AN OUNCE???

SusanRenee35
SusanRenee35 Posts: 182 Member
edited October 1 in Health and Weight Loss
WHEN IT SAYS AN OUNCE OF CHEESE OF AN OUNCE OF THAT APPROX HOW MUCH IS THAT TBSP WISE OR SIZE WISE? I HOPE I HAVNT BEEN OVER ESTIMATING ALL ALONG! HELP!

Replies

  • erinsueburns
    erinsueburns Posts: 865 Member
    Honestly, it seems to vary by density of the cheese. I gave up estimating and got myself a food scale. Turned out, I was so nervy about it I was seriously underestimating.
  • robin52077
    robin52077 Posts: 4,383 Member
    an ounce is a weight, not a volume so it will look different on each product. An ounce of powdered sugar is much larger in volume than an ounce of dried beans for example. You need a kitchen scale.
  • FitMama2013
    FitMama2013 Posts: 913 Member
    ditto on the food scale - it's easier too because then you don't need to constantly wash measuring cups. if i'm making a salad, i start with my bowl, make it go back to zero, add desired spinach, go back to zero, add chicken, back to zero, and so on. no measuring, just weighing. it's alot easier for me!
  • candb
    candb Posts: 238
    ditto on the food scale - it's easier too because then you don't need to constantly wash measuring cups. if i'm making a salad, i start with my bowl, make it go back to zero, add desired spinach, go back to zero, add chicken, back to zero, and so on. no measuring, just weighing. it's alot easier for me!

    I agree with this. I use my food scale so much more than measuring cups. You can get decent ones for not that much money either.
  • mandeiko
    mandeiko Posts: 1,657 Member
    Food scale. I pretty much survive on it! Super cheap at Walmart. Here's the one I have http://www.walmart.com/ip/Paula-Deen-Retro-7-lb.-Red-Scale/11015401
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
    A fluid ounce is 2 TBSP, but that's not the sort of "ounce" that is used for cheese. That's a weight measurement, and I'm afraid there is no universal conversion factor to TBSP. It depends on the density of the food being measured. The best thing to do is to either weigh your portion (1 ounce = 28 grams), or work the math out from the info on the package. For example, a half pound of cheese = 8 ounces = 8 servings of 1 ounce each.
  • TheBraveryLover
    TheBraveryLover Posts: 1,217 Member
    This is what I do when I buy cheese; each block is 8 ounces, so I immediately cut the block in half, cut those halves in half, and cut those quarters in half once more. Each slice is an ounce and when I want a snack, I munch on one. Maybe you can do that until you buy the food scale.
  • Cbandelier
    Cbandelier Posts: 217 Member
    This is what I do when I buy cheese; each block is 8 ounces, so I immediately cut the block in half, cut those halves in half, and cut those quarters in half once more. Each slice is an ounce and when I want a snack, I munch on one. Maybe you can do that until you buy the food scale.

    I do the same thing!
  • reepobob
    reepobob Posts: 1,172 Member
    Ditto on the food scale...once you get used to using it, it is so much easier than measuring and I always use the grams setting to laser the mutha in as close as possible...Taylor makes a really nice glass top scale...easy to use and easy to clean.
  • toots99
    toots99 Posts: 3,794 Member
    Another thumbs up for a food scale! You can get a good digital one (I had a non-digital one and thought it was almost useless) for about $20.
  • rc630
    rc630 Posts: 310 Member
    A scale is the most accurate, but if you don't have access to one, I have read that an ounce of cheese is about the size of four dice
  • Dtho5159
    Dtho5159 Posts: 1,054 Member
    Im another vote for a scale. I bought a nice digital one from Walmart for around $17.
  • erinsueburns
    erinsueburns Posts: 865 Member
    A scale is the most accurate, but if you don't have access to one, I have read that an ounce of cheese is about the size of four dice

    This only applies to solid block cheese, not shredded.
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    Ditto on the food scale...once you get used to using it, it is so much easier than measuring and I always use the grams setting to laser the mutha in as close as possible...Taylor makes a really nice glass top scale...easy to use and easy to clean.

    You just make me giggle.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    For solid cheese, a mini Babybel is about an ounce.
  • kennethmgreen
    kennethmgreen Posts: 1,759 Member
    Wait... Where is the weight vs. heavy thread??!?

    To OP: food scales are cheap and a tremendous value when counting calories. It can be confusing talking about ounces when that term is used for both weight and (liquid) volume.

    When away from home, you sometimes just have to guess. I find it's much easier to guess size/volume rather than weight, so I try to look for foods that have servings sizes in cups. After awhile, you can get pretty accurate eyeballing 1/4, 1/2, 1 cup. (US measurements, I know.)
  • This is what I do when I buy cheese; each block is 8 ounces, so I immediately cut the block in half, cut those halves in half, and cut those quarters in half once more. Each slice is an ounce and when I want a snack, I munch on one. Maybe you can do that until you buy the food scale.

    I do the same thing!

    i do the same also
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
    Get a food scale, digital ones are cheap, and have a button to zero the scale. That means you can put a plate on it, zero the weight, add food (e.g. a bread roll), note the weight, zero it again, add more food (e.g. some cheese) and get the weight of that too.

    Meanwhile, an ounce of cheese is approximately a quarter of the amount you think it should be.
  • kennethmgreen
    kennethmgreen Posts: 1,759 Member
    Get a food scale, digital ones are cheap, and have a button to zero the scale. That means you can put a plate on it, zero the weight, add food (e.g. a bread roll), note the weight, zero it again, add more food (e.g. some cheese) and get the weight of that too.
    Thank you. You just convinced me to go digital. Didn't even think about being able to zero out in stages like that.
  • solpwr
    solpwr Posts: 1,039 Member
    This is what I do when I buy cheese; each block is 8 ounces, so I immediately cut the block in half, cut those halves in half, and cut those quarters in half once more. Each slice is an ounce and when I want a snack, I munch on one. Maybe you can do that until you buy the food scale.

    I use this approach a lot. And if you get it wrong it works itself out. Example: you have a glass of wine, but you measue by the bottle. You log 1/3 of the bottle. If the bottle lasts for 3 servings, and you logged 1/3 each of your servings, you've fully accounted for the wine. You may be slightly off on a given day, but it's not that big of a deal. Sometimes thinking in terms of the portion of the container works well in the long run.
  • muitobem
    muitobem Posts: 436 Member
    they say with cheese: when you have a block of it, you cut it into cubes...the cube should be about the size of a die(one dice) = 1 ounce
  • Cbandelier
    Cbandelier Posts: 217 Member
    they say with cheese: when you have a block of it, you cut it into cubes...the cube should be about the size of a die(one dice) = 1 ounce

    One "dice" worth is usually what is considered a serving, but one ounce really is more like 4 dice.
  • GB333
    GB333 Posts: 261 Member
    I also recommend a food scale. When I got mine, I found out that almost all bags LIE on their "serving size." For example, if they say one serving is 3 oz (about 8 pieces) -- when I weighed 8 pieces it was actually 6 ounces! DOUBLE!! That means twice the calories that I thought I was eating!

    So yeah, get a cheap food scale and figure it out for sure. I have a digital one that I got from walmart for about $15. It's the "Biggest Loser" one and it works great.
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