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Weighing/measuring vs. "spoilage"
Running_and_Coffee
Posts: 811 Member
Sort of a philosophical question here from someone who is not exactly a newbie to dieting.
So over many years, I've learned that some foods when measured out in a cup really do come within a gram or so of their weight on a food scale. Quinoa and steel cut oats to name two, unless of course you do a heaping cup vs. filling to the top without overflow.
Other foods you really must weigh all the time. From my experience that's ice cream, any cheese, pastas (but rice is pretty spot on), cold cereal and quick oats (vs. steel cut.) I am not sure why this is, just an observation.
That being said--what do you do to take into account "spoilage"? For example, this morning I made a pancake out of a banana, quick oats and egg whites. I measured out exactly 40 grams of the oats--but before I did that, since I was using a measuring cup for the egg whites, anyway, I happened to measure them out and sure enough, my half cup caught 45 grams instead of 40 (so I put back the extra 5)
Then when I blended everything in my vitamix, a lot of it did not slide out of the blender and make its way to the pan. I am calling this extra food that I prepared but did not make it to the pan or to my stomach spoilage, but there's probably an official name for it.
In any case, when I think about all the things I cook every day, I realized a lot of it gets stuck in preparation mode and doesn't make it to my mouth. :-) And I wonder if the extra grams in a measuring cup vs. the food scale might end up in mixing bowls and stuck in pans anyway. So it all evens out. Just curious if anyone else has thought about this. And ultimately it doesn't make a difference....what I have done in the past with my cups and food scale does work for me, in terms of weight loss! So I am not going to start stuffing more oats into my pancakes.
So over many years, I've learned that some foods when measured out in a cup really do come within a gram or so of their weight on a food scale. Quinoa and steel cut oats to name two, unless of course you do a heaping cup vs. filling to the top without overflow.
Other foods you really must weigh all the time. From my experience that's ice cream, any cheese, pastas (but rice is pretty spot on), cold cereal and quick oats (vs. steel cut.) I am not sure why this is, just an observation.
That being said--what do you do to take into account "spoilage"? For example, this morning I made a pancake out of a banana, quick oats and egg whites. I measured out exactly 40 grams of the oats--but before I did that, since I was using a measuring cup for the egg whites, anyway, I happened to measure them out and sure enough, my half cup caught 45 grams instead of 40 (so I put back the extra 5)
Then when I blended everything in my vitamix, a lot of it did not slide out of the blender and make its way to the pan. I am calling this extra food that I prepared but did not make it to the pan or to my stomach spoilage, but there's probably an official name for it.
In any case, when I think about all the things I cook every day, I realized a lot of it gets stuck in preparation mode and doesn't make it to my mouth. :-) And I wonder if the extra grams in a measuring cup vs. the food scale might end up in mixing bowls and stuck in pans anyway. So it all evens out. Just curious if anyone else has thought about this. And ultimately it doesn't make a difference....what I have done in the past with my cups and food scale does work for me, in terms of weight loss! So I am not going to start stuffing more oats into my pancakes.
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Replies
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I've never even thought of the spillage/spoilage aspect before! doh! but I can't say its made any difference to what was my average weekly loss results (I'm long term maintenance) so obviously it makes little difference but thanks for bringing the subject up.
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I prefer to measure in one container if possible. When I make smoothies, I put the cup on the scale and tare after each ingredient. I'm not obsessive about getting exact servings, I can type it in if I'm a few grams over or under. Either way, I do not subtract for stuff stuck in containers. I just try to scrape well.2
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I have thought about it, particularly with sauces/ saucy dishes where a reasonable amount stays in the pan. But it's a fleeting thought. I just think of it as a happy small deficit bonus. I don't think it's significant enough to have a meaningful impact on deficits or logging errors, particularly errors that are causing someone to eat significantly more than they think they are.4
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Yes, I would chalk that up to erring on the side of caution. 3
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OP, I have thought about it and, like you, think it evens out in the end. I think that I leave calories in the bowl/pan as often as I underestimate a measurement and I've found as many package measurements that are in my favor (i.e., I get more food than I thought I'd get) vs underestimates. In the end, "close enough" is close enough for me.1
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That's why I lick the plate.11
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All good points about it evening out...especially when you think about restaurant calorie reporting being inaccurate/under-reporting!0
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »That's why I lick the plate.
This ^^^^0 -
That's just one aspect of how total precision isn't possible in the real world. You have to keep the actual purpose in mind, and if you're achieving your goals, then the goal should be doing the least amount of work to continue doing that. If I want to lose weight, and I am losing weight, then attempting to get my oatmeal consumption correct to the gram is just not important.2
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I guess if you think there is enough to track, then weigh the blender empty, weigh each ingredient that goes in so you have a total weight and then subtract the weight of the blender when you are done. The difference in the container weight is the "wastage" (spoilage to me means it has gone bad) and you then apportion that back out to the ingredients, assuming an even distribution.
Sounds like too much work to me though.1 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »That's why I lick the plate.
Yes!0 -
I always just do my logging as "worst case scenario". By that I mean, the maximum that the meal could be. I don't think I've ever estimated "spoilage". But it's an interesting idea, I never really thought about it!1
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I don't have a lot of this type of spoilage. The last time I made baked pasta though, where I combine cooked pasta in a mixing bowl with ricotta, mozzarella, etc. before adding to a casserole dish to sauce & bake: I weighed the cheeses and each was high in actual weight compared to what the package indicated. Some of it stuck to the sid of the mixing bowl, of course. I logged the package quantity in my recipe, and figured the overage and the stuck to the bowl would cancel each other out.0
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If we were working in a lab environment we would carefully measure any residue left over and remove it from the total in order to reduce the margin of error in our results. But we're not. This is life and personally I can't understand why anyone would want to spend their life measuring food like they are conducting a scientific experiment. I have found that rough estimates work sufficiently well as long as I weigh myself weekly.2
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I'm very handy with a silicone spatula, lol. She gets most of the spoilage into my plate/ mouth. It works really well for the vitamix too.3
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Silicone spatulas but otherwise I just log it all. Better overestimate than the other way around.2
This discussion has been closed.
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