Weighting everything to the ounce. So discouraging.
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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
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
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dcdcdcdenisedcdcdc wrote: »I just read one blog. OMG I'm new to this forum. It's so shocking. Really, is that what you do? Weigh everything to the ounce? It's so discouraging. Diet.dcdcdcdenisedcdcdc wrote: »I just read one blog. OMG I'm new to this forum. It's so shocking. Really, is that what you do? Weigh everything to the ounce? It's so discouraging. Diet.
@dcdcdcdenisedcdcdc welcome to MFP.
I eat out a couple times a day and it is hard to train kitchens to weight the food before they cook it and I do not do it at home in my case. I use bathroom scales that are great to giving the net results of my eating and moving after the fact which is my only interest.
That being said we do have to learn what we are eating in the way of carbs, protein and fats if we are going to modify our Way Of Eating. 99.9% of all reading this needs to modify something.
In 2014 I stopped dieting forever because it only lead to weigh gains for the past 40 years in my case. Instead I just started to read about how to eat for a longer healthy life. After I gained some basic understanding of how to do that I realized it was what I ate that determined my weight more than how much I ate because all my cravings went away when I only ate foods that were right for my body.
We are all different. I am slow so it took me a couple years to learn how to eat so I did not have to compute how much to eat with external aids other than the bathroom scales. Being a 65 year old guy I track my waking weight and post bathroom weight because that impresses the doctor at my annual physical.
There is a lot of good, bad and indifferent info about how to eat on the WWW so it takes some time to sniff through it all to see what smells right or wrong for you. What may be good info for one may be deadly info for another.
Best of success.0 -
I don't know why anyone would say it's discouraging. It's easy and anyone can do it. There's no guesswork. It's actually liberating because you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay within your calories.
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xbowhunter 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
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
After reading so much about it here that's what I did! I could probably eyeball my portions and be fine but I love using my food scale!0 -
If you aren't losing weight the way you want then you want to be as accurate with your logging as possible. Weighing food is a very helpful tool to do that. It isn't a requirement.
I don't weigh absolutely everything but it is helpful for getting the right portion size of certain foods.0 -
Weighing, measuring, or estimating and logging food is far less discouraging than trying to lose weight using random methods and not understanding why you're not losing. This method works and SUCCESS is not discouraging!0
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I do it but really, it takes 10 seconds. It's just annoying when you make recipes, then it takes 15 minutes to enter the recipe.
It's better than the alternative (overeating and staying fat).0 -
It's actually not such a big deal to weigh everything. I'm in the camp of weighing certain things...like I would generally just use a measuring cup for popcorn or steamed broccoli (a little more or less is negligible calories) but I do like to weigh items that are difficult to measure accurately or high in calorie like cheese and meat. I do a lot of recipes, weigh the whole thing in grams and divide by the number of servings...then I know exactly how much soup or what-have-you my serving size should weigh. I do cut things like casseroles into a certain number of servings right away and that's an eye ball thing, but if I have a slightly higher calorie piece today then tomorrows will probably be slightly lower. It all works out.
It's really not so overwhelming when you get in the habit. I think a lot of people say "weigh everything" but don't really mean literally everything. Some people do, but I don't think most people weigh sliced bread or a single serve yogurt for example.0 -
Yep! I keep a scale out on my counter, and weigh everything I prepare at home. And the hubs does it too! Even though he doesn't log like I do, my husband is an avid cook and baker, and he weighs and logs all recipes.
It's like reaching for a knife, or wiping down the cutting board and counter after veggie chopping: it just becomes part of what I do in the kitchen.0 -
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).0
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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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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.0
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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.0
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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.
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.0 -
xbowhunter 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
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.0 -
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.0
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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."0 -
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.
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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 sizes0 -
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.0 -
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 .0 -
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.0
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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! 0
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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.0 -
i weigh to the gram.
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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
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.0 -
Before you start, weigh the pan.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??
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.0 -
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.0
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