Do you weigh your foods? If so HELP! :)

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Kel3369
Kel3369 Posts: 83 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have been told by my RD to meticulously weigh and measure all food intake and I have been trying to do that. I realize that measuring anything incorrectly can really cause a big problem with your calorie intake. Just letting something go over the top of a measuring cup can add over 50 calories that may not get counted and over a year that will be extra pounds of weight. The RD explained this to me so I really do feel its important to get it as accurate as I can especially since I am feeling very shaky about the exercise calculation part of this. I would love to get one of those arm band things to see for sure what I am burning but can't afford that right now and websites, machines, and apps all give me different numbers of calories burned. I get so confused! I will add 20 minutes of circuit training and it says I have burned 150 calories but I will see posts on this site saying people have burned 3 times that in the same amount of time. I just don't know what is correct.

Now, I am having issues with the food scale. This may sound silly but I had a can of Starkist tuna in water. It was a 5 oz can and it says on the back 2 oz when drained" and serving size is 2 oz with 2 servings per can. So 4 oz per can once you drain the water off right? I drained the water out of this tuna like crazy and it looks dry to me. I split the can in half and put it on the scale expecting it to weigh 2 oz and it says 4 oz! I recalibrate the scale to zero which is a pain because its not the best scale money can buy. I got it for 8 dollars at Walmart. You have to move a dial to get it to zero and it moves off very easily so you have to watch it carefully and fix it each time you weigh something. Also, I weighed a bunch of other items in the kitchen that had its weight listed to check the scale's accuracy and it was spot on. So, I have to assume this tuna measurement is correct. How can half a can be 4 oz on the scale when the can says it should be 2 oz? All I can think is I am not draining off all the water but I can't get any more out of this damn tuna! lol This is all making me crazy. Is there some kind of rule with foods you drain water off of? I am not having this with any other food but tuna and its a big part of my diet. My husband has a digital postal scale I was thinking of using to weigh my food. A scale is a scale right so that should be okay shouldn't it? I don't have access to it yet but I want to get my hands on it to compare it to my manual scale and see if they agree. Especially about this damn tuna thing. I just want to make sure I can at least get the food side of things correct since the exercise is so ambiguous right now. Thanks for listening and if you have any ideas or feedback I would love to hear it. :)

Replies

  • saivenkat02
    saivenkat02 Posts: 3 Member
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    I always go with what the machine in the gym says. If the machine says I have lost 700 calories for 1 hour of elliptical, I take it down. I have been using my best guess estimate for the amount of portions of the food I eat, and it has worked for me for the first 3 weeks. If it doesnt work for you, then maybe you got to start measuring them according to the portion size mentioned in the database of myfitnesspal and then record the calories accordingly.
  • nurse_heather
    nurse_heather Posts: 2 Member
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    I found a cheap digital scale at WalMart ($30 i think)...also,make sure you subtract the weight of the container you are using.
  • dmpizza
    dmpizza Posts: 3,321 Member
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    Water doesn't have any calories, so probably just taking half the tuna is all you need to worry about.
  • fdonhauser
    fdonhauser Posts: 17
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    If you really want to be sure...then splurge on a good scale. I have a Salter scale and love it. If the food I'm gonna eat goes in a bowl, on a plate, or whatever, I put the bowl on the scale BEFORE I turn it on so the bowl ends up being "0" and I can then accurately weigh my food.
  • reese66
    reese66 Posts: 2,920 Member
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    You drained the tuna great now just weigh out two ounces, sometimes in packaging a little more or less can end up in the container.
  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    I know which scale you are using - seriously... aim for a 3pt shot and chuck it... Digital is the way to go....
    I purchased the Aquatronic digital scale from bigtray.com because it allows me to do both pounds and kilos (if Im trying a euro recipe), I can change it from fluid ounces to milliliters, it also allows me to do a tare when adding or weighing items on it.. It was only $49.00 and takes a GOOD beating too!!!
  • Kel3369
    Kel3369 Posts: 83 Member
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    LOL I definitely will be tossing this scale. I don't have a ton of money to spend but I did find a digital scale for under 20 dollars that is endorsed by the show "The Biggest Loser" does anyone know if this scale is any good? :)
  • Carrie401
    Carrie401 Posts: 4
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    I've had an Escali primo for years and I love it. It is more than you wanted to spend at $25 on Amazon but it gets great reviews.
    http://www.amazon.com/Escali-Primo-Digital-Scale-Warm/dp/B0007GAX04/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317926313&sr=8-1
  • BaliRun
    BaliRun Posts: 114 Member
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    LOL I definitely will be tossing this scale. I don't have a ton of money to spend but I did find a digital scale for under 20 dollars that is endorsed by the show "The Biggest Loser" does anyone know if this scale is any good? :)

    my mom gave me" the biggest loser" scale and it's awesome.. very accurate. the packaging says 2oz and it measures 2oz. u can do g, ml, oz, lb...and u can search the name of the item on the sacale and it will tell you the calories, protein, carbohydrates, total sugars, total fat, and glycemic index (G.I.) value.

    when i started measuring everything i found that i was overestimating the weight some items like chiken and underestimating the measurement of other items like peanut butter,
  • Kel3369
    Kel3369 Posts: 83 Member
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    So happy to hear the Taylor digital scale endorsed by "The Biggest Loser" is worth it. I went on to Ebay and was able to get it even cheaper than the Walmart price with free shipping so I am pretty happy about that. I don't think hubby wants me putting food on his postal scale. lol Hopefully this will be better than the piece-o-crap manual scale I bought for eight dollars. I hate that each time I would use it I would have to recalibrate it to zero. Thanks all for the help. You guys are the BEST! :)

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