Do you weigh everything, even packaged foods?

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pianoplaya94
pianoplaya94 Posts: 185 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Do you weigh foods that come in a wrapper or single container? For example, if a package of oatmeal says "150 cals" on it for every "52 grams" do you trust the package or still weigh the oatmeal? I mean that's just an example, but what do you do for any food that comes in a simple package with the cals written on it?

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Replies

  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Easy stuff like jerky, or oatmeal, I weigh. Because usually you're always short on the weight.

    Pop-tarts and stuff I never weigh, lol.
  • slaite1
    slaite1 Posts: 1,307 Member
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    I generally do not weigh individually packaged items such as instant oatmeal, snack cakes, yogurts. Once in a blue I'll throw it on the scale-but I've never come across any real discrepancies .
  • sunnyazgirl
    sunnyazgirl Posts: 271 Member
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    I weigh whatever they say is "X calories/cup/Tbsp/etc." because I discoved that the measurements may be approximate to the weights, but are not accurate. My oatmeal, for example - the directons say to use 1/4 cup, but the serving size is actually 30 grams. When I weigh out 30 grams it comes under the rim of the 1/4 cup measuring cup by a signficant amount. I have a granola bar I like that is 30 calories more than what is stated on the label when I weigh it. But, for most single serve items I can trust the package. However, I usually do weigh it the first few times I use it and that way I can see just how trust worthy it is. I do tend to eat the same brands a lot for that reason. That way I can just scan the package and be happy. B) I use a lot of single serve items as there are only two of us in the house, we both use MFP to track and they are easy to pack up and take to work.
  • lizzocat
    lizzocat Posts: 356 Member
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    If it per-packaged fresh food, or says "about" next to the serving, I weigh it. I won't weigh like a granola bar though
  • Gska17
    Gska17 Posts: 752 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I'm kind of wishy washy. For example:

    Cheese slices: yes (I've seen some crazy discrepancies with cheese slices)
    Oatmeal/cereals: yes
    Sandwich thins: no
    Bread: yes
    Lunch meat: yes
    String cheese/individual cheeses like Baby Bel: no
    Crackers/chips: no**

    **edit: I count chips, pretzels, and crackers at work. At home I weigh them.
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,036 Member
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    I stopped weighing things like slices of bread, string cheese, cheese slices, tortillas, containers of yogurt, etc. It was just too overwhelming for me to weigh every minute little thing. But I weigh everything else; fruit, veggies, bacon bits, peanut butter, cereal, etc.
  • FitPhillygirl
    FitPhillygirl Posts: 7,124 Member
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    I only weigh things that don't have a barcode that I can scan for the correct nutrient count. I don't weigh to track calories anymore.
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    I don't, although I've seen people complain that things aren't accurate. For now, what I'm doing is working; if it stops working, I know I'll need to tighten up my logging, and this could be one thing I need to do.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    The only things I don't weigh are yogurt cups (in my experience, it's always under anyway), individual pieces of candy like chocolates or caramels, and string cheese/prepackaged American cheese slices.

    I weigh everything else. Like this morning, the 57g English muffin I had was actually 70g. That's 36 extra calories right there. Most cereal bars and slices of bread are 2-3g heavier as well, and yeah cheese/deli meat slices/packaged meats and sausages are all over the place. Almonds? A serving is 28g or 28 almonds, but 28g is more like 23 almonds... It just adds up.

    Sometimes obviously it's not easy, like if you cook a bunch of sausages that only give calories for the raw weight, but I weighed them all and picked the heaviest one (which was 10% more than the package said). It can be a pain, but typically my plate is on the scale anyway, it just takes one second to tare it.
  • pmm3437
    pmm3437 Posts: 529 Member
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    If it comes prepackaged or proportioned, I don't bother weighing it. If anything, its more likely to be short then over. A little bit less than the serving size equates to a few less calories, and I realize even the label is just an educated estimate. Examples would be a hot dog, or a protein bar.

    For home made stuff, I have it pretty easy as well, since I am only cooking for 1. I'll measure and weigh when making a batch recipe, but then I will approximate the serving sizes. For instance, a home made chili that I breakup into 4 servings. Since I am eating it all eventually ( and usually within the same week ), I only care that the portions are relatively the same size, doesn't have to be exact, so I tend to skip here as well.

    Where I do really pay attention to detail, and weigh every item, is with meats, spreads/condiments/sauces ( cream cheese, butter, Alfredo, etc ), loose frozen items ( vegetables in family size bags ), or anything else where you have to manually control the portion size ( like rice, pasta ) or expect a large variance in the portion size ( for instance, a bakery bagel )
  • monalissanne
    monalissanne Posts: 159 Member
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    Canned goods are incredibly mislabeled. I'm not talking about weight after draining water from vegetables (btw...the fda says the label includes the liquid). I'm talking about things like chili or soup. There is way less than they claim.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited July 2015
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    Be aware some soups and chili's have weight on nutrition label for serving size - but ounces as volumes for the can.

    Makes translating more than a tad difficult even when eating the whole can.

    After weighing the product in the can, I've found them to be right on, though at that point the "about 3 servings per package" is way off, usually about 3.5.

    I've never double-checked the volume matches what they say - but never done that on milk either.

    But even on packages where I'm trusting the weight is correct, the number of serving sizes I'm eating is not if there is more than 1 per package.

    I always divide the package weight by serving weight to log how many servings I ate.

    Only thing I've found so far where they nailed it - Stouffers Hearty skillet dishes for 2. There really are 2 servings within 2 grams when I first starting weighing them.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Eileen_S wrote: »
    I only weigh things that don't have a barcode that I can scan for the correct nutrient count. I don't weigh to track calories anymore.

    Be aware that manufacturers will keep the exact same SKU even as they totally change the makeup of the item and the nutrition label info.
    Going low carb or low fat version will cause big changes, unless they totally make a new line with new SKU.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    I weigh everything that has any chance of deviating, which is just about everything but the hot dogs. The fat-free turkey hot dogs, at least, weigh exactly what they say they'll weigh, every single time.
  • Lourdesong
    Lourdesong Posts: 1,492 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I don't weigh or measure any single-serving things. I do weigh or measure *almost everything that contains more than one serving.
    The *almost everything excludes things that are virtually single serving items like candy, where something like Hershey says 5 Reese's miniatures is a serving out of a 1lb bag, or Oreo's says 2 Oreo's is a serving out of a 3 row package. I will not weigh a Reese miniature (or 5) or an Oreo cookie (or 2), or any similarly packaged standardized foods.

    ETA: I do weigh chips, crackers and alike, even if the portion says 10 chips or 28 grams, I weigh it for the 28 grams. Too much variance, many crackers and chips are broken, etc.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
    edited July 2015
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    I only weigh bulk items....

    you should be careful though, when I first started I was buying this chicken that had the nutritional information for "1 chicken breast - 4 oz"...for a long time I was just logging that...I decided to start weighing it out and most whole chicken breasts are closer to 4 ounces...

    but yeah, I'm not going to weigh out a serving size bag of Goldfish crackers or anything like that.
  • mccindy72
    mccindy72 Posts: 7,001 Member
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    I've been in maintenance for a few years now, and I do still weigh pretty much everything. Packaged food, especially. I've found that most of it is notorious for being off of what it says on the package. Bread is a big one, canned goods too.
  • irenehb
    irenehb Posts: 236 Member
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    GuitarJerry wrote: »
    pmm3437 wrote: »
    If it comes prepackaged or proportioned, I don't bother weighing it. If anything, its more likely to be short then over.

    Other way around. More likely to be over than short. Manufacturers want you to think it's less than it is. It's a selling gimmick for those that read labels. "Oh look, this is only 100 cals". Meanwhile, it's 160.

    ^Agree.
    On top of that manufacturers are required to provide the minimum amount (what is listed on the nutrition label), at least in Australia.
    For example, I have eaten Chobani passionfruit 2% probably around 100 times over the last year or 2, and never has it weighed the stated 170 grams. Once it weighed 171 and quite a few times 172 g, but mostly 173-175 and twice 179 grams.
    I know in the grand scheme of things it isn't much more calories for this item but it can add up, especially for items like bread or calorifically-dense products.
    Actually, a chocolate bar (rocky road, darrell lea. Think only available in Australia) says 2 serves of 25 grams per bar but the bar weight is apparently 60 grams. I have weighed one bar as high as 90 grams.

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