Pictures of cup sizes..

1 metric cup = 250 millilitres
= 16⅔ international tablespoons (15 mL each)
= 12½ Australian tablespoons
≈ 8.80 imperial fluid ounces
≈ 8.45 U.S. customary fluid ounces

I know I sound like an ad but there's an app for that. I use Figwee. Choose your food and then you can adjust the amount you see and its tells you how much (oz, lbs, cups, etc) you have.

it's really weird, but cups are usually much smaller than i think. and a tablespoon is always more than i think.

do you have a measuring cup? what you could do is just measure a few things until you get the hang of what it looks like on the plate.

a cup of mashed potatoes is actually quite a bit.. maybe the size of my fist?

but a cup of liquid is just a couple big swallows.

a cup of pasta spreads out, though, so it can be tricky.

I found a nice visual on portion sizes on webmd

http://www.webmd.com/diet/healthtool-portion-size-plate There is also a printable version at the bottom of the screen.

also if you go to amazon and look up The portion plate and Meal measure ( those are really helpful tools also)

best tip!! thanks so much, how come I never thought of that before??

I know I sound like an ad but there's an app for that. I use Figwee.

the best app is simply a measuring cup.

Yes, but often there are circumstances that don't allow you to pack around a measuring cup. Like eating out.

but if you eat at home most of the time (and even better if you prepare your own food) you should be able to tell, "hey, this is about a cup". it's really not that hard, and i don't mean to sound inflammatory, it's just that apps are not the answer for this kind of thing because it's more than just visual. some things weigh more by volume than other things. some things are more nutrient dense and some are calorie light. when you eat out, you should just eat out and enjoy it because you really have no idea what other people are doing to your food.

the best way to learn this kind of thing is to cook and use measuring tools.

I know I sound like an ad but there's an app for that. I use Figwee.

the best app is simply a measuring cup.

Yes, but often there are circumstances that don't allow you to pack around a measuring cup. Like eating out.

but if you eat at home most of the time (and even better if you prepare your own food) you should be able to tell, "hey, this is about a cup". it's really not that hard, and i don't mean to sound inflammatory, it's just that apps are not the answer for this kind of thing because it's more than just visual. some things weigh more by volume than other things. some things are more nutrient dense and some are calorie light. when you eat out, you should just eat out and enjoy it because you really have no idea what other people are doing to your food.

the best way to learn this kind of thing is to cook and use measuring tools.

Yes, but it's nice to know there's another way when estimation is necessary. I spent 4 hours on my feet cooking all the meals for this week yesterday, I do this every Sunday, and my measuring cups and spoons get quite a work out. That being said, when my coworkers go out to lunch I don't say no, and I don't carry an extra set of measuring cups and spoons in my purse just for such an occassion (could you imagine what a tool I'd look like pulling those bad boys out at a business lunch? LOL!). I've found that I am much too conservative in my measurements (I left my scale at my moms and was measuring out what I thought was 1 oz meatballs . . . I spent the whole week starving off of 7 meat balls thinking damn I should be full off of 7 oz of meat. Turns out they were closer to 1/2 oz. portions) when I'm depending on my own mental estimation with no context, and then I binge and feel guilty. This exercise brought me to the conclusion that I can't trust my mind's eye, that app is going to become my bff when I'm out to lunch.

Leave your measuring cups where you can see them

You can get a kitchen scale, a digital one with a "zero out feature"

Works like this

-Put plate on scale, press zero, readout shows zero
-Put steak on plate, now you know weight of steak, press zero out to set to zero
-Repeat with vegetables
-Repeat with potato

Etc...

It is actually very fast and easy with the right scale if you want to be super precise

agree, nothing beats actual measuring, at least for me. i found a really nice scale off of woot.com that has the zero out feature and i use it several times a day

I know I sound like an ad but there's an app for that. I use Figwee. Choose your food and then you can adjust the amount you see and its tells you how much (oz, lbs, cups, etc) you have.

Is it really worth th $1.99?? I'm really cheap when it comes to apps. Have you tried to see how accurate it is? I might download it if it's accurate.