Weighting everything to the ounce. So discouraging.

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  • cbihatt
    cbihatt Posts: 319 Member
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    You don't have to use an all or nothing approach. I weigh some things, but not everything. Bread? No. Meat? Yes. Veggies? I use the dreaded measuring cups. Granola bars? No way. Find what works for you and what you are willing to put the effort into. Don't make things more complicated than they need to be (unless that's your thing).
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited March 2016
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    dcdcdcdenisedcdcdc wrote: »
    to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I would weigh. my vegis? my protein bar? my salad dressing? my prepackaged light string cheese? okay nuts. I could use a measuring cups for nuts. there's nothing I would weigh. what are you eating that you have to weigh? vegis? would you weigh vegis?

    Weigh or don't weigh, it's up to you. But be aware that nuts are not a good choice to measure out with a measuring cup. The label on my almonds say Serving Size: 1/4 cup (28 g). This is 1/4 cup vs. 28 grams of almonds. No cramming involved.

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  • elsinora
    elsinora Posts: 398 Member
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    To be brutally honest, I didn't think it was forever but as soon as I stop weighing food to the gram then I put on weight. However it does become second nature and going to restaurants becomes easier.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    For people with a lot of weight to lose it's not necessary, but if you have less to lose or have other fitness goals, a scale can be extremely useful. I weigh everything except for when I go out to eat. If I eat out, I overestimate to compensate. You'd be surprised how much prepackaged foods vary from their actual weights.
  • johnnylakis
    johnnylakis Posts: 812 Member
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    meganridenour wrote: »
    More like to the gram.
    like

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited March 2016
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    synacious wrote: »
    For people with a lot of weight to lose it's not necessary, but if you have less to lose or have other fitness goals, a scale can be extremely useful. I weigh everything except for when I go out to eat. If I eat out, I overestimate to compensate. You'd be surprised how much prepackaged foods vary from their actual weights.

    I know this isn't the first that's been stated but I wanted to say that I agree with this. I actually think that most people who are obese or close to it would be fine to start out not weighing/measuring and instead just write down everything they eat/drink each day while making an honest effort to eat less junk and more nutrition dense food. If you're honest with yourself it is very easy to lose weight that way. Then once you get stuck you can add the weighing/measuring/calorie counting.
  • Rocknut53
    Rocknut53 Posts: 1,794 Member
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    xbowhunter wrote: »
    LBuehrle8 wrote: »
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    I don't own a food scale. I will probably get beat up for that... LOL

    I estimate the best that I can & it's working. I have 5lbs more to go to get to my goal. If I happen to stall I may have to spring for one but for now I refuse to weigh my food... :)

    Nah, just the ones that don't own a food scale and refuse to use a food scale who can't figure out why they're not losing weight :p

    Hmm

    Maybe I will buy a scale then just for fun to see how close I have been estimating. if I wasn't loosing weight I would probably have bought one by now... LOL

    I was doing just fine without a scale, but I'm a science nerd and a scale sounded fun. I've found my estimations to be way more accurate than I thought possible, except in the case of meats. The other thing I've discovered is we are getting ripped off, most of the weights on food packaging are off, to the benefit of the supplier, not the consumer. Breads, lunch meats, etc always seem to weigh less than the serving size on the package.
  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I hate weighing my food too so I only do it with stuff that I know I'll lie to myself about. Like I'm good about eyeballing meat for about 4oz portions but I have to weigh my grains because I will totally put 2 cups of rice in a 1 cup measure. I also always weigh cereal. This morning I weighed granola and the portion was too small so I put it back in the damn bag and had cheerios.
  • rubyweapon8503
    rubyweapon8503 Posts: 24 Member
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    I've been losing and I don't weigh my food. I don't even measure usually TBH unless I am cooking, most of the time I just eyeball it. I've been cooking for about 20 years and I have a very good idea of what a tablespoon or cup measures out to. It also helps because I eat out a lot, and unless it's a chain restaurant with nutrition info, I have to estimate.

    I feel like if I started measuring/weighing all of my food, it would become too much of a bother and I would give up. As someone who can often be bogged down by perfectionism, I try to live by the motto "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."
  • RoseNoel01
    RoseNoel01 Posts: 3 Member
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    I'm a big fan of bowls-o-food. Yogurt with granola, big protein salads, etc. The scale is amazing for me, since I too suck at eyeballing. So, I use a combination of the scanner and the scale. "One serving of KIND granola is x grams." Cool -- scan in the product, then measure out x grams and voila -- that's how many calories it is. I use the recipe section while I'm cooking to log a ton of foods (say, grilled chicken), then "3 ounces of that recipe is x calories." Cool -- here's three ounces of that into the bowl. I'd never used one before this weight-loss round and now I'm finding it gives me a sense of control that I didn't have before. Not to mention data. Data is awesome. B)
  • kristixo
    kristixo Posts: 38 Member
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    dcdcdcdenisedcdcdc wrote: »
    to tell you the truth, I'm not sure what I would weigh. my vegis? my protein bar? my salad dressing? my prepackaged light string cheese? okay nuts. I could use a measuring cups for nuts. there's nothing I would weigh. what are you eating that you have to weigh? vegis? would you weigh vegis?

    If you can eat it, you can weigh it!! It's really the only way to ensure accuracy. It's SO easy to underestimate your portion sizes
  • DearestWinter
    DearestWinter Posts: 595 Member
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    I love weighing but you don't have to weigh (or even log) to lose weight. You can start with the basics (stop eating that extra cookie as a snack, only eat half of a restaurant portion, etc.) and if you're not seeing progress then just adapt your techniques until something starts working. No need to jump in the deep end if that's going to overwhelm you.

    But if you're going to start measuring your food then absolutely weigh it by the gram. Don't use measuring cups.
  • newheavensearth
    newheavensearth Posts: 870 Member
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    I didn't like weighing until this caloric math helped put things in caloric perspective for me:

    If I weigh or measure wrong, and I underestimate by 100 calories a day for a whole year, that's 10 lbs a year I could have lost or end up gaining.

    You'll get used to it so the process goes faster over time .
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    Even dieticians and chefs can be off if they eyeball. However, the videos out there showing how far off measuring can be just show that some people need to learn how to use measuring cups and spoons.
  • SeptemberFeyre
    SeptemberFeyre Posts: 178 Member
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    Why is it discouraging? I weigh meat and liquid by the ounce and other things by the gram. It does take some extra time, but it's not bad. Anything worth doing takes dedication and diligence and losing weight is definitely one of those things :) you can do it!
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
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    (I do most things to the ounce.... but both my partner and I are losing weight at the expected rates, so I won't sweat it until things need to change for some reason.)
    But that being whispered, weighing becomes second nature after awhile. I'm so used to portioning and weighing for my partner and I that the other night... I... well... I weighed the cat's food without even thinking about it. It wasn't until I was putting their food down for them and explaining to them that they each had 2.5 ounces of gushy food that I realized I'd gone nuts.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,627 Member
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    i weigh to the gram.

  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
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    LBuehrle8 wrote: »
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    I don't own a food scale. I will probably get beat up for that... LOL

    I estimate the best that I can & it's working. I have 5lbs more to go to get to my goal. If I happen to stall I may have to spring for one but for now I refuse to weigh my food... :)

    Nah, just the ones that don't own a food scale and refuse to use a food scale who can't figure out why they're not losing weight :p

    This. I got serious about it when my weight loss was going slower than it should have been. Weighing my food has got me back on track.

    Also it's WAY easier than using measuring spoons. I put the empty plate on the scale, tare it (to zero), then put my English muffin on the plate. Scale tells me how many grams of English muffin. Tare it again. Put my butter on. Scale tells me how many grams of butter I just added. I don't have to mess around putting butter in a tablespoon and then cleaning it out after, yeesh.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited March 2016
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    jkhoffe wrote: »
    So i weight a lot but not all of my food. My question is, I make a lot of casserole dishes (or what we in Minnesota call "Hot Dish") I weigh everything that goes in, and create a recipe. The problem is determining how many servings are in it, and exactly how to measure the serving.....

    Any suggestions there??
    Before you start, weigh the pan.

    Weigh everything as it goes in and create a recipe. That gives you the nutritional information for the entire dish.

    After baking, weigh the cooked dish in the pan and then subtract the weight of the pan. This gives you the final weight of the entire dish.

    Go back to the recipe and put the final weight in as the number of servings. So, if the final weight was 720 grams, you could put that at 720 servings or 7.2 servings if you prefer to use 100 gram serving sizes.

    You can then weigh out your serving and put the weight in your food log as the number of servings. So, 178 grams would be entered as 178 servings or 1.78 servings if you used 100 gram servings.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,230 Member
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    Frankly, it is a lot easier than it sounds. I do it, and lose well. My wife does not, and she loses as well, but at a much slower pace than she could.

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