So I'm not supposed to be using a measuring cup

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jessiesue2
jessiesue2 Posts: 14 Member
in Food and Nutrition
When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?
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  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,913 Member
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    It\s just more accurate.......and you'll also find that 8 ounces of puffed wheat is actually 14 cups not 1. :)
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    Food scale over measure every time...
  • ponycyndi
    ponycyndi Posts: 858 Member
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    I use grams to weigh, it's more accurate, especially for odd shaped or lumpy foods (like cereal). For low calorie foods it's less important, but things like oil, nut butters, cheese, etc it's necessary to be accurate.
  • Boccellin
    Boccellin Posts: 137 Member
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    Definitely weigh any solids, measure any liquids. Especially weigh foods that are very calorie dense like peanut butter. It's much more accurate. Before I started weighing, I just used to use a measuring cup. Once I got my scale, I decided to compare, using cereal as my example. It turns out that by measuring out a cup of cereal, I was actually eating more than a serving. In some cases, with some foods, I was eating less than a serving and wasting my perfectly good calories.
  • chezjuan
    chezjuan Posts: 747 Member
    edited October 2014
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    Most items have the weight in grams listed after the volume measurement. My cereals say 3/4 cup (55 grams) and similar. Also, many of the MFP entries have grams as an option, so you can use those rather than ones that only list cups.

    Also, volume measurements are not equivalent to weight*, so you wouldn't want to weigh out 8 ounces something to equal a cup.

    All that said, when I first started I measured using cups/tbsps., etc. and was able to maintain my deficit (though I must note that it was large enough to absorb any inconsistencies). As I neared maintenance I started weighing more and more things because there is less margin of error in a small deficit or maintenance.

    *Except for grams to ml for water

    ETA: 1/4 cup of shredded cheese it generally one ounce by weight. And I still don't weigh butter.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,732 Member
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    Most foods have the weight in grams listed beside the cups, tablespoons, or whatever else they list. Grams are definitely more accurate and precise than volume for solids. Think of how much cereal you can fit in a 1 cup measuring cup if you take the whole pieces from the top of the box, as opposed to the crumbs and broken bits from the bottom of the box. They are very different amounts.
  • habit365
    habit365 Posts: 174
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    I use stick butter and get the amount from the measurement lines on the paper wrapping. Shredded cheese I weigh because I am sure I could pack a lot of cheese into a measuring cup. :wink:
  • TheKingsChampion
    TheKingsChampion Posts: 120
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    I don't weigh often. Because I look at the serving amounts. Like for example...if I buy a 180gram block of cheese. A serving of cheese is 30grams. So 180 ÷ 30 =6 servings in that block. I then divide the cheese into 6 before storing. Easy.
  • shadowofender
    shadowofender Posts: 786 Member
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    I weigh whatever is solid because even if you have a line to cut on, or a number to divide by, the likelihood of making a perfect cut or gauging perfectly the size of each portion is nil. Will you be off a ton by doing that? Maybe not, but a little here and a little there adds up.

    Liquids I'll measure more often than weigh but I'm trying to get myself int he habit of measuring everything because I've seen just how big of a difference it makes in my calorie counts. Even if you think it wouldn't, like taking 1/6th of something.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 17,959 Member
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    Weigh solids. In the case of shredded cheese, you can scoop half a cup of shredded cheese, or you can pack it down, or do anything in between and it's all ostensibly half a cup but the packed could be double the weight of the scooped.

    Weigh everything but liquid, especially calorie dense foods that can be packed down in a cup.
  • threnjen
    threnjen Posts: 687 Member
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    I weigh everything I possibly can. Measuring cups are a surefire route to overestimating.
  • akajakob
    akajakob Posts: 63 Member
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  • hortensehildegarde
    hortensehildegarde Posts: 592 Member
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    jessiesue2 wrote: »
    When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?

    WHOA! In your example you'd only weigh out 8 ounces instead of a cup if the serving size was both 1 cup AND 8 ounces!

    Read the weight for the serving size on the package and calculate from that. For best accuracy weigh all solids and use measuring cups for liquids. So the butter and cheese is best to weigh. Especially the cheese! As has been said You can fit so much more or less shredded anything into 1/4 a cup depending on how tight you pack it.
  • myrtille87
    myrtille87 Posts: 122 Member
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    Weigh if you can, because it will be more accurate.

    If you're in a hurry/don't have scales to hand, measuring with cups/tablespoons etc. is still much better than not measuring at all.

    I weigh pasta, rice, meat, vegetables, etc. and use a teaspoons/tablespoons to measure cooking oils etc and cup measures for other liquids like milk, wine, etc.

    There are some things (curry paste, tomato puree, salad dressing) that I'll use a tablespoon for if I'm feeling lazy or weigh if I'm super-motivated.

    I don't always bother weighing super low-calorie items (eg: salad leaves). I have weighed them occasionally so have a rough idea of what a handful weighs, and if the difference is only going to be 5 calories or so I don't think it's a big deal.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Cups are ok for free fowing liquids or granular solids, but that's all 9ib98w3zvtlu.jpg
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    jessiesue2 wrote: »
    When I eat cereal, cottage cheese, rice and other such foods, I'm supposed to use a scale to measure. Even though it might say on the packaging, 1 cup serving size, I should weigh 8 oz. What about 1 tablespoon of soft butter or 1/4 cup of shredded cheese? Weigh or measure?

    Volume ounces is not the same as weight ounces. Use the grams serving they give you on the box...
  • Add713
    Add713 Posts: 53 Member
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    If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Add713 wrote: »
    If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write :)

    No. Seriously, how do you fit broccoli, carrots, grapes, apples, croutons etc accurately in a cup? Quite sure a cup of croutons (a serving is 2 tablespoons I believe, how in the world do you fit a crouton in a tablespoon anyway) will be quite different from what the correct serving weight is.
  • dakotababy
    dakotababy Posts: 2,406 Member
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    This is something I really need to focus on, weighing rather than measuring my food. This morning for example, I have typically always measured my cereal to 1 cup. Which comes out to about 1.2 servings. I figure I will weigh it since I am in no rush. I took the 1 cup of cereal and it weighed WAY more than the 1 serving of 30gs. It actually came out closer to 60gs! So this entire time, I have been tracking by putting in 1.2 servings..only to find out that this whole time I should have just been putting in 2 servings of 30gs.

    It is really frustrating, but I am coming to find that weighing the food and measuring are NOT the same. Go with weighing as much as possible...measure as an alternative.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Add713 wrote: »
    If the nutrition label says,,, serving size 1 cup ........THAN USE A CUP.....Hell we wouldn't want to be a few grams over.....I feel my waist growing as I write :)

    I'm lazy. I prefer the food scale because there are less dishes to wash afterward. Bowl on the scale, hit the tare button, plop as much of one ingredient as I want in, write it down, tare again, plop in second ingredient, etc. One bowl to wash and I don't have to round up all those cups and spoons for each ingredient.

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