Measuring Food? Still Learning After Three Years...

One of the only things I actually put on a food scale and weigh day-to-day is rice. I eat rice every night, and depending on how hungry I am, a “cup” of rice can be many things. (I once packed it so full, I had to eat the serving in the shape of the cup measure because it wouldn’t come loose.)

My boyfriend has a nice digital scale that we’ve used in the past and it’s always been great. It measures in grams, mls, oz, and lbs. I’ve been using it for a while now to make sure I don’t go crazy with my dinner servings and it’s worked pretty well at helping me keep my meal under control.

Last night, after having eaten rice for dinner for nearly two weeks, I poured out 94 grams of rice onto my plate, having carefully weighed it beforehand. It seemed like a big serving, but that’s what rice does and why I measure it – it can really trick the eye when you put it on a plate.

My boyfriend came up behind me and said, “That’s a big serving. You must have a lot of calories left, did you eat lunch?”

“Yeah,” I answered, “but this is only 94 grams. That’s less than a cup – not so bad.”

He raised an eyebrow and expressed his doubts. So, after bickering for a moment or two, I decided to prove it to him and I put the plate back on the scale. 94 grams. Exactly what I said. Well, he’s very stubborn and likes to be right (I say lovingly), so he got out another empty plate (I have to do dishes, so this is not making me happy), weighed it, and then poured my rice onto it. 94 grams.

At this point, he’s getting into a little bit of trouble. I’m PMS’ing. I’ve had a long day. I’m hungry. I want my food. He’s doubting my abilities to use a simple scale. There will be blood shed tonight if this goes on for much longer. A red moon is rising.

Once again expressing his doubts in the weight, and completely ignoring the steam coming out of my ears, he turns the scale over. “I want to check the batteries. Sometimes that screws with the weight.”

*sigh*

Suddenly, there’s an “Aha!” and a goofy “told ya” smile on his face. On one of the rubber corners on the bottom of the scale, there was a single grain of rice, dried on and stuck to it. He flicks it off and then hands me an empty plate for a repour. Dred fills me. I pour. I weigh…. It comes to 188 grams.

F***

That grain of rice was dried on, meaning that it had been there for a while. It’s quite possible I’ve been receiving ½ weight for a week or more. Meaning that there have been some days when I’ve likely been eating at maintenance or above, thinking I was comfortably below.

F***

So, lesson learned: weighing by a scale is good. But make sure it’s clean on the bottom, the surface you’re resting it on is flat, and you’ve got a significant other who’s willing to risk their very lives for the sake of accuracy.