success without a food scale
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OK so u put the plate on the scale and then add the foods that sounds easy more than I thought glad I asked because I was probably doing things the hard way all along.
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yes i put my plate on the scale and just load up lol easie peasie0
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williamwj2014 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »No scale. Minimize packaged and fast foods and cook 95% of meals at home.
Weighing may be helpful, but you'll know you can maintain for life when you don't have to.
Eh, I feel having a scale helps measure out portion sizes if there is no scale around so it has helped me see what a portion size looks like so it does help you "maintain for life"
I agree that it can be useful, but if it's something that you need to use forever to maintain a weight it seems like an imperfect tool.
Maybe weighing doesn't take long, but it takes longer than not weighing.0 -
Some things a way before. Like when i make a recipe here in MFP and i divede it in serving sizes
But most of the time i just put my plate on the scale
Turn it on ( it will start at zero then)
put on veggies..write down the weight and zero it out again ( TARA button) put on meat. write it down ( and zero it out) Put on potatoes, write it down and zero out etc etc done just a few seconds0 -
I did the same. When I bought a scale I discovered that in most cases I was overestimating.
Realize that there's a high degree of error in nutritional labeling ~20%, so if you're attempting to maintain a deficit, plan accordingly and err on the side of caution.0 -
and the other way around works too.
When you want butter or peanut butter or anything out of a package or jaw
Put the pot of peanut butter on the scale...put the scale on
Take a knife or spoon and take some out...the minus number now is the grams you took out
simple
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mantium999 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »No scale. Minimize packaged and fast foods and cook 95% of meals at home.
Weighing may be helpful, but you'll know you can maintain for life when you don't have to.
Are the calorie estimates on packaged foods worse than guessing the weight of your steak or fruit or veggies? If it's all guesswork anyway, for the sake of making life easier, would it not be easier to estimate consumption by barcode scanning if you aren't going to weigh?
I'm interested in the quality of the food, not just the calorie count (which is actually a distant concern).
If all you're looking for is counting calories, packaged food is just fine, I'm sure.
[Edited by MFP Staff]0 -
I started without but ended up getting one when weight loss stalled. It's super easy. I don't weigh everything, but when I'm home it's so easy to do so I just do it. It has helped me learn what portion sizes really are. I was underestimating how many ounces of meat I was eating and things like that. It has helped me start to lose again.0
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You don't have to weigh anything. If you are supposed to eat 1400 calories and you're guessing on amounts and not losing, you might be eating 1500-1700. Lower your goal number. Just change the goal to 1300, 1200, 1000 - whatever it takes until you do start losing. If you think you're eating 1100 calories a day, but you're really eating 1400, who cares? If weight loss is the goal and you are losing weight, yay.
If you want the most accurate estimate because the numbers are important to you, weigh the food. It will get you the best estimate. You learn a lot about food when you weigh it, too. It's a helpful tool.
But if it seems to obsessive or time-consuming, just don't. It's not necessary. People lost weight before anyone on the planet knew what a calorie was. It can be done. I lost 40 pounds without even counting calories.
There are many ways to do this. 0 -
Honestly, the logging takes way more time than weighing. Weighing takes no time. You have to put food on the plate, just a put a scale under it first. Finding entries in the database takes longer for me. YMMV0
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accidentalpancake wrote: »mantium999 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »No scale. Minimize packaged and fast foods and cook 95% of meals at home.
Weighing may be helpful, but you'll know you can maintain for life when you don't have to.
Are the calorie estimates on packaged foods worse than guessing the weight of your steak or fruit or veggies? If it's all guesswork anyway, for the sake of making life easier, would it not be easier to estimate consumption by barcode scanning if you aren't going to weigh?
I'm not getting into a useless debate over it, but I'm interested in the quality of the food, not just the calorie count (which is actually a distant concern).
If all you're looking for is counting calories, packaged food is just fine, I'm sure.
Then why mention it in the first place, considering the OP mentioned nothing about seeking advice on quality of food? She is looking to make logging easy. Also, you label packaged food as though it's by default lower quality. Would cheese slices, packaged in a way that the nutrition facts are listed on the front, be less valuable that a block of cheese that you have to cut yourself? Same applies to sliced meats, or bottles of milk, or a jar of pickles.0 -
mantium999 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »mantium999 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »No scale. Minimize packaged and fast foods and cook 95% of meals at home.
Weighing may be helpful, but you'll know you can maintain for life when you don't have to.
Are the calorie estimates on packaged foods worse than guessing the weight of your steak or fruit or veggies? If it's all guesswork anyway, for the sake of making life easier, would it not be easier to estimate consumption by barcode scanning if you aren't going to weigh?
I'm not getting into a useless debate over it, but I'm interested in the quality of the food, not just the calorie count (which is actually a distant concern).
If all you're looking for is counting calories, packaged food is just fine, I'm sure.
Then why mention it in the first place, considering the OP mentioned nothing about seeking advice on quality of food? She is looking to make logging easy. Also, you label packaged food as though it's by default lower quality. Would cheese slices, packaged in a way that the nutrition facts are listed on the front, be less valuable that a block of cheese that you have to cut yourself? Same applies to sliced meats, or bottles of milk, or a jar of pickles.
OP asked whether people weigh or not.
Not everything needs to be a fight, even on the Internet.0 -
Ready2Rock206 wrote: »Weighing food is so much faster than using measuring cups and results in a lot less dirty dishes which equals more time saved.
This is why I do it.
Well, and because I overthink it when estimating too, so find weighing easier for that also.
It's extremely easy to do during the cooking process, adds almost no time at all.0 -
I eat almost the same thing every day (in different forms), so I don't weigh food unless it's something that's fairly calorie-laden and can easily trick the eye (e.g. rice, nuts, ice cream, etc...). I started by weighing everything though, and it really helped me gauge what my portions should be. Now that I'm familiar with what a "serving" of chicken looks like, I just eyeball it. It's been working so far. If I start gaining again, I'll just pull out the scale.0
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It takes me on average 40 seconds to weigh my food per meal. That includes measuring each type of food i'm putting on my plate. I don't understand why people think it is time consuming.
You must eat very simple meals. Weighing everything that goes into each recipe, each item in a salad... it's not a huge amount of time, but more than 40 seconds for me. The real time sink is recording it all in MFP's not terribly effective system now that's no longer simple to find USDA data. It's not insane amounts of time, but it does take time. I find it a pest, but unless you've been cooking for most of your life and measure far more accurately than most people do, it's worthwhile, at least at first.
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accidentalpancake wrote: »williamwj2014 wrote: »accidentalpancake wrote: »No scale. Minimize packaged and fast foods and cook 95% of meals at home.
Weighing may be helpful, but you'll know you can maintain for life when you don't have to.
Eh, I feel having a scale helps measure out portion sizes if there is no scale around so it has helped me see what a portion size looks like so it does help you "maintain for life"
I agree that it can be useful, but if it's something that you need to use forever to maintain a weight it seems like an imperfect tool.
Maybe weighing doesn't take long, but it takes longer than not weighing.
I need to use my eyeglasses forever. Are they an imperfect tool?
I read an interesting article lately, and it noted that obesity is a disease, and it's chronic. We don't resist the idea of methods taken to treat other chronic conditions, but a lot of people have this expectation that obesity is something you can be cured of.
Contrary to that notion, the findings of the National Weight Control Registry suggest otherwise. Every single participant manages their ongoing weight maintenance in by monitoring their food intake in one way or another.
If someone chooses to use one method to manage a life long condition because it suits their needs and personality, I see no reason to start feeling a different method is superior simply because it's the one you chose.
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lalainap19 wrote: »Yes I definitely hate all the dirty measuring cups I just use so many ingredients when I cook so I hate the thought of weighing all the veggies
Chop, chop, chop, toss on plate on scale, toss in pan. (Or set aside to toss in pan later.) Write note or remember, depending. (For breakfast I tend to remember the numbers for everything, it's like a memory game.)
Repeat.
The weighing part really adds no time at all to my prepping process.0 -
mantium999 wrote: »Would cheese slices, packaged in a way that the nutrition facts are listed on the front, be less valuable that a block of cheese that you have to cut yourself?
You are clearly a stranger to quality cheese.
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