Those of you who measure...

mkam1980
mkam1980 Posts: 142 Member
edited October 12 in Health and Weight Loss
Alright here's the story. Since I have absolutely no portion control I am measuring everything I put into my mouth. My sister was over today and said that she is worried that I do that because it means I am not learning to listen to my body. My thoughts were obviously I have been listening to my body and am 40-50 pounds overweight so I NEED the scale to help me get this under control. Any thoughts on this? Does anyone else measure their food? (ie a cup of _________, a tablespoon of ________, four ounces of ___________, ...etc. Is it ok to do this? and if so for how long?

Replies

  • SafireBleu
    SafireBleu Posts: 881 Member
    i measure everything down to the glass of wine I drank today and I will continue to measure as long as I have to. If I get to goal and can not control portions I will measure them still. If you need to measure do it, get a good scale and good measuring cups and spoons and don't worry about it. I have scoops for food that are 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup and a cup sized for when I serve food. No one knows I am measuring. I even saw bowls with lines in them that mark the portions out 1/4 cup to 2 cups I am getting them as well to help me out in the process.
  • kttnply9
    kttnply9 Posts: 9
    I measure everything. I too, have zero portion control. And when you start portioning your food you realize how much you actually over eat. I follow the serving suggestions on packages and I use this site to help me count the calories. I also learned to weigh or measure food after it's cooked.

    I use cups, teaspoons and the scale.
  • iheartyarn
    iheartyarn Posts: 141 Member
    i measure in order to track my food on MFP... but i also will stop eating if i am feeling full... and then adjust my diary entries to reflect that.. i most likely will always measure..because what i think a cup looks like out of a measuring cup will keep growing! lol
  • claire07bear
    claire07bear Posts: 3
    I think that portion control is what fitness is all about. If we just grab the gallon of milk and start drinking, it is hard to see how much we are putting into our bodies! If we just pour a big bowl of cereal and eat until we are full it's the same concept. Americans, in general, have over sized portion sizes and thus are mainly overweight. I think that you measuring everything is a great way to train your mind and body to get used to what a "serving" really is. A piece of meat we should be eating is about the size of a deck of cards, a bagel is supposed to be the "mini" bagel size, just duncken doughnuts size. You are doing great and keep up the great work!

    I also look at packaging and try to follow what a portion size is! Keep it up!:happy:
  • Hayesgang
    Hayesgang Posts: 624
    I measure almost everything.

    I don't know what a "correct" portion looks like so by measuring I am training my brain to be able to look something (steak, chicken, pasta) and come as close as I can especially when I am eating out or at a friends.

    It's funny because before the scale I would look at the bag and it would say for example 1 serving 3oz (7pieces) so that's what I would take 7pcs. BUT now that I'm weighing things sometimes it's only 5. I know it doesn't sound like alot but if you are doing that a few times per day it does add up.

    Forget what other people say - they don't live within you, they don't understand your journey or your true reasons for disposing of the extra weight.

    Good luck.
  • Venus2011
    Venus2011 Posts: 82
    I measure everthing too. I also have the measuring spoons for serving. They beat putting the food in a measuring cup the putting it on a plate. You will be amazed at how much 1/4 cup of something is. Until you feel comfortable with portion sizes continue to meauyre your foods. And read food labels for serving size. Very important to read the labels.
  • TeresaC79
    TeresaC79 Posts: 316 Member
    The problem is that many of us grew up in a "clean your plate" generation which insisted you eat everything on your plate with no mind to what your body was saying.

    I know for me at least, it was insisted that I eat all my dinner. My mom still tries to pull that crap on my kids and it drives me nuts. She is working on it though.

    That said, I never learned to listen to my body.

    If I enter my food in MFP and don't eat all that is on my plate, I remeasure and adjust. I stop eating at the first feeling of full, regardless.

    I think counting calories lends itself to finally listening to our bodies after years of clearing our plates.
  • livetolove24
    livetolove24 Posts: 16 Member
    Portion control is one of the most important parts of dieting and weight loss. I measure out everything I eat...if I don't measure my food, I would overeat!
  • EQHanks
    EQHanks Posts: 170 Member
    I measure everything! Everything! I used to feel weird about it especially in front of others but now I don't care it works for me.

    I use a digital scale a lot for accuracy..and of course cups and spoons!
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
    If you really want to get picky about it...weigh everything! I found that my measuring cups were lying to me.... I measured out 1/2 cup (just below the top of cup) of oatmeal, then weighed it. Serving size on the carton said 1/2 c (40g). My 1/2 cup came up to 57g! Soo, I measured/weighed a few other things and found that on average my measuring cups were yielding an extra 20 - 25% in weight. Yes I was using the tare function on my digital scale. I wasn't "packing down" the measuring cups either. It may not sound like much, but it does add up on the calorie dense items.
  • TeresaC79
    TeresaC79 Posts: 316 Member
    If you really want to get picky about it...weigh everything! I found that my measuring cups were lying to me.... I measured out 1/2 cup (just below the top of cup) of oatmeal, then weighed it. Serving size on the carton said 1/2 c (40g). My 1/2 cup came up to 57g! Soo, I measured/weighed a few other things and found that on average my measuring cups were yielding an extra 20 - 25% in weight. Yes I was using the tare function on my digital scale. I wasn't "packing down" the measuring cups either. It may not sound like much, but it does add up on the calorie dense items.


    hmmm...interesting. might need to start weighing then.
  • llkilgore
    llkilgore Posts: 1,169 Member
    If you really want to get picky about it...weigh everything! I found that my measuring cups were lying to me....

    I think it's more likely the "Nutrition Facts" panel than the cups that are lying. For one particularly egregious example of such prevarication, my box of grits gives the serving size as 1/4 cup (37g), and the cooking instructions call for 3 tbsp for a single serving. 1/4 cup is 4 tbsp, not 3, so there's an obvious discrepancy there. So I measured the volume of 37g of grits and it's neither 3 nor 4 tbsp. It's a lot closer to 3, though. Dry grits don't fluff or pack significantly, so it would be hard to get the measurement wrong.

    Most things like oatmeal and grits are sold by weight, and where a volume measurement is also given, I think it's generally rounded off to the nearest convenient standard fraction of a cup or spoon - at best. Sometimes it looks like they've just pulled a number off some "standard" weight-to-volume conversion chart for a particular type of food that doesn't always correspond very well with the real world. Ever notice that 28g of shredded cheese is almost always 1/4 cup, regardless of the cheese? Volume measurements are close enough for most purposes, but when I really want to get the calories right, I put a lot more trust in the weight.
  • Cr357
    Cr357 Posts: 238
    I measure everything, even a glass of milk. It drives everyone around me absolutely crazy!!
  • wendymc333
    wendymc333 Posts: 1
    That's normal!
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
    yes I measure - how else am I going to keep track of my calories? Eyeballing and estimating is very inaccurate. Why lie to myself?
  • Hurricane_C
    Hurricane_C Posts: 806 Member
    yes I measure - how else am I going to keep track of my calories? Eyeballing and estimating is very inaccurate. Why lie to myself?

    Agreed.
  • fuzzimama
    fuzzimama Posts: 85
    I measure everything, mostly with digital scales. I think over time you will learn what your portion sizes look like, well I'm hoping I will anyway. When I went on a 5 day camping holiday a couple of weeks ago, I had no access to MFP, so I just did my best to eat as I have been at home (for the two months that I have been on MFP). Came home to find I had about exactly the same amount of weight loss as I had been averaging, so I think I'm already getting better at working it out. While I have the tools on hand though (i.e. at home) I'm back to weighing and logging every gram.

    Hey, if its not broke, why fix it?
  • annabellj
    annabellj Posts: 1,337 Member
    I measure everything, even a glass of milk. It drives everyone around me absolutely crazy!!
    this, and hubs hates that i have to go to the computer and log BEFORE I eat something. But it is working for me. I dont care what he thinks or anyone else at this point, besides, everyone else that says something to me about my measuring is overweight. And I just have a few of those cups from pampered chef with the cup measurement right on them. pour my milk into that and drink from there!
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    I used to measure everything. After a while (different amount of time for different people, I'm afraid) you not only get a feel for what a portion size looks like without measuring it, but you also have changed your habits so that you don't even eat more than the portion size anyway. I'm *almost* at that point right now. I still measure a lot of things, but I am getting better at making good estimations. I say that I am getting better because week after week, either inches or weight always go down, which is my goal. I don't *need* to see weight go down as long as there's something going on. Personally I'd rather see my waist measurement drop before my weight, but that's another story, lol.
  • becoming_a_new_me
    becoming_a_new_me Posts: 1,860 Member
    Measure, measure, measure...You are re-training your body and it needs to listen to your portions. Do listen to your body when it has cravings, but give it good things. Craving salty? Eat some almonds. Craving sweet? Eat some fruit. If your body says that it is still hungry after eating then fill it with veggies. One thing to do to is 20 minutes before your meal, drink a glass of water. Then when you sit down to eat have your salad first and chew slowly. Then eat your meal and chew slowly still. The brain takes 20 minutes to get the signal from the stomach that it is being fed. The longer you take to eat, the less you will eat.

    Mary Ann
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/iddreams/view/overcoming-the-obesity-mindset-194711
  • gazzajam
    gazzajam Posts: 28 Member
    I think you need to do whatever works for you.
    It is very easy to underestimate the amount of food you are consuming, which is why most of us put on the pounds.
    If you continue to measure your food you'll soon get used to seeing the size of the portions and will gradually not need to measure, as you will know.

    Good luck,

    Gaz
  • teenio7
    teenio7 Posts: 104 Member
    I measure everything, even a glass of milk. It drives everyone around me absolutely crazy!!
    this, and hubs hates that i have to go to the computer and log BEFORE I eat something. But it is working for me. I dont care what he thinks or anyone else at this point, besides, everyone else that says something to me about my measuring is overweight. And I just have a few of those cups from pampered chef with the cup measurement right on them. pour my milk into that and drink from there!

    Same here. MFP is addicting, I log in all the time and I measure everything. I also log in before and after I eat to make sure everything is accurate.
  • rubybeach
    rubybeach Posts: 529 Member
    I measure and/or weigh everything.......I gotta!
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