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Biggest eye opener from weighing food
Replies
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Peanut butter
Even the "little" lick of the knife after I have weighed out a proper portion is probably about 100 calories. 0 -
ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »Same as the avocado one, but with potatoes. They don't have a lot of calories per 100g, but the ones I used to buy and log as 1 medium were definitely not medium. Most of them were bigger than the "large" database entry too.
Cereal and ice cream were my big ones. I had been warned about peanut butter. Although I wasn't too happy about cashews either. Oh, and I used to get those frozen sweet potato fries and count out 12 pieces of whatever. The first time I weighed them I think that counting out the pieces made a difference of something like 30%.
Recently I weighed a coffee cake muffin that had 150 calories more than the label claimed.
WOW! This is very eye opening! I always relied on pre-packaged food to be pretty accurate. This is something all newbies should read. Guess who will be starting to religously weigh every food item from here on out!0 -
Everything for me as well. When making dinner I used to just dole out however much I felt like (we have large plates as well). When I started weighing I realized how much I was eating. I now put all of mine on salad plates and all of my Loves on normal plates. Makes it look better!0
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Sounds like a lot of us by the thin slices of cheese. An oz. is an oz., but we perceive more pieces as more cheese. As for that piece of cheese on a burger, who needs it? That is one case where a small amount is calories dense, but it is easy for me to do without and don't really miss it.
It is good when we can trick ourselves to the better.0 -
I was pleasantly surprised by chicken breast...3 oz is quite a lot. And I have to agree that when cheese is thinly sliced an ounce goes pretty far!
I was SO SO happy with chicken, I put a heap of chicken on my scale the other day and was expecting it to be like, 8 oz, maybe even more, but it was like 5.9 oz. I underestimate most things, but apparently I don't have an eye for meat lol.0 -
Cream in my coffee!!
At this point Ive gotten to 1% milk but the amount of calories I drank in coffee every day blew my mind. Once I reduced it I didn't even notice.0 -
Pasta
This morning while packing lunch I discovered what 2 ounces of spaghetti actually looks like...practically heartbreaking -.- 0 -
Cream in my coffee as well! I've swapped out for almond milk. I get enough dairy fat in butter and cheese so don't mind swapping out the lower calorie stuff (and I really love the slightly sweet, nutty taste the almond milk gives coffee. I add 1/2 cup almond milk and nothing else. 30 calorie coffee!)
That said, cheese was an eye-opener... though when I use actual serving sizes, I find it's plenty!
Pasta was also an eye-opener, though I found I was actually eating less than I thought. Which was cool. Always weigh stuff you add water to dry and make sure you use the correct entry! Pasta, rice, oatmeal, etc.0 -
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Cheese, nuts, and chocolate. But most of all BUTTER! I found that the amount of butter I would put on my toast to be at least a tablespoon for each slice (I love butter and like to see my teethmarks in it!
) Actually, most carby things I like; bread, toast, potatoes; were really just a vehicle for more butter. So, I seriously reduced them and weigh the butter I use now.
On the plus side, I was underestimating most meat and fish.0 -
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Creamer for my coffee is killing my caloric intake. I was weighing my pasta COOKED up until last week. For a whole year I did not eat spaghetti with my family. I refused after seeing what 2 oz was....only I was seeing it COOKED lol0
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Apples and their high sugar content. Oh and chicken breasts. 6 oz is really not that big0
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krissyreminisce wrote: »Another food I had to do some research and testing on was steel cut oatmeal. Serving size is 1/4 cup dry, but how much is that wet? I make 2 cups of oatmeal with 8 cups of water in a crock pot every 8 days or so. It yields me 8 cups plus a little extra, so now I know 1/2 a cup is about 1 cup cooked. Before this I was only eating half a cup wet, not thinking about the water absorption.
This is helpful for me to know! I just started eating steel cut oats for breakfast and made one cup of dry oats for the week and then wasn't sure how much wet I should eat. I've been portioning out 2 ounces wet.
It seems that might not be correct or enough.
Weigh it dry, then weigh it cooked, and you'll know how many servings you have cooked.0 -
cheese, both shredded and a block. I could apparently stuff a whole lot of shredded cheese into a 1/3 cup container. And cereal. 28g is laughable as a serving. and to think of the amount of cheddar goldfish crackers I used to pop into my mouth, as if they were made of air. Once I started weighing, I realized they aren't worth it at all.0
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Potato chips were one of the biggest eye openers. And yes, I do weigh out 28g of chips because they can easily add and push me over my goals.
I haven't eaten cereal much since childhood so I can't relate on that one. I was pleasantly surprised at peanut butter though. 1 serving is huge and about twice what I would ever use on a sandwich. Though I use 1 serving now just to get more protein.0 -
the 4 cups of popcorn that I thought I was serving myself turned out to be more like 60
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Most of my foods have been surprising. I still need to get the hang of measuring dry pasta for cooking, rice as well. We use a lot of rice around my house, but I will measure out a small portion once it is cooked for myself. The skin on a banana was surprising.0
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kristen6350 wrote: »Cereal. 3/4 cups (which is the serving size for most cereals) is practically nothing. It's really sad.
next time you are watching TV and see a Special K commercial, look at how much is in one of those bowls! No way that is only one serving!0 -
twinteensmom wrote: »kristen6350 wrote: »Cereal. 3/4 cups (which is the serving size for most cereals) is practically nothing. It's really sad.
next time you are watching TV and see a Special K commercial, look at how much is in one of those bowls! No way that is only one serving!
right? lol0 -
A slightly different issue, but lately I have been realizing that commercial canned foods often do not contain what they say on the label. Measuring and weighing are showing that a lot of cans contain much less than they say they do.
Thank goodness most of the canned foods that I eat are HOME canned.0 -
How big a serving 2 oz of pasta is. It's quite a bit.0
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The pasta was a pleasant surprise to me too - I started weighing servings dry then weighing the cooked lot and calculating a serving from there. My pasta with clam sauce (calculated out in the "recipes" tab) turn out to be an OK dinner calorie-wise, and weighing out the freshly grated cheese has been a cool surprise, too.0
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azulvioleta6 wrote: »A slightly different issue, but lately I have been realizing that commercial canned foods often do not contain what they say on the label. Measuring and weighing are showing that a lot of cans contain much less than they say they do.
Thank goodness most of the canned foods that I eat are HOME canned.
Most of mine are HOME canned too, but being a HOME canner I fully understand how all cans will not weigh the same.0 -
Eggs surprised me. For years I used the 1 large = 50g assumption, without thinking about it actually being an average. I started weighing the eggs after I cracked them into a bowl when I changed how I was cooking them, and realized a lot of times, they'll all be over or all be under. If I'm making something with 3 eggs, it'll sometimes work out that I'm short or over by "half" an egg.0
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pinkteapot3 wrote: »Everything for me. We have oversized dinner plates and correct portions look tiny.
I saw a headline about a study which had found that people who are overweight underestimate what they're eating for more than people of a healthy weight (not surprising but looked like an interesting read). Can't find it anywhere now!
I use my salad plate for meals. It let's me feel like I get a full meal.0 -
My biggest eyeopener:
EVERYTHING HAS SALT
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guinevere96 wrote: »
Yes, pasta, dry looks so little but cook it and it looks like a WHOLE lot to me. (Just made Chicken Cacciatore with Farfella last night and it was soooooo good!)0 -
My biggest eyeopener:
EVERYTHING HAS SALT
TOO TRUE.
Mine have already been mentioned.
Fruit/veggies are more calories than I thought. One measured tablespoon of peanut butter is larger than I thought (but then the catch is that I can't keep dipping in "for a teeny tiny bit more"). Meat...what I thought was "3 oz" of a meat was more like 1ish... WOAH.0
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