Portion Sizes...who does this?

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13

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  • rainunrefined
    rainunrefined Posts: 850 Member
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    I am a compulsve food weigher :)

    uh.. me too! One of my pet peeves with this site is that most people enter their foods in 1/2 cup, 2 tbsp, etc... unless the food is a liquid the whole 1 cup thing isn't going to be as accurate as if you weighed the food in ounces or grams. I'm always converting things to weights. That extra time it takes to weigh your food really pays off!
  • brnsgrsbody
    brnsgrsbody Posts: 254 Member
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    Yup that's me. I weigh and measure everything. My digital scale truly showed me that I was overdoing it even with measuring cups. So I weigh a good portion of my food and use measuring cups for the other stuff but it made a huge difference because sometimes you can't just eye ball portions. Our eyes are bigger than our stomach sometimes and that is what got some of us here in the first place.

    I know...I used to treat the Big bags of potato chips (even if they were the fat-free ones) like they were a 25cents bag. Then I realized before I joined the Biggest Loser Contest at work that I wasn't "looking the part" of an instructor so to speak because I was talking about eating healthy and eating too much of it. The realization came when I asked a co-worker if what he was speaking of came in a healthy version. He said yes but then looked me up and down and said put you still have to use portion control for things that are "healthy". I was mad for an entire week but it opened my eyes.
  • brnsgrsbody
    brnsgrsbody Posts: 254 Member
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    I am a compulsve food weigher :)

    uh.. me too! One of my pet peeves with this site is that most people enter their foods in 1/2 cup, 2 tbsp, etc... unless the food is a liquid the whole 1 cup thing isn't going to be as accurate as if you weighed the food in ounces or grams. I'm always converting things to weights. That extra time it takes to weigh your food really pays off!

    Exactly!!!! This site is trying to help with the portion control and accurate calories counting. I noticed after the first day that if I just guesstimated I would only be cheating myself . It definitley keeps me on point because I want to know my true calorie intake. Now I measure with measuring cups to get 1 cup, 1/2 cup, 2 Tbsp, and etc. I also measure in grams and ounces as neccessary. If there is a choice there for1 cup or 8 ounces you can put either.
  • cherubcrnp
    cherubcrnp Posts: 730 Member
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    I weigh and measure EVERYTHING...unless it is preweighed. My measuring cups, spoons, and digital scale are my best friends
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    I'm a half and half-er. Sometimes I measure and sometimes I eyeball it. When I first started, I was almost always WAY off when I eyeballed it. Now, after over a year -- I'm getting really good at being spot on when I eyeball it. So, I've really cut back on measuring.
  • Sherri0706
    Sherri0706 Posts: 64
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    When my kids set the table, they automatically set out the measuring cups and scale!
  • 4Calix
    4Calix Posts: 38
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    When I'm on track I weigh and measure everything. It really does make a difference.
  • alifer
    alifer Posts: 387 Member
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    Sometimes I weigh and measure, other times I don't. After the first couple of weeks I have gotten pretty good at guessing. The first couple weeks was an eye opener for sure. Who knew I was eating 3 or 4 servings of Cheerios for breakfast. Now it's only one, and I have adjusted.
  • frostiegurl
    frostiegurl Posts: 708 Member
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    I weigh and/or measure everything that passes my lips. I'm going on two different trips this Summer to visit family and I'm bringing my scale and set of measuring cups/spoons along for the ride.
  • ImperfektAngel
    ImperfektAngel Posts: 811 Member
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    I weigh or measure EVERYTHING!


    same here
  • emilybrittain
    emilybrittain Posts: 31
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    Not everything but most things such as breakfast cereal, pasta, rice etc. Oh and also cheese! You'd be surprised once you start weighing things out and you can start to judge them better. It also means you can be more exact with your calorie intake.

    Go for the electronic scales though - it makes it more accurate - I find that I start to think that if I have even 2 more grammes of cereal how many more calories would that be and it stops me from going over! Hope that helps!
  • isktaine
    isktaine Posts: 8
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    I've never measured anything accurately unless its from a packet, but I've only been here a few weeks and am thinking of doing so just to know how much I am consuming. Just have to decide whether to get US measuring things or convert it all from UK...
  • Kellee_76
    Kellee_76 Posts: 91
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    I weigh and measure everything that's not prepackaged in single servings. If I don't, I'm a bottomless pit and will finish anything I'm served.

    Mainly, I use a digital scale because I'm lazy to wash dishes. For example, if I want 1.5 oz of dry cereal, 6 oz of strawberries and 4 oz of milk, my cereal bowl goes onto the scale, I zero it out, then I measure my cereal, I zero it out, then in goes 6 ounces of my fruit, I zero it out and then in goes my milk. Otherwise, I'd have to wash measuring cups. And I hate dirty dishes! :) I bought a scale that switches back and forth from ounces to grams precisely for this purpose.

    When I stop measuring for a few days, I notice I get "portion creep" and my servings magically get larger :)
  • frostiegurl
    frostiegurl Posts: 708 Member
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    I weigh and measure everything that's not prepackaged in single servings. If I don't, I'm a bottomless pit and will finish anything I'm served.

    Mainly, I use a digital scale because I'm lazy to wash dishes. For example, if I want 1.5 oz of dry cereal, 6 oz of strawberries and 4 oz of milk, my cereal bowl goes onto the scale, I zero it out, then I measure my cereal, I zero it out, then in goes 6 ounces of my fruit, I zero it out and then in goes my milk. Otherwise, I'd have to wash measuring cups. And I hate dirty dishes! :) I bought a scale that switches back and forth from ounces to grams precisely for this purpose.

    When I stop measuring for a few days, I notice I get "portion creep" and my servings magically get larger :)

    That's funny, I do the same thing when I have cereal or even when I'm chopping up vegetables for a meal.
  • Ladywindchaser
    Ladywindchaser Posts: 44 Member
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    I have three different food & liquid scales. One is for liquid. I weigh and measure everything that goes into my mouth except water. I am a diabetic and without measuring and weighing I would not be able to track the amount of exact carbs that I eat. Since I am only allowed by Dr's. orders to eat 30 carbs per meal it is extremely important to weigh & measure every thing. It is the only exact method of tracking for my diabetes.
  • SoFancySoBlessed
    SoFancySoBlessed Posts: 224 Member
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    I GOT A FOOD SCALE AND I LOVE IT.... I LIKE TO BE ON TOP OF WHATS I AM EATING AND HOW MUCH I TRULY INTAKE.....I DONT LIKE TO LIE TO MYSELF SO THIS WAS THE BEST WAY FOR ME TO STAY ON TRACK AND NOT WANDER OFF (WHICH I HAVE DONE, SEVERAL TIMES) BUT I GET BACK ON TRACK PRETTY SWIFTLY! I HAVE BEEN LOSING CONSISTANTLY... THANK GOODNESS. :wink:
  • melt57
    melt57 Posts: 60 Member
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    I had an analog food scale, and was already tempted to replace it (I'm an avid baker, and didn't feel like I was getting the accurate measurements I wanted). Once I started MFP, buying a digital scale was an easy choice. Everything goes on the scale :)
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
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    Half and half here. I weigh the oatmeal, meats, pasta, nuts, fruits and dairy products. The salad greens I guestimate a handfull is about a cup, an entire cucumber is about 2 cups, a dozen baby carrots is about 3 oz.... the things that didn't cause my weight problem don't usually get weighed/measured after the first couple times.
  • trishlambert
    trishlambert Posts: 213 Member
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    Ditto what everyone said. My digital scale and measuring cups/spoons are out for every meal and snack. I too found that my "eyeballing" resulted in way too much...I shudder to think about how many calories I was eating in healthy food before I started measuring. No wonder I gained and gained and couldn't lose!
  • farmgirl88
    farmgirl88 Posts: 91 Member
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    I'm pretty good at eyeballing things accurately so I used my kitchen scale and measuring cups consistently for the first few weeks to make sure that I was eyeballing things correctly.

    When I'm at home, I still use the scale for meat, cheese, and other things I want to be sure I'm measuring accurately. I never measure my veggies, I just pile as much as I can fit on my plate... the more the merrier :)

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