You don't use a food scale?

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Replies

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,345 Member
    Glad someone did a post about this, hopefully all the panicking newbies will read it.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member
    sexysizeme wrote: »
    Lesson learned going to do my best to measure everything on my scale

    Yay! Tell what what you find out. It’s always interesting to learn what happens.
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,573 Member
    Since it comes up so often, if you're looking to buy a food scale you don't need anything fancy. A friend of mine bought hers on eBay for $8. Mine cost about $20, but I didn't shop around and just bought what I could at Target. You want a scale that has a tare button (they all should) and can switch between ounces and grams easily. If you're cooking big pots of food for a family or weekly batches, then the ability to weigh heavy loads will be nice (11 pounds is a common upper limit for food scales). Other than that, get the cheap one unless you have very specialized needs.

    I paid about $30 for the EatSmart scale on Amazon that has a weight limit of 15 lbs. I chose this one because it has a large platform and a very large, easy to read display - my other scale ($10 at Walmart) had a much smaller display .
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    pamfin wrote: »
    lucerorojo wrote: »
    I have one but I hadn't been using it for everything. Today I weighed a banana (unpeeled) for the first time. This was an average size banana (definitely have eaten bigger and smaller ones) and it was 40 calories more (once I weighed it and took the USDA value) than the banana that is "medium" in the database. So for 6 months I've been using that "medium" and underestimating most of the time for a banana.

    I also weighed a thick slice of bacon for the first time. (First time weighing my bacon at all). For thick slices I had been using the calorie equivalent of "2 slices" in the database. In the first place, I had no idea how big those slices were. I was just lazy. Sometimes I'd look on the package but the bacon I have this week has no information--it was fresh from a butcher. Anyway, ONE thick slice was 70 calories more than the "two slices" in the database. So had I not weighed the bacon and the banana today, I would have eaten 110 calories extra that I didn't realize. I'm weighing everything today!!

    I can't bear those database entries that jus say '1 piece' or '1 slice' etc. That tells me nothing without a reference point of how big the piece or slice is. They're just useless really.

    Well they aren't useless for the person who made them! I knew that there was no reference but I was lazy. I didn't realize it would be "that" off. I think that a lot of newbies don't realize that they are user generated and believe that they are "correct." Whenever I make a recipe or add a food I do NOT add it to the database. No need for me to add to the confusion. When I had a large deficit of 1000 calories it didn't make much difference, but now at 500 cals I need to be more precise.
  • lucerorojo
    lucerorojo Posts: 790 Member
    I stopped using a food scale because they kept breaking. I'm on my third one now, *fingers crossed*

    Well not breaking, but these funny numbers kept appearing on the screen when I tried to change the functions and then it would freeze. I'm wondering if I need a non electronic scale to compare numbers with.

    Is yours battery operated? I noticed that the battery icon was not fully charged on the screen and I ordered some new batteries. It hadn't yet died but it was acting weird. I changed the battery today and the battery icon is still not full but it is working faster and better now.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    lucerorojo wrote: »

    I also weighed a thick slice of bacon for the first time. (First time weighing my bacon at all). For thick slices I had been using the calorie equivalent of "2 slices" in the database. In the first place, I had no idea how big those slices were. I was just lazy. Sometimes I'd look on the package but the bacon I have this week has no information--it was fresh from a butcher. Anyway, ONE thick slice was 70 calories more than the "two slices" in the database. So had I not weighed the bacon and the banana today, I would have eaten 110 calories extra that I didn't realize. I'm weighing everything today!!

    Just wanted to point out that typically the serving weight for bacon is listed for "pan-fried". Raw bacon will be much heavier. I can't remember ever having bacon that ended up being more than the serving weight for the designated number of slices.
  • pamfin
    pamfin Posts: 169 Member
    lucerorojo wrote: »

    Well they aren't useless for the person who made them! I knew that there was no reference but I was lazy. I didn't realize it would be "that" off. I think that a lot of newbies don't realize that they are user generated and believe that they are "correct." Whenever I make a recipe or add a food I do NOT add it to the database.

    No, I don't add it either unless I'm able to give an accurate breakdown of the nutrients per 100g. It's rare I find something that's not in the database and needs adding though.