You don't use a food scale?
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I just round way up. I can see both sides of the debate, but really I feel that if an extra 20 calories throws off your entire day then wow, you are hard-core as far as I'm concerned. Shouldn't matter because I know there is no way anyone is completely accurate in their calories out.10
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Well, I'm feeling kind of dumb now. I've been tracking for years and I thought when people said to use a food scale they just meant to measure your foods. Therefore, I didn't bother to weigh anything that had a measurement attached to it. I watched the videos in this thread and they were eye-opening! This morning I weighed my cereal instead of just measuring out 3/4 cup, and there was a real difference. Thanks for the education!12
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Well, I'm feeling kind of dumb now. I've been tracking for years and I thought when people said to use a food scale they just meant to measure your foods. Therefore, I didn't bother to weigh anything that had a measurement attached to it. I watched the videos in this thread and they were eye-opening! This morning I weighed my cereal instead of just measuring out 3/4 cup, and there was a real difference. Thanks for the education!
Woo hoo!!!
this!
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I use a scale every day for everything. I use grams more than ounces because it's more accurate when I weigh partial ounces. (The scale is digital and can measure fluid ounces, mil, grams, ounces, etc.). Having seen people STUFF food into measuring cups, I decided I'm not looking to sabotage my efforts by putting as much as I can into a measuring cup. I REALLY want to know how much I'm eating - by way of a true measure. (And there is NO WAY I'd eyeball a plate a guesstimate portions/calories/etc.)5
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to guesstimate
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I weigh my calorie-dense foods and use measuring cups for my liquids. For example, today at bfast, I weighed my shredded wheat at 70g and my banana was 120g, but I measured one cup of milk. At lunch, I made a salad, but the only ingredients I actually weighed were the feta cheese and avocado. I can eyeball my cucumber, tomatoes, spinach, and kale. They don't add very many calories to my lunch. And even if I'm slightly off, it takes too much time to prepare the salad if I weigh them too.
Honestly, you can get carried away with all this weighing, and if you've been doing it for months, it will get tedious. If it becomes a fixation, there's a chance you won't enjoy eating out from time to time or sharing a meal at someone else's house.
Don't let it rule you.
If you do a reasonable job of logging your food (and weighing the high calorie stuff) and you don't eat back ALL your exercise calories, you probably won't need to worry about being a few grams off here and there. The only problem I can see is if you maximize your calorie allotment every day without weighing anything and you also overestimate your exercise.
I didn't weigh the fat/calories/carbs I ate because I just wanted to have a party...until I wore a size 24. Some party. I'd rather take the time to weigh my food and 'treat myself' to self-love. Funny, people with insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes (adult onset, typically from a lifestyle of eating the wrong things) take the time to load their shots. I'd rather weigh my salad. But different strokes for different folks...and so on.7 -
lantana411 wrote: »I weigh my calorie-dense foods and use measuring cups for my liquids. For example, today at bfast, I weighed my shredded wheat at 70g and my banana was 120g, but I measured one cup of milk. At lunch, I made a salad, but the only ingredients I actually weighed were the feta cheese and avocado. I can eyeball my cucumber, tomatoes, spinach, and kale. They don't add very many calories to my lunch. And even if I'm slightly off, it takes too much time to prepare the salad if I weigh them too.
Honestly, you can get carried away with all this weighing, and if you've been doing it for months, it will get tedious. If it becomes a fixation, there's a chance you won't enjoy eating out from time to time or sharing a meal at someone else's house.
Don't let it rule you.
If you do a reasonable job of logging your food (and weighing the high calorie stuff) and you don't eat back ALL your exercise calories, you probably won't need to worry about being a few grams off here and there. The only problem I can see is if you maximize your calorie allotment every day without weighing anything and you also overestimate your exercise.
I didn't weigh the fat/calories/carbs I ate because I just wanted to have a party...until I wore a size 24. Some party. I'd rather take the time to weigh my food and 'treat myself' to self-love. Funny, people with insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes (adult onset, typically from a lifestyle of eating the wrong things) take the time to load their shots. I'd rather weigh my salad. But different strokes for different folks...and so on.
I think you're being unnecessarily critical here. People have different calorie needs. Some have an allowance so low that weighing out 20 calories worth of kale might make a difference... many can do just what this poster said- weigh the calorie-intensive ingredients and use her many months of experience to eyeball the greens. It seems like a completely reasonable approach to me for an experienced logger. Of course, if a person wasn't losing at the rate they expected, or the scale began to creep up in maintenance, the practical thing would be to go back to very precise weighing. I don't mind weighing all of my food, but not everyone wants or needs to live tethered to the scale.7 -
Interesting post. can any of you guys recommend a scales that's portable? Do any connect to your phone and convert grams to calories or is this manual?1
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Beatman1983 wrote: »Interesting post. can any of you guys recommend a scales that's portable? Do any connect to your phone and convert grams to calories or is this manual?
Entering your food into the food diary on this website will "convert the grams to calories" for you. I do not have a portable scale. They are out there. Every drug dealer I've ever arrested seems to have a set.9 -
xWintersKnightx wrote: »I just round way up. I can see both sides of the debate, but really I feel that if an extra 20 calories throws off your entire day then wow, you are hard-core as far as I'm concerned. Shouldn't matter because I know there is no way anyone is completely accurate in their calories out.
When I was losing, with a 250 calorie deficit, I was weighing everything because several of the items I usually eat were off sometimes by 50-75 calories. That's a large chunk of my daily deficit, and if done a couple times a week, it would have slowed my loss considerably. It's easier when you have bigger numbers to work with and in maintenance it's not as important for me. No, you can't be perfect because it's all estimates. But, for a lot of petite folks, or those on a tiny deficit, it matters.2 -
shandy82165 wrote: »Jeepfreak81 wrote: »We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low
You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.
Bread is another good example since the largest slices are typically in the middle of the loaf.3 -
Guns_N_Buns wrote: »shandy82165 wrote: »Jeepfreak81 wrote: »We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low
You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.
Bread is another good example since the largest slices are typically in the middle of the loaf.
I will admit that I have never weighed a tortilla or a piece of bread. I may have weighed crackers once or twice because I wanted to see if I could eat a few more crackers. If I have a big bag of chips I weigh out a serving. If it is a preportioned bag of chips I do not weigh. I do not weigh the milk I put in my coffee or the cream. I do not weigh any veggies unless I am curious about how much it is. I weigh eggs sometimes but not always.3 -
Guns_N_Buns wrote: »shandy82165 wrote: »Jeepfreak81 wrote: »We're trying to weigh more of our stuff, our dinner gets weighed as best we can and usually I have leftovers for lunch so that gets weighed too. Prepacked stuff I don't weigh, but I've started weighing snacks I bring to work like crackers and such and I've definitely been estimating 10-20% low
You might want to be aware that many pre-packaged foods don't weigh the same as their serving size suggests. For example, I bought some flour tortillas once that had a weight in grams for a single tortilla, but when I weighed the tortilla it weighed a full 30% more than the package claimed.
Bread is another good example since the largest slices are typically in the middle of the loaf.
I will admit that I have never weighed a tortilla or a piece of bread. I may have weighed crackers once or twice because I wanted to see if I could eat a few more crackers. If I have a big bag of chips I weigh out a serving. If it is a preportioned bag of chips I do not weigh. I do not weigh the milk I put in my coffee or the cream. I do not weigh any veggies unless I am curious about how much it is. I weigh eggs sometimes but not always.
I weight bread in bulk, as I'm the only one in the house that likes sourdough or eats the low calorie tortillas; I can simply weight the whole package/loaf and divide by the number of slices. I figure the calories for a single piece (using MFP grams for the product), and use that as my entry until the loaf/package runs out. It may not be accurate day to day, but it does become accurate over time. I do the same for a lot of food in which I'm the only one eating it.1 -
Friday night bump.2
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quiksylver296 wrote: »Friday night bump.
Monday morning bump.1 -
I've had a scale at home that used to get a lot of use, but has been collecting dust. Gonna start getting a lot of use again. I also just purchased another ($10 on amazon - hopefully it's accurate enough) to keep at work for the snacks I have here! We order lunch a lot, and I've started getting just grilled chicken and a roasted veg, but I have no idea how many oz/grams it is, so I'll let the scale tell me instead of attempting to (wrongly) guess all the time.2
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Also, thank you for explaining the ml function and how to measure liquids - I honestly was so confused on how to do that for the longest time. I just made a recipe and was able to successfully measure all of the liquid components to it.2
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Hump day Bump day!2
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