Weighing Foods

merryberry99
merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
edited November 30 in Health and Weight Loss
I'm working towards weighing my foods for more accurate serving sizes and calories counts. Do I need to weigh prepackaged foods? For example, should I weigh a Lean Cuisine meal, an individual cup of yogurt, a granola bar, a piece of cheese, etc.?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    They can be off from what the packaging says, but it varies. I tend to weigh new-to-me foods once or twice just to see how close they are. I'd say that it's up to you based on your goals and results.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    They can be off from what the packaging says, but it varies. I tend to weigh new-to-me foods once or twice just to see how close they are. I'd say that it's up to you based on your goals and results.

    This is what I do as well. If a brand is consistently accurate, I stop weighing it.
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    Ah, this makes a lot of sense. Thank you!
  • kirstenb13
    kirstenb13 Posts: 181 Member
    I don't weigh those things but have also seen that people do and that they can be a lot off. I guess it depends what percentage of your diet is from such foods, I eat max 1 granola bar a day, not really any other packaged food and so I don't care if that has 20 calories more. If you eat more I would also weigh it at least once to get an idea. It also depends n the calorie deficit you want to have, if it's high there's more room for error but if it's only 250 calories or something you have to be more precise.
    At the end it all comes down to what works, though. If you lose weight without weighing, don't start. If you don't it's a good starting point to tighten your logging.
  • merryberry99
    merryberry99 Posts: 350 Member
    I've recently started weighing my foods after discussing a plateau with some friends here. I've learned that what I'm logging is very different than what I'm actually consuming, so I'm hoping that weighing will help me push through the plateau and become more aware. Trust me, though. If what I was doing was working, I WOULD not put in this much effort :)
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