Do You Weigh Pre-Packaged Food, Like a Slice of Bread?

No, not usually. I weigh things like fruit and protein powder and meats, but I think if I started to weigh EVERYTHING, I would get obsessed and it would put me in a bad place, mentally. I would probably panic if I had to go out for a meal. So I accept that I might be eating more than I think and move on. As long as I'm still making SOME progress, I'm happy.

No...for me it would be a bit obsessive. I have learned that I have to enjoy this process and find a balance in life.

AdamImadA wrote: »

And Costco samples are usually zero calorie

Actually, if you factor in walking through the Costco, I think they work out to negative calories. Especially if you walk everywhere to hit every sample station.

No, I don't usually weigh stuff like that. Someone else mentioned water content. That is true for fresh bread as well so the fresher your bread the more it will weigh so I'm not going to stress about it.

I've thought about doing it for tortillas, but usually for every bigger than average tortilla, there's a smaller than average one so I think it's a wash.

I happily weigh everything else so I don't worry about stuff like this. I'm more likely to overeat other foods so I focus on getting those right.

I weigh bread slices, because the database very often doesn't say what size loaf that slice is from (i.e an 800g loaf has much bigger slices than a 400g loaf).

bpetrosky wrote: »

Yes.

You can take a few slices of bread from a loaf and weigh each one and find a significant variance. Sliced cheese or meats can vary a fair bit, too.

Some packaged foods are more variable than others, and sometimes it's just some testing to figure out what tends to vary a little or a lot.

Also, individually wrapped snacks. My Clif bar today was about 5 grams heavier than the serving size, for about a 30 calorie difference than labeled.

I found bread to be a big culprit of not being the weight that it says on the package. Most of the slices were over the weight on the label. It has stated as a selling feature - 90 calories per slice and I was annoyed. Yes I did call them - poor quality control.

So you weighers totally trust the companies to be 100% accurate on the calories per gram calculation but doubt their ability to weigh their product.

mburgess458 wrote: »

So you weighers totally trust the companies to be 100% accurate on the calories per gram calculation but doubt their ability to weigh their product.

I don't necessarily trust whoever puts the information onto MFP to put the data that I need. Most bread companies in the UK make different sizes of the same loaf, and those different sizes usually (Kingsmill Little Big Loaf being one exception that springs to mind) have different size slices.

I weigh most things (including bread) that I eat/make at home. The bread I typically use is supposed to be 42 g a serving (2 slices) and I've had 2 slices weigh up to 50 g.

bpetrosky wrote: »

mburgess458 wrote: »

So you weighers totally trust the companies to be 100% accurate on the calories per gram calculation but doubt their ability to weigh their product.

Actually no. I do not. In the US, nutrition labels are allowed to be as much as 20% variable, which is actually sensible given that no agriculturally based product could be guaranteed to be exactly what's on the label.

But, when you add another error related to individual item weights, some variance in the blade pitch used to slice bread, or any other number of variances in the creation of packaged foods, a 20% error can be compounded to 40-50%.

Weighing is simply a way of reducing the errors, they can't be eliminated.

Well put. I view things the same way - why not eliminate/minimize the error(s) that we can?

Anyway, I recently starting weighing slices of bread and I do find that there is variation in slice weight, as would be expected since they’re different sizes. If the weight of the entire loaf is as stated, though, it should all even out if you eat the entire loaf (i.e. even the tiny ends!) and log each slice.

If the loaf itself is heavier though... I don’t even know how to deal with that, because it puts into question the nutrition/gram as stated on the package, depending on how the manufacturer calculated the nutritional value. Oh well.

No because it evens out over the whole loaf and tbh im not that bssessed with sleight calorie variations as I burn plenty of calories through exercise.

Yes, but only since starting recomp a few months ago. Way too little wiggle room and now those variations do make a difference.

MysticRealm wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I'm having decent weight loss (40 pounds since January eating an average of 1700 Cals a day) so I think I will continue to not weigh that stuff unless my weight comes to a stand still.

I don't know what kind of bread y'all are buying, but I've weighed mine a few times and it's always come out to the exact serving size listed on the package. Not worth my time.

PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »

I don't know what kind of bread y'all are buying, but I've weighed mine a few times and it's always come out to the exact serving size listed on the package. Not worth my time.

As I said upthread, I rarely eat bread because I have celiac disease, but one time I was feeling poorly and had my husband pick me up a loaf of gluten free bread to make toast. It was tea and toast kind of poorly. I weighed a slice of that for kicks and giggles and cue my surprise... it was off by 20 grams. I couldn't believe how far off it was.