Do you take your scale with you?
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BruinsGal_91 wrote: »If someone turned up at my house for dinner and started weighing out the food I had spent hours preparing for them, they would not be invited back again.
I'd have to agree. Unless there was a medical necessity this would really bug me.0 -
No, I wouldnt use it - if I were the hostess, I think I would be a little offended. The ONLY way I could see this working is if you spoke to the hostess ahead of time to explain your situation (tell her you are dealing with a medical issue) and were then able to build your own plate before it was served to everyone else. But it would be really not cool to just whip out the scale at the table and start dissecting your serving.0
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No. I use my food scale at home.
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It depends on the social context.
By myself or with close friends or family and depending on how strict I feel like being I will often whip out the portable scale and jot down numbers while eating.
More often than not I now just take pictures and guestimate afterwards based on the pictures.
The reality is that one, two, even three "reasonable/I am not going hog wild" dinners out a month will not do more than momentarily delay you reaching your goal.
In a year from now, when you look back at your trending weight graphs, you will not be able to tell which day you went for dinner out and which day you didn't.
Short answer: if more formal: take pictures, have a single, reasonable plate (if you want to eat lower calorie make sure to target things like steamed veggies and sauce-less protein) and guesstimate.
If less formal and close friends and slightly shameless, whip out the scale and the calculator and go MFPwild!
in any case: find an accommodation that you can live with long term
As you can see above some people WOULD be offended/alienated and other people may perceive your attention to your health as an implied criticism as to how they behave (even though it has nothing to do with them)
There were times when I decided the alienation was worth it for the extra focus I was able to place on my own health.
As the health necessity has diminished, I have discovered that discrete picture taking is both sufficient and more socially acceptable when in a group.
When by myself... I couldn't care less what anyone at the restaurant thinks ;-)0 -
To the people who would be offended: touch cookies: my health comes first and if you're not able to accommodate it too bad so sad :-)
(See OP: THAT's why the answer depends on the social context and whether you are willing to alienate/write off the people who might be offended).0 -
I wouldn't. If possible, I would look up the calorie information for whatever restaurant you are going to beforehand and pick out the best thing from the menu that will help keep you on track. Eat slow, socialize a lot and take home leftovers.
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I guesstimate even at home lol. Can't see myself using a food scale forever so I won't start now
Guessing is not good. If a serving size of something is 1/2 to 1 cup then it's not much at all and most people overeat when they don't weigh/measure their foods. I've weighed and measured my foods for over 9 years at home and when out of town on vacation, just not in restaurants. I realize that I can't possibly guesstimate or else I would never lose any weight. 0 -
Yep, weighing food out to dinner is absurd to me, but whatever a person needs to do in order to achieve her goals is OK.Why would you guys get offended? It's not like they're critiquing your food they're just watching how much they eat but it would be weird when someone breaks out a scale
I usually eat before I go and eat very light while I am there. Nobody cares.0 -
Heck no.
Start paying attention to how big (as in physical size) your servings of food are after you weigh them. You should be able to learn approximately how big your typical serving size of various foods are, whether they are 100 g or 3 oz. or some other weight. Weighing food is great, awesome, A1. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't learn how to visually estimate portions.
Also, google "serving size chart" and look at the image results for various visual cues.
This! I use the scale all the time but find that it is most useful when you start paying attention to things and using it as a learning tool for, well, life. You can't carry a scale with you all the time but you can learn what 3 oz of chicken looks like or what a "medium sized potato" weighs and would look like on a restaurant plate.0 -
I take my scale with me to small family events. I had it for Thanksgiving but ended up not using it because I was doing the cooking and there was just too much going on.
I didn't take it to family potlucks last summer. I didn't want to be bothered answering a million questions and for this few meals it's ok to guess.
I don't take it to restaurants. I do eat just half my entree and then weigh the other half before I eat it later. (I only eat half the entree because American portions are too big, not just so I can weigh it.)
If I were a hostess and someone whipped out a scale, I would not be offended.0 -
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I wouldn't, I would feel awkward doing that in someone else's home, or at a restaurant. Though at a buffet I've definitely bemoaned not having it.0
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Why would you guys get offended? It's not like they're critiquing your food they're just watching how much they eat but it would be weird when someone breaks out a scale
Maybe offended isn't the right word. Annoyed would be a better description. I'd be annoyed that I had a friend who couldn't google "serving size chart" and look for visual cues and who was so tied to her scale that she had never actually paid attention to how big/small her serving sizes were.
If I'm serving a sit down dinner to guests, I don't want to see a digital kitchen scale sitting on the table. Oooh, everybody move your dishes over so Susie can have room to zero out her scale and weigh her couscous. And I don't want somebody futzing around in my kitchen digging their servings out of my pots and pans while I try to get things into serving dishes. It's annoying and weird and generally smacks of being a PITA guest.
I get the desire to stay within calories and I understand that it can be a bit scary to go off the path once in awhile but one meal with a 10-20% variance isn't going to kill an overall on-the-point weight loss effort.0 -
It's still a guess if you're taking the scale to a friends house. Yeah, you're having xx grams of x dish, but then what? Are you going to ask to see the recipe and put it in the builder to figure out the calories?0
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I use one at families houses that I visit frequently, mainly my parents and my inlaws. They have scales and they know about my dieting, so I use theirs and no one bothers me about it.
But a random friend's house that I don't visit all the time, I would guesstimate. Success is built on what you do day in and day out, not what you do every once in a while. Sometimes close enough is close enough.0 -
@senecarr LOL.
No, I would totally go all super saiyan if a guest brought a scale to my house. heheheh.0 -
I definitely don't, and it has nothing to do with what other people will think about me. I only eat out at a restaurant once per week unless I'm having a fat kid Saturday when I eat out for every meal. I've never brought a scale to a restaurant. The only time I eat at someone else's house is during the holidays, and calories are the last thing I'm worried about on those days. You have to live a little - if it's not a regular thing, one dinner out is not going to derail weeks/months/years of progress.
I do have a small food scale at work, but I eat two meals and one snack here, so I think that's appropriate. Everyone in my office is used to it at this point.0 -
To the people who would be offended: touch cookies: my health comes first and if you're not able to accommodate it too bad so sad :-)
(See OP: THAT's why the answer depends on the social context and whether you are willing to alienate/write off the people who might be offended).
And your health is at stake if you eat at a meal at a friend's house without weighing each and every morsel you put in your mouth? Come on now...0 -
I wouldn't, but I do try to guess the best I can; I've found that after the first few weeks of weighing at home, I became pretty successful with eyeballing portions...making it easier to guestimate when out. Keep track of what you're eating in your head, then later, after the fun, try your best. It's only one evening, so don't worry too much over the numbers as they won't really affect your overall success, and try to have enough fun for all of us! xo0
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No, I seldom weigh anything even at home anymore. I used to weigh everything, now I can eyeball and be pretty close....close enough for me. I would not be offended if someone wanted to weigh food at my house, I was more or less obsessed once, earlier on, so I get it. I think weighing and measuring is the perfect tool to use to learn what a portion size looks like and how many calories are in it. I suppose some people will need it long term or forever even. I do think though, that we should try to get to a place where we don't need it. Unless you are an elite athlete, it doesn't have to be that close.0
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