pint is roughly 2 cups.
  • alanpryke
    alanpryke Posts: 20
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    Kwardkinck yes I do use lots of recipes but they all use ounces or grams or ml's I do not have one recipe book that measures in cups
  • alanpryke
    alanpryke Posts: 20
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    Shofie I think its going to be to cups of beer this lunchtime!!!!
  • kwardklinck
    kwardklinck Posts: 1,601
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    I love online calculators for converting things. It makes things so much easier.
  • mommy2josh
    mommy2josh Posts: 21
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    That would be us Canadians using Cups ;) i always use online conversions tools, if i need to switch to grams or something.

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