Need to loose 1.5 stone

Yes really essential, I agree with giancarlov1191 we totally underestimate our quantities. It’s also difficult to guess dried food/ cooked weights too x

I bought a food scale around 2 months after joining MFP and it has been a huge eye-opener. It’s actually one of the things that has helped me lose 37lbs. Prior to buying the food scale, I had been eyeballing my portions and using cups to measure my food. Those methods turned out to be highly inaccurate. One thing that shocked me was how much pasta I had been eating before I started weighing my food. It turns out my portions of pasta would feed 2-3 people! I’d say yes, a food scale is definitely a necessity.

I use mine for fruit and veg, amounts taken out of a bag like nuts or rice (dry weight), cheese if its not already portioned in little packets, bread if its a slice or I slice it up, I dont tend to weigh pitta breads or naans as they are already portioned to my eyes but I might need to do this as time goes on. I weigh out mayonaise, oil, spreads like jam or marmalade etc.

I dont weigh things that are already in a pot or something, say like if a pot of humous is 200g and I eat it, then thats what I count, same with my cottage cheese, or a chicken kiev, I count what it says on the pack it is.