Ways to eye calories in rice, pasta, etc

wontwentyfive
wontwentyfive Posts: 22 Member
in Food and Nutrition
A lot of food I eat are pre-made by my family. Most of which include rice and pasta. We do not have a weighing scale.

I heard the size of a fist is approximately 100g with rice and pasta but bodies vary.

Is there a more accurate way to eye bulky foods like rice and pasta?

Thank you!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    edited July 2018
    Get a scale. Weigh before and after cooking. Then weigh how much you take to determine your serving.
  • Cbean08
    Cbean08 Posts: 1,092 Member
    Buy a food scale then. You can find one at Walmart, Target or buy it off Amazon. Scales aren't expensive. Personally, I find it hard to eyeball food like that.

    If it's a pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you might be able to find the calories per piece on the back of the package.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    Buy a scale. I eat dishes premade by my family often, and the scale makes it all so easy. Offer to cook the most common dishes at least once, and ask whoever does the majority of the cooking "how to do it right". Weigh the stuff and make a recipe. It may not be as accurate as weighing ingredients every time, but it gets you a much better estimate than eye guessing.

    For rice, it's almost always someone else making it, so I just weigh my cooked portion and use the cooked rice entry plus whatever amount of oil I suspect they used.

    None of my family members ever complained because I don't bother them while they cook or ask for my food to be handled differently. When we're at the table, everyone simply puts food on their plate and the only difference is that I casually pop my plate on the scale and tare before I do it without any comments.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    edited July 2018
    Cooked rice=200 cals/cup. Typical serving bet 1/2 to 1 cup.

    Cook some rice to see what 1/2, 3/4 and 1 cup of cooked rice looks like on the plate.

    Uncooked pasta=100 cals/oz; typical serving 2 oz.. Weigh 2oz of your favorite types of pasta(s) and cook it (them( to see what it (they) look like on the plate.

    If your family serves more generous portions, adjust test amounts and est cals for future servings of rice and pasta accordingly.

  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    You need to weigh then compare to your own hand. It’s a great guide for me for portion control especially when eating out.
  • Jessie24330
    Jessie24330 Posts: 224 Member
    If you are extremely overweight you'll be able to get by with "eyeing it" for a while, but as you get closer to your goal, you really should get a scale. I would just buy one, they really aren't that expensive.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    Do you not want to use a scale? Why?
    Too expensive? 15 dollars?
    Too much work? A lot easier than eyeballing and guessing.
    Self-conscious? You don't have to announce it. You don't have to hide it, or ask for premission.
    Destroying the experience? Feeling confident you're not eating too much, should make you enjoy your food even more.
    It means that you don't really have an excuse to eat too much? Yes it does, and I'm not sorry.

    But there's no need for a scale if:
    You eat only at meals, no snacks.
    You use 9 inch plate, fill it with 1/2 vegetables, 1/4 meat/fish, 1/4 starch, no seconds.

    Any method you choose, you have to use it properly for it to work. Eating is so pleasureable that it can be hard to stop. In order to lose weight, you have to be honest about your needs and accept that you can't have everything you want, all the time. A food scale and your food diary, are just tools. The force that controls those tools, and thus the process, is you.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    If there's no way of knowing how much you eat: how big is your family? If it's not too big you might be able to go with: looking how much rice is in the pack before and after cooking (scale will help). Then look at how many equal scoops are in the pan and how many of those you take.

    Say the family cooks about 300 gr. dry rice. There are 20 scoops in the pan after cooking and you had 5. Then you know you had approximately 75gr of dry rice that you can log. I was very successful with a similar approach, though the amount of rice was weighed on a scale, and it was just two of us.
  • LadyElectron
    LadyElectron Posts: 43 Member
    edited July 2018
    Definitely do some experimenting with measuring cups and come up with your own rules of thumb for when a scale is not available or practical for whatever reason. Like fill up a measuring cup with plain cooked rice and then dump it into the bowls/plates you eat off of frequently and commit the images to your mind. Is pile up to your first or second knuckle, is it larger or smaller than your fist? Also experiment with your typical serving utensils. How many scoops from your typical serving spoons equal a cup? Repeat with pasta. Be more conservative and careful when considering stuff like oil, butter, cheese, salad dressing or other calorie heavy things. That’s what I do with cafeteria meals or family style meals. It’s not perfect but it’s better than nothing. I would never have had the guts to weigh food that my mom cooked for me on a scale before eating it, especially when I still lived at home so you just do your best!

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