Food weighing?
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What kind of salad dressing? If it's thick, it's likely more dense than water so you are likely overestimating calories. You might get a bit more salad dressing if you used a measuring spoon.stephreed11 wrote: »Oops, I always weigh my salad dressing (grams)...so I've been underestimating cals?
For convenience sake, I weigh dressing. I don't use enough for it to make that much of a difference calorie-wise even though I know that it's not as exact as the volume measurement specified on the nutritional label.0 -
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if you're just starting out, weigh everything. as time goes on and you get a good grasp of things, you may be able to stick to weighing the calorie-dense foods (i have gotten to the point where i don't need to weigh the leafy green and things like that, but i occasionally weigh everything else)...i'm trying to get to intuitive eating so i don't have to weigh for the rest of my life, but it takes a long time for me.
i use a $15 scale that i got at k-mart that was on sale. it has worked quite well for me. it's digital and gives me both the option to tare and the option to use lbs/ozs or grams. i always use grams because i've become quite good at converting grams to ounces and just using the label on the food (if the food has a label; otherwise, i use the usda entry and use grams).
i also made my own entries and recipes for a lot of things and just use those. it can be time consuming at first, but after that, it's so much easier.0 -
nicediva007 wrote: »Omg you guys rock! Great advice!
I use scales regularly in my work (I'm a chemist), so I know how to tare and do conversions easily.
When weighing liquids you have to take into account density. Most liquids do not align with water whose density is 1g/ml. With density you can convert mass to volume, however, since most ppl do not have the density of other liquids readily on hand (and if it's not a pure substance the information is not likely found anyway), it's best to stick to measuring by volume. The density of milk will differ drastically per batch due to fat content.
Per your example, you can have the same volume serving size of 28-30 mls of five different substances but it won't be the same weight across all five unless they all have the same density.
Sorry I'm a nerd.
sorry you are thinking wrong
No density involved
I weigh my liquid this way.
The label says 1/2 cup is 30 calories
So i put my half cup on the scale, tara button so the scale goes back to zero...poor the liquid in it...now the XX grams it gives me i use...I now know always that for this liquid the XX gram amount is half a cup.
So when making ice cream or other things with that liquid as ingredient..i put the bowl on the scale. tara out so the scale is on zero.
Fruit in it, write down the grams...tara out to zero...next ingredient for example my liquid..so i poor the xx grams in it and write it down 30 calories...Because i know that amount of grams is half a cup.
This only works well when you use a certain liquid a lot.
Like me almond milk on a daily base.
Others i use cups
What you did was essentially solve for density. Density is mass per unit volume.0 -
i know what it is lol
And i even know it can be different from day to day for one and the same liquid too because of temperature
But that is peanuts calorie counting lol.
that is also why i expressed for ONE the same liquid you always use... when measured out ones you know that the next cup is the same grams for the same liquid over and over again.0 -
I'm totally picking up a scale when I'm out this weekend. I'm interested to see how off my typical food choices are. Lately we've been eating a lot more whole foods but some stuff is still packaged. One of these days I'll jump ship all the way to no processed foods. Until then, I think having a scale will take out some of the undertainty with regards to portions.0
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i have a good one
Today my husband wanted some Jimmy Dean
56 gram per serving the label says... 1 serving = 190 calories. 6 servings a full pack
I divided all the meat like i always do in servings
I had 8 servings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now dont weigh your food and think oke i eat half a pack and tomorrow the other half
so you log 3 servings of Jimmy Dean ( 3 times 190 calories right)
Well you ate 4 so a wopping 190 calories more...because there were 8 servings in it...but you dont know that when you dont weigh that...next day the same and you ate 380 calories more without knowing
I made photos of it and posted it on my FB page lol to show the other i am not lying.
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I bought a scale from Walmart for $14 but to change it over to kg you have to push a button onder the scale so I took it back and got another one for $18 and much easier to use0
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Mine has that too but i put it on grams
On the pc i have a converter which i use for the ounces or kg into grams and visa versa0 -
i have a good one
Today my husband wanted some Jimmy Dean
56 gram per serving the label says... 1 serving = 190 calories. 6 servings a full pack
I divided all the meat like i always do in servings
I had 8 servings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now dont weigh your food and think oke i eat half a pack and tomorrow the other half
so you log 3 servings of Jimmy Dean ( 3 times 190 calories right)
Well you ate 4 so a wopping 190 calories more...because there were 8 servings in it...but you dont know that when you dont weigh that...next day the same and you ate 380 calories more without knowing
I made photos of it and posted it on my FB page lol to show the other i am not lying.
Okay so my question about this is, if the servings on the package are inaccurate, then how much stock can we put in the calories per unit? Like, how can you even trust that 1 serving of 56 grams is actually 190 calories? How do we know that it's not 190 calories per 45 grams? It seems like a crap shoot in some ways.0 -
You cant lol
That is what studies posted ...factories and brands also estimate hehehe.
And a lot of times more in a pack
But your deficit is most of the time large enough to catch that
That is one of the reasons why studies say that the food logging is most of the time 20% off ( to low).
Only by weighing all your food you can come close...but never know exactly0 -
But dont over tink that..when you weigh your food on a scale choose the right entry's your good
believe me. It worked for all the succesful people here and all the others
Just weigh and log...and your deficit is there and your weight loss too.0 -
You cant lol
That is what studies posted ...factories and brands also estimate hehehe.
And a lot of times more in a pack
But your deficit is most of the time large enough to catch that
That is one of the reasons why studies say that the food logging is most of the time 20% off ( to low).
Only by weighing all your food you can come close...but never know exactly
Okay I can ascribe to that. I do exercise as well since I'm looking for larger deficits. My diet has been all over the place lately, with me trying to outrun my fork. Not happening.
The scale ought to help me. If I can learn over time what specific weights of certain food looks like, then when I eat out I can keep better control, I think.0 -
well burns ( exercise ) is most of the time the other way around...also not accurate but most of the time over estimated
So food intake is under estimated and exercise over estimated lol
But weighing will help you
Remember the bigger you make your deficit the harder it will be.0 -
well burns ( exercise ) is most of the time the other way around...also not accurate but most of the time over estimated
So food intake is under estimated and exercise over estimated lol
But weighing will help you
Remember the bigger you make your deficit the harder it will be.
With exercise I use a garmin watch that monitors heart rate coupled with my body stats. I'd say that it's fairly accurate as compared to my polar watch. My deficits are about 500 cals per day (on a good day). Today was a bad day however...no deficit in sight.0 -
Here is a little tip with the weighing I haven't heard mentioned yet. I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out, but it makes life easier sometimes.
When weighing out something like frozen fruit, or dry cereal, rice or something else in a container just put the whole thing on the scale, weigh it in grams or whatever you use and then subtract the amount of grams you want to eat from the total number. Remove some food from the package until the scale reads that number.
This also reminds me of how many servings are left in the container and keeps me from having to put large items on my little scale. It also keeps me from using a second dish when cooking or using my blender. A big pot or blender is just too heavy for my puny scale.
Hope this helps!
Also, you will get so good eventually you will be able to eye out 30 grams of cheese only using the scale to double check. Took me two years, but I can pretty much guess within a gram or two for most items I eat frequently. This helps a lot when dining out.0 -
nicediva007 wrote: »well burns ( exercise ) is most of the time the other way around...also not accurate but most of the time over estimated
So food intake is under estimated and exercise over estimated lol
But weighing will help you
Remember the bigger you make your deficit the harder it will be.
With exercise I use a garmin watch that monitors heart rate coupled with my body stats. I'd say that it's fairly accurate as compared to my polar watch. My deficits are about 500 cals per day (on a good day). Today was a bad day however...no deficit in sight.
yes HRM are pretty good, but always are estimations
I have the Polar FT7 and happy with it..its only 16% off of the lab tests.
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aDivingBelle wrote: »When weighing out something like frozen fruit, or dry cereal, rice or something else in a container just put the whole thing on the scale, weigh it in grams or whatever you use and then subtract the amount of grams you want to eat from the total number. Remove some food from the package until the scale reads that number.
Hope this helps!
Also, you will get so good eventually you will be able to eye out 30 grams of cheese only using the scale to double check. Took me two years, but I can pretty much guess within a gram or two for most items I eat frequently. This helps a lot when dining out.
That's a good tip! I am really bad about using 800 utensils to get a simple job done so I will remember this little trick!
And, I really can't wait to be able to accurately eye food portions so I can leave some calories on the plate.0 -
Its even easier than that
Put the package on the scale or bow with ingredients
tara your scale...so zero it out...Now take out your ingredient
The negative number showing is your amount in grams of the ingredient you took out...no calculating involved at all
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btw when you scale dont have a tara button...put your package on the scale and THAN put it on. It will show zero too. take your ingredient out and the negative number is again your amount in grams0
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stephreed11 wrote: »Oops, I always weigh my salad dressing (grams)...so I've been underestimating cals?
I always weigh it as well.0 -
depends if it says also grams on the label when it says 30 grams ( 2 tbsp) than no your are oke
When not..well yes it could be or not
You just dont know
When i had a salad dressing i used more regular...i take the tbsp and fill it. wipe the execs off so a flat spoon is the real tbsp...than i put that on the scale and get the amount in grams....now i know forever what 1 tbsp of that particular salad dressing weigh and is in calories...but only for that one. Another salad dressing will have another weight because it can be thicker or thinner.0 -
i love my food scale, unfortunately, it doesn't have a brand name on it. i bought it at either Marshall's or TJMaxx in the housewares section and i think i paid no more than $8-$10. i have had it for years and it still works great. MUST HAVE a TARE feature! and also OZ and GRAMS - must have both. i weigh everything, except liquid, i use liquid ounces. HTH.0
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I'm going to be getting a scale that weighs in grams and ounces. they have decent priced ones on amazon and walmart.0
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I have find that square plates make it a little easier to read my scale.0
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what i do with my round plates is place a smaller round bowl on my scale and place my plate on that...so it is higher0
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Headed out to Wally World right now to get my scale. Amped about what this means for my diet!0
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I don't know if they all have these features, but for me the main things are:
-- digital
-- switch between grams and ounces
-- the "tare" function (I didn't even know what it was till I started on MFP)
-- a dial that you can read without bending down and squinting
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YorriaRaine wrote: »I had a 10 dollar one from Amazon that lasted me a year, however I had some minor annoyances with it because if I put a bigger dinner sized plate on it I couldn't hardly read the scale because the plate would be covering the display. So I opted for this one when that one died and I love it because its so easy to read the display because of the curve. http://amazon.com/gp/product/B005WLPVUG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
Oh look, a sledge hammer just accidentally hit all three of my food scales so now I guess I have to buy this beautiful BEAUTIFUL one!
OP, I weigh: fruits, vegetables, grains, flour, meat, thicker liquids/dressings. I don't weigh: freely pouring liquids (as discussed extensively), pre portioned items like bread slices, cheese slices, eggs - I weighed egg whites from a carton when I ate them, bacon. Carrots and cherries may fall under this category as well since I snack on them throughout the day, and weighing one or two baby carrots while preparing dinner is just going to annoy me. Instead for those I tend to get an idea what each one weighs on average and over estimate, and just log by total # of pcs if necessary.
For recipes, I weigh the total cooked yield and record the weight in grams as the total number of servings in the recipe tool. Then I weigh each individual portion for meal logging. So I might record 160 "servings" of peanut soup
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YorriaRaine wrote: »I had a 10 dollar one from Amazon that lasted me a year, however I had some minor annoyances with it because if I put a bigger dinner sized plate on it I couldn't hardly read the scale because the plate would be covering the display. So I opted for this one when that one died and I love it because its so easy to read the display because of the curve. http://amazon.com/gp/product/B005WLPVUG?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
Oh look, a sledge hammer just accidentally hit all three of my food scales so now I guess I have to buy this beautiful BEAUTIFUL one!
OP, I weigh: fruits, vegetables, grains, flour, meat, thicker liquids/dressings. I don't weigh: freely pouring liquids (as discussed extensively), pre portioned items like bread slices, cheese slices, eggs - I weighed egg whites from a carton when I ate them, bacon. Carrots and cherries may fall under this category as well since I snack on them throughout the day, and weighing one or two baby carrots while preparing dinner is just going to annoy me. Instead for those I tend to get an idea what each one weighs on average and over estimate, and just log by total # of pcs if necessary.
For recipes, I weigh the total cooked yield and record the weight in grams as the total number of servings in the recipe tool. Then I weigh each individual portion for meal logging. So I might record 160 "servings" of peanut soup
Lol, I went to look at that scale also. Unfortunately no sledge hammers fell on my current one.
Weighing recipes is where I have a hard time. Like for instance, I made crockpot bbq the other day. I cooked chicken breasts in a bit of the sauce, shredded them, then added sauce until it tasted right. I need to figure out how to do that. I guess I could have measured out some sauce ahead of time, added what I needed and then I'd see what was left and would know how much I put in... Hm.. I'll have to try that next time. But, this last time I just didn't eat a ton of it and since it was dinner I just put it down as all the rest of my calories for that day. But that's not as accurate as I'd like to be.
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