This started out as an answer to "why did you get fat" but then it got long so...

You measure non-liquid / powder items by volume in chemistry? Which ones

Thanks! So the one item you mentioned was sugar, which tends to be very fine and indeed has a constant consistency to the extent that a good cup would get the job done. Can't really say the same for solids that when you put them in a cup, there's obviously air gaps of varying degrees from one measurement to another.

I was just wondering which solids you measure by volume for your chemistry experiments / tasks. I imagined they would be fine powder and not coarse, chunky solids

tomteboda wrote: »

Yes, Jane, they'd mostly be powdery. Dometimes a volume of acrylamide is just a lot faster. There are flocculants that get added volume, and packing materials as well. It always depends on the accuracy necessary for a given task, and how it fits into your workflow
My point is that kitchen scales are just not that accurate, but what they mostly help with is consistency. Rigorously used measuring spoons and cups provide lower error at small masses/volumes.

I'm surprised that a scientist would say that weighing your food with a scale is less accurate than measuring. With foods like cereal, there is a massive difference in weight between the start of a box when you get all the big pieces of cereal, and the end of the box when you get all the little pieces. A measuring cup would be way off in calories.

I don't think that everyone should HAVE to weigh their food, but if you're stuck and can't lose, yet refuse to even try one, to me that's just stubbornness. Try it and you might be really surprised how easy it is. It truly is so much faster than measuring with cups, and a lot less dishes to wash! Put bowl on scale, hit zero. Add first item, log weight. Zero. Add second item. Repeat. And if you've given it a real try and still don't like it, fair enough!

tincanonastring wrote: »

The funny thing is that it's actually easier and more efficient to weigh with a food scale than it is to use measuring cups.

Yeah, I found that, too - especially after getting accustomed to some of the tricks like putting the full container on the scale, hitting "tare", then using the negative to find out how much I ate, or tare-ing the bowl/plate/pan, adding something, tare again, then add the next thing. So easy, and less fiddly than all the measuring cups.

To illustrate my point, here's a rather accessible essay published in Scientific American about the problem with measuring calories in foods. Even with prefect weighing, the factor you are multiplying by (energy gained per unit food) is amidst certainly grossly in error. Precision and consistency are everything in this, accuracy nothing. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-reveals-why-calorie-counts-are-all-wrong/

Obviously, if I'm here, and succeeding at losing weigh (45 lbs in 9 months), I'm not throwing out calorie counting as an effective weight loss tool.

When you measure intake consistently, whether with a scale of by volume, and keep an eye on nutritional balance, you are held accountable for your actions and choices. You are also empowered to make changes based on your weight loss success or lack thereof. But thinking that those little numbers on your food diary are accurate is a bit of a daydream.

I have no idea if OP is coming back, but my two cents in case she does.

Yes, you need to start weighing. But that doesn't mean you'll be doing it the rest of your life! What you need to be doing is changing your eating habits and getting a better idea of what a serving actually is. I didn't weigh at first, just did my best to estimate, and I didn't really lose much. By using a scale for a while, I realized I was VASTLY overestimating what a serving of something was, and was able to start taking it down slowly to what it should be. Now, 3 years later, I don't weigh my food much anymore. Part of that is because my diary list is full of things I've eating before (I tend to eat a lot of the same things). But it's mostly because I've gotten a better idea of what a portion is. Am I always accurate? Hell no! Occasionally, I bring out the scale and weigh things again just to keep myself on track. But I've trained my eye and body to recognize what a listed portion of food is, for the most part, and don't make a lot of errors anymore. I'll probably be logging the rest of my life, but that's so I don't go back to my old eating habits and gain weight again.

Keep in mind, this is a SLOW process. Took me 3 years to lose almost 50lbs. But you know what? By doing it slowly I kept myself from feeling deprived of foods and kept from being hungry all the time, I was able to retrain myself to how much I should be eating, and still managed to keep at least smaller portions of the foods I like. I feel much more confident that I can stay in my target range, and that's where I need to be. If you're looking for another method to try, maybe start with just eating like you normally want to, but log everything for a week. That will give you a baseline of where you're starting from and help you identify where you need to make changes. Then, start with one thing and give yourself a week to get used to it. Then, change something else. It takes longer, but it gives you time to get used to things so it won't feel as hard, and it makes it more likely that you'll keep the weight off later.

Granted, everyone has a different method, so this is just what I did that worked for me. It might seem too slow for you. But at the base of every diet plan out there, even the crappy unhealthy ones, is the idea is that it makes you take in less calories than you burn. Period. And if you're not going to log accurately, at least for a little while to get your baseline, you'll never consistently get that.


As an aside, if you're using calories estimated by MFP, you're not getting an accurate count. MFP uses averages to get the calorie burns it gives you, and most of us don't have the averages stats it uses. Same goes for most gym machines. Best way to keep track of your calorie burn for any kind of exercise is to get a heart rate monitor and make the calculations yourself. I can't help you for that part because I suck at math, but I do know that a 20 minute walk according to MFP burns a lot more calories than my Fitbit with HRM tells me. And since the Fitbit is using my entered stats plus my heart rate to calculate, it is more accurate.