Portion Control

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Theeerica
Theeerica Posts: 45 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've been measuring my portions using measuring cups, but I'm wondering how accurate that is. It's fine for measuring liquids, or even grains, but I'm wondering if it would be better to weigh things like meats, vegetables, and fruit. What tools do you use to measure portions?
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Replies

  • Wynterbourne
    Wynterbourne Posts: 2,200 Member
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    Always weigh solids.
  • Sp1tfire
    Sp1tfire Posts: 1,120 Member
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    Scales are easier most of the time. Tare out the container, pour out the correct amount according to the scale. It's almost mindless for me now. People say "why do you go to so much effort" when really its not that much extra. Good luck!!! :)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    katadx wrote: »
    Scales are easier most of the time. Tare out the container, pour out the correct amount according to the scale. It's almost mindless for me now. People say "why do you go to so much effort" when really its not that much extra. Good luck!!! :)

    I would say it's not extra effort, just another effort. Maybe even less effort overall. Weighing is fewer things to wash, it gives you a number, you don't have to squint and guess, and you don't have to worry about not losing weight as expected.
  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
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    Not only is it more accurate to weigh food but it makes life a lot easier. You don't dirty measuring cups. The tare button, which sets the scale back to zero is a boon. Want a bowl of cereal? You could dirty a measuring cup or two (one dry measure, one wet) or you could just put your bowl on the scale and tare to zero. Then add the cereal. Then tare to zero. Then add the milk. Bingo. You have two separate measurements for what you want to eat.

    You can do this for all sorts of things. Want to toss a chopped veggie in a tablespoon of olive oil? Don't dirty a measuring spoon, just pour 15g of olive oil into the bowl. Want to eat a 1/2 cup of yogurt that lists a cup as a serving on the container? Look at the gram listing for that cup, e.g. my favorite full fat yogurt lists a serving as "1 cup (227 g). Cut the number of grams in half, and plop that much into your bowl. 114g of that yogurt is close enough to a 1/2 cup serving to me.

    Want to eat the rest of the yogurt in the container? Weigh it, scribble down how many grams it weighs. Weigh the empty container when you are done and subtract. That's how many grams you ate. Now, whip out your calculator. Divide the number of grams you ate by the number of grams in a serving and that's how many servings you ate.

    Let's say I ate 97 grams of that yogurt. A 1-cup serving is 227 grams. I ate 97/227ths of a serving or about 0.43 servings. I just put 0.43 in MFP as the number of servings I ate.

    Works great for veggies, too. Let's say I'm dividing a monster sweet potato between the two of us. I just weight it and figure I'm going to eat 1/2 of it. Last night, for example, the potato weighed 420 grams after I peeled it. Therefore, my portion of the potato was 210 grams. I found the listing for 100 grams and just put that I had 2.1 100-gram servings of potato. If I could only find a listing with 30 gram servings, I'd divide 210 by 30 and put that I had 7 30-gram servings.

    I find I use measuring cups and spoons much less as I became more adept at using the scale.
  • fiddletime
    fiddletime Posts: 1,862 Member
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    I'm starting to weigh more and more now as I get very close to maintenance. I eat the same foods mostly so it's pretty easy. The tare button is great.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    What does a cup of chicken look like?
  • Theeerica
    Theeerica Posts: 45 Member
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    You've sold me! I will definitely be investing in a food scale.
  • ktekc
    ktekc Posts: 879 Member
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    with peanut butter weigh the jar before, get out what you want (or can have anyway) weigh again, subtract and make sure to lick the spoon!
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    I also suggest weighing in grams, even if you have to create new entries. I have things like sweet potatoes in my list by gram (1 gram = XX calories), so if it weighs 112 or 230 you can add the exact calorie count.
  • GemstoneofHeart
    GemstoneofHeart Posts: 865 Member
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    jdlobb wrote: »
    I just realized that I am an idiot. Using the tare button to re-zero as you add things, or to subtract the weight of a container after you finish the contents, is genius super simple stuff I have literally never even considered.

    Yep!! I make my sandwich on my scale and tare it each time after adding mayo, tomato, meat, cheese, etc.
    it's amazing!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    What does a cup of chicken look like?

    Or a scoop of protein powder...

    0qge6dyuvyux.jpg
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfcB7GbLmIM

    Why you should never rely on measuring cups to portion out solid foods.
  • Theeerica
    Theeerica Posts: 45 Member
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    So, now what scale would you recommend?

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