Food scale

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RayanaL
RayanaL Posts: 38 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Has anyone had success with the food scale as far as portion control and e.t.c. ? Is the food scale something you should invest in if your wanting to lose weight ? Any success stories by logging calories and using a food scale ?
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Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    I love my food scale and wish I'd bought one sooner! It's so much easier than messing around with measuring cups and spoons. And who doesn't want to feel like a mad scientist first thing every morning?
  • RayanaL
    RayanaL Posts: 38 Member
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    I love my food scale and wish I'd bought one sooner! It's so much easier than messing around with measuring cups and spoons. And who doesn't want to feel like a mad scientist first thing every morning?

    Thanks for replying. I know it may not matter but what brand food scale do you use ?
  • ASKyle
    ASKyle Posts: 1,475 Member
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    Food scale is a must! Doesn't need to be an expensive one either
  • I_amnr
    I_amnr Posts: 129 Member
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    i basically weigh everything

    works well when i cook in bulk and weight out the portions so once i want a meal, i just defrost the food and i know exactly how many calories i have eaten
  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
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    I weigh pretty much everything by grams. Even prepackaged ready to eat food. If I didn't weigh everything there's no way I would have lost 42 pounds this year already.

    I am terrible at eyeballing portions.
  • ljashley1952
    ljashley1952 Posts: 273 Member
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    YES! And don't use one of those cheap ones. The best ones are digital and will give you both ounces and grams. It taught me how easy it is to under-estimate your portions. I don't bother with low calorie things like celery, lettuce, peppers and the like, but for most everything else, yes, weight it.
  • Lasmartchika
    Lasmartchika Posts: 3,440 Member
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    I have this Ozeri food scale that I bought at Walmart for about $12 and it works great!! Better than eyeballing your food. :)
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    RayanaL wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    I love my food scale and wish I'd bought one sooner! It's so much easier than messing around with measuring cups and spoons. And who doesn't want to feel like a mad scientist first thing every morning?

    Thanks for replying. I know it may not matter but what brand food scale do you use ?

    I use a Taylor that I bought ages ago. The important things to look for are a digital scale that can easily switch between grams and ounces with a tare function. If you're batch cooking or cooking for more people, it would also be helpful to look for one that can handle lots of weight (mine can't handle the weight of a large pot of food). There are some other neat bells & whistles that some scales offer, but those are the most important things.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,429 Member
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    Yes. SW was 183, at 5'5", so obese BMI, April 2015. I lost weight for a while estimating portions/calories, then leveled off in the low 150s.

    I decided I needed to log more precisely, joined MFP, and got a food scale. By staying on track most of the time with my calorie goal, I continued losing to my final goal, 120 (plus or minus 3), where I've been working on staying since sometime in February 2016.

    Get a scale. Don't be afraid to estimate when you must (restaurants, other people's homes), but use your scale when you can. It's actually easier and quicker than measuring food in cups/tablespoons.

    Brand is not so important. Get one that:
    • is digital
    • is easy to set to grams
    • can be zeroed with weight on it (also known as tare function)
    • can weigh heavy(ish) amounts, like a full pan of soup or a full casserole dish of food
    • gives you a negative reading when you remove something after zeroing

    A couple of quick weighing tips:
    • For things in jars or multi-serving containers (peanut butter, yogurt, etc.) put the container on the scale, zero, dip out your portion, read the negative number & log that.
    • For dishes that involve multiple ingredients added to the same container at the same time (salad, soup or stew, etc.), put your plate/bowl/pan on the scale and zero it. Add your first ingredient, record the weight, zero again. Add the second ingredient, record, zero. Repeat until done.

    Super quick, super easy, very accurate, minimal washing up. It may seem a little fiddle-y at first until you get the hang of the routine, but in a few days, it'll be easy and almost automatic.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,182 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Oh yes, absolutely! I find that using a food scale and consulting convertunits.com is a quick and easy way to work through everything from metric to imperial. 78g is 1/3 cup. I keep my unsalted cooked brown rice and my unsalted cooked beans in storage containers in my refrigerator. At dinner time, I put a clean bowl on the scale, turn on the scale, and the scale initializes to 0. I select 'grams' for the units of measure. Then I shovel rice into the bowl until the scale says "78". Then I shovel beans into the bowl until the scale says "156". Then I put the bowl in the microwave to reheat and that is my portion for beans and rice. Everything else works the same way. Initialize to 0 with an empty container on the scale, then place your raw, uncooked food on the container which is on the scale. I print my plan and note changes in weights of things like a stalk of celery and a half an onion, then update my food diary with exact numbers before completing my daily entry.

    I use an Ozeri Touch II scale which I bought from walmart.com It cost $19.99 and store-pickup was free.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,966 Member
    edited May 2016
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    diannethegeek wrote: »
    RayanaL wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    I love my food scale and wish I'd bought one sooner! It's so much easier than messing around with measuring cups and spoons. And who doesn't want to feel like a mad scientist first thing every morning?

    Thanks for replying. I know it may not matter but what brand food scale do you use ?

    I use a Taylor that I bought ages ago. The important things to look for are a digital scale that can easily switch between grams and ounces with a tare function. If you're batch cooking or cooking for more people, it would also be helpful to look for one that can handle lots of weight (mine can't handle the weight of a large pot of food). There are some other neat bells & whistles that some scales offer, but those are the most important things.

    My OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale with Pull-Out Display goes up to 11 pounds and so far has been able to weigh everything except a large batch of gumbo in a heavy dutch oven. At $49.99, it's more expensive than what I see other people pay, but after reading it was the top rated digital scale from America's Test Kitchen I put it on my Christmas wish list so didn't incur the cost myself.

    This brand also has a model that weights up to 5 pounds for half the price.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    Absolutely! Certainly in the earlier days of my weight loss they were vital when it came to logging accurately. 3 yrs in maintenance and I can eyeball portion sizes now but to begin with it was eye opening seeing portions.
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
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    Yes a food scale is pretty much the most important item you can get to help you with weight loss. Weigh everything, log everything, stay within the calorie goal set by MFP and you will lose weight. :)
  • RoseTheWarrior
    RoseTheWarrior Posts: 2,035 Member
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    Food scale is a must. You WILL be off if you try to measure using cups and spoons. Like, REALLY off, then you'll get frustrated because you're not losing weight like you thought you would, then you'll quit. Buy the food scale and have success!!!
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
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    A food scale is a must, especially when you don't have as much weight to lose. Once upon a time I was stuck at 172-173 lbs. I could not get the scale to budge no matter what I did. Then I joined MFP and read on here to use a food scale. The weight literally started to melt off. Example being, I would eat every morning what I thought was 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. In reality, I was eating 5-6. Weighing your food really takes the guesswork out.
  • annna777
    annna777 Posts: 8 Member
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    I got the Biggest Loser digital scale, I believe it's a Taylor brand. I got it at Walmart under $20 a year ago. Can place plate on it, set to zero before weighing food in ounces or grams. I had been measuring food, still do. Scale has made a huge difference with calories that add up quick such as having a bigger than smaller banana. You won't go wrong with scale, eye opener and definitely keeps me on track of what I am eating.
  • suzilla53
    suzilla53 Posts: 65 Member
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    OMG! Yes get a food scale, make sure it weighs in grams. It's the secret to my success at 62. Don't trust package labels like 1 cup of cereal equals 110 calories, no it's not if you weigh the cereal .My in laws think I am weird weighing food, but it's really working.

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    It is a useful tool for logging more accurately. Logging more accurately is a useful tool for losing weight.
    My food scale is digital, weighs in grams and ounces and has a tare feature. It goes up to 5 lbs which is fine since I don't weigh big heavy pots of food. A basic and inexpensive food scale.
  • Myjourney2345
    Myjourney2345 Posts: 116 Member
    edited May 2016
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    RayanaL wrote: »
    Has anyone had success with the food scale as far as portion control and e.t.c. ? Is the food scale something you should invest in if your wanting to lose weight ? Any success stories by logging calories and using a food scale ?

    Yes! Invest in a cheap food scale it is the only way to correctly estimate your daily calorie consumption. I lost weight twice in 2009 ( going from 215-118) and in 2015 ( going from 255-129) by counting calories and weighing everything (with the exception of almond milk that I use a measuring cup for). I gained some of my weight back (I am 5'4.5 and weigh 142.4 pounds ), but I am back on track losing weight consistently by measuring and weighing everything. I find that measuring tools are largely inaccurate (cups and spoons). For example, when I make stir fry I weigh the coconut oil I use for cooking to get a single serving (or 14g), otherwise it would be too easy to use double that amount and still only think that you're eating a single serving.

    I actually only believe in calorie counting and clean eating. I sort of keep track of my macros, but in my experience a calorie is a calorie and if you estimate your deficit correctly you will lose weight.

    hxlqsowtcf24.jpeg
  • Myjourney2345
    Myjourney2345 Posts: 116 Member
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    mg2012 wrote: »
    RayanaL wrote: »
    Has anyone had success with the food scale as far as portion control and e.t.c. ? Is the food scale something you should invest in if your wanting to lose weight ? Any success stories by logging calories and using a food scale ?

    Yes! Invest in a cheap food scale it is the only way to correctly estimate your daily calorie consumption. I lost weight twice in 2009 ( going from 215-118) and in 2015 ( going from 255-129) by counting calories and weighing everything (with the exception of almond milk that I use a measuring cup for). I gained some of my weight back (I am 5'4.5 and weigh 142.4 pounds ), but I am back on track losing weight consistently by measuring and weighing everything. I find that measuring tools are largely inaccurate (cups and spoons). For example, when I make stir fry I weigh the coconut oil I use for cooking to get a single serving (or 14g), otherwise it would be too easy to use double that amount and still only think that you're eating a single serving.

    I actually only believe in calorie counting and clean eating. I sort of keep track of my macros, but in my experience a calorie is a calorie and if you estimate your deficit correctly you will lose weight.

    hxlqsowtcf24.jpeg

    Oops, I went from 155-129 and not 255-129.*

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