knowing how much you ate (oz,grms,cup)

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Cumorah
Cumorah Posts: 4
in Health and Weight Loss
only been at this for a few days and so far i have been guessing when it comes to measuring. if i am not being acurate in my measurments though i could be messing up and not know it. how do you measure? ie: 2 tenderloins is how many ozs? do you really measure every last ingredient you put in your food? tonight i made fajita burros: beans, chicken, cheese, avocado, and a teensy sour cream. didn't measure the cheese, or the beans, or sour cream, not sure how much two strips of chicken are. anyway i totally blew my amounts over with this meal, whoops! need measuring tips without having to measure ever last morsel i eat.

Replies

  • RoanneRed
    RoanneRed Posts: 429 Member
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    If you make the effort to weigh things for a while then you will get to know a more accurate estimate for quantities. Once established, especially for commonly prepared meals, you won't need to measure. Also, don't forget the recipe facility on the site - you can measure one time when you make a dish and then all the nutritional information is there as well.
  • emancipateurself
    emancipateurself Posts: 174 Member
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    I do actually weigh my food with a scale and use measuring spoons cups however when i'm measuring I use for instance my small spoon and when I see that scooping out my yogurt 6 times with that spoon equals 1/2 cup I remember that, plus 3 oz usually is the size of your palm, it's tough at first but worth getting used too so you are you are as accurate as you can be.
  • IndigoFlowers
    IndigoFlowers Posts: 221 Member
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    My food scale is seriously my best friend. I tend to get completely lost without it.
  • SammyPacks
    SammyPacks Posts: 697 Member
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    I've never actually weighed my phone... but kinda ended up guestimating? It has been working for me so far.
  • luvmybentley
    luvmybentley Posts: 74 Member
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    It all seems overwhelming at first.

    Get thyself a digital scale! (I found mine for 10 bucks.) And you need a set of measuring cups and spoons. YES you must measure EVERYTHING, but only at the beginning. You will soon get good at eyeballing it. You really must do this if you are serious about losing weight, how else will you know what your calorie intake is? A tablespoon here and there really does add up and can sabotage even the best efforts.

    Use the recipe and recent tabs in your food diary to keep track of favorite recipes so you don't have to calculate them every time, it does get easier.

    Good luck.
  • evonday
    evonday Posts: 141 Member
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    You can buy a relatively cheap and effective kitchen scale at Walmart, along with a set of measuring cups. It's worth it to be accurate. I didn't weigh my food at first, I was underestimating a lot. It may seem annoying at first, but after a while, you can start to guess how much something weighs, and pretty accurately at that.
  • LisaMarieee
    LisaMarieee Posts: 176 Member
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    I always measure what I eat. I use measuring cups and by tomorrow I'll be able to use a food scale. :drinker: I think it's worth the trouble, I never end up eating too much or too little if I measure out what I'm going to cook first. I can make very suitable portions for myself this way, I like it.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,554 Member
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    If you can't see yourself weighing everything (it's never going to happen in my kitchen!) then get a set of measuring cups and use them now and again so you have an idea of what a cup of rice looks like, or 1/2 cup of cereal etc. Then you are better equipped to enter your meals into the database knowing that you're making a good estimate, not a wild guess.
  • eeeekie
    eeeekie Posts: 1,011 Member
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    I weighed EVERYTHING, measured EVERYTHING obsessively for months. I still do but I've lax a little on it because I feel I'm okay with spices and such. I think I have a pretty good hand on the teaspoons/tablespoons/cups/.5cup so if it's not around I usually guesstimate.

    I'd suggest you get a scale, measuring cups and measuring spoons and get really familiar with them.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
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    A 3-ounce portion of meat or fish is about the size of a deck of cards, and a 200-calorie serving of rice or pasta is one cup, or about the size of your fist.
  • elliecolorado
    elliecolorado Posts: 1,040
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    Honestly I weighed stuff a lot more when I first started, but now I don't weigh everything. After a while you get to know how much you are eating just by looking at it. I still check myself every now and then, but I am usually close enough for me. I also always log things higher than I actually think that I am eating just to be on the safe side.
  • Driagnor
    Driagnor Posts: 323 Member
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    Agreed with what others said about the food scale. After a while you get used to it and can eyeball it with a pretty high degree of accuracy, but getting started, most of us have absolutely no idea what 20g of cheese looks like for instance.
  • angp7711
    angp7711 Posts: 324 Member
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    I am one measures and weighs. There are something that I have gotten lazy with but I always measure my half and half, dressing, mayo. Basically any fat because that stuff has a tendency to creep into bigger sized portions without me realizing and it takes so little to have a big calorie impact. Also peanut butter. I just don't trustyself with those thongs.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    I measure every last little thing that I eat. My fiance thinks it's nuts that I do that, but at least I know exactly what I am putting into my mouth. He laughed at me when I weighed a serving of baby carrots a couple of days ago to have with my 4 tbsp. of hummus...

    When I don't measure, my weight loss is slower...sometimes I don't lose at all or I (eek) gain. When I measure and eat right, I consistently lose weight.
  • fredd500
    fredd500 Posts: 106 Member
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    You say you didn't measure anything and then you say you went well over?

    How do you know if you didn't measure?

    I concur with everything everyone else has said, to be absolutely accurate, you need to measure everything. Personally, I don't measure things like salad - one lettuce leaf is hardly going to break the diet but at the same time, I tend to always under eat my allowed calories. My view is that if I am relying on a mathematical estimation of my energy requirements (which is never going to be 100% accurate - I am sat at a desk most of the day, but MFP doesn't know how many times I get up and walk to the loo or coffee machine), why worry about being 100% accurate with my calorie intake (99% accurate will do!)???

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