Figuring out serving sizes is making me want to break things

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  • BoxingClever
    BoxingClever Posts: 25 Member
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    I find some things in the MFP database don't have gram options.. they just go by cups, or serves.. I want grams for everything! Grams are the best.

    You can always create a new item and enter the serving as grams. :smile:
  • MummyOfSeven
    MummyOfSeven Posts: 314 Member
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    one stick of butter is 1/4 cup melted or softened.

    I quite literally LOL'd at that answer.
    The whole point of the comment was that. here in the UK, we either go by lb & oz or grammes.
    Telling me that a stick is 1/4 cup....I'm still none the wiser.
    Sorry, lol. :happy:
  • HonkyTonks
    HonkyTonks Posts: 1,193 Member
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    I find some things in the MFP database don't have gram options.. they just go by cups, or serves.. I want grams for everything! Grams are the best.

    You can always create a new item and enter the serving as grams. :smile:

    I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.
  • MummyOfSeven
    MummyOfSeven Posts: 314 Member
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    I have just checked and apparently a US tablespoon isn't the same as a UK tablespoon. And a US teaspoon is a whole 3rd bigger than a UK one. AND a US pint is 0.8 of and English one! So one cup is half a US pint, but only 0.4 of a UK one.

    No wonder I can never get American recipes to work! That and they always seem to require ingredients that don't exist here.

    Welcome to my world! Come on in and have a cupcake....measured in ounces :laugh:
  • MummyOfSeven
    MummyOfSeven Posts: 314 Member
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    I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.

    For things like that, the Calorie Counter book comes in very handy. It's a British book, but this one is similar:

    http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Calorie-Counter-Portable-Guide/dp/1593596480/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1327105224&sr=8-7
  • BoxingClever
    BoxingClever Posts: 25 Member
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    I would need to know the nutritional value of the item then, which isn't always possible. Things like veges, fruits and meat do not often come with nutritional info on the back.

    Ah, my scale came with a guide that lists the "calorie factor" of a ton of different food items. It shows how many calories there are per gram in each food, so then you just multiply that number by the weight of your serving. I'm sure you should be able to find the info online somewhere.
  • quara
    quara Posts: 255 Member
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    Not sure what kind of measuring cup you have but when I measure out 28grams it fits in 1/4 cup easily. When I pack it down I can easily get 2 servings into the 1/4 cup.

    So now that it's not my scale, it's my measuring cup that's the problem! *facepalm*

    It could be your measuring cup... mine are stupid, only the 1/4 and 1 cup are accurate... 3 1/3 cups or 2 1/2 cups cause the 1 cup to overflow...

    I have also found that my scale is super sensitive to surfaces that aren't 100% flat. If it's on a cutting board with a wobbly leg or a part of the counter that isn't 100% flat (I never knew these items weren't flat, cause they look like they are to my eye!) the scale gives me a wonky number. Try moving the scale to another location and try again?

    ETA: OK, I read through the rest of the posts and it looks like your scale is accurate (with the whole 5g thing)... I say go by weight. I know with All Bran Buds, the box says that 1/3 cup is 28g. However, when I weigh out 1/4 cup, it's 25g, so that is clearly bull and I go by the weight.
  • PoleBoy
    PoleBoy Posts: 255 Member
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    AND a US pint is 0.8 of and English one! So one cup is half a US pint, but only 0.4 of a UK one.


    not quite - while there are 16 oz in an American pint, and 20 fl.oz in a British pint, a british fluid ounce isn't the same as an American ounce - it's a twenty-forth bigger

    So the British pint is 20% bigger than than an American pint, not an American pint is 20% smaller

    ....
  • PoleBoy
    PoleBoy Posts: 255 Member
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    I had a set of scales that were very bad if I gradually added something - they would "steady" the reading - the only way I'd notice is it would go to a negative reading when I took the stuff away...
    So, just to put the arguments about my scale to rest:
    just to satisfy the nit-pickers, zeroing your cup as you did for the cheese, how much do six nickels in your cup weigh?
  • Bentley2718
    Bentley2718 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    The 1/4 cup comes from the pre-shredded cheese. In other words if you had a hunk of cheese that would fit in a 1/4 cup before it is shredded it would weigh 28g.

    This makes sense, but it doesn't make sense that they would then put that as the serving size on the SHREDDED cheese. A 1/4 cup of solid cheese is not the same as 1/4 cup of shredded cheese. So why would they use the same serving size? It seems like common sense to use WEIGHT for anything that's not a liquid.

    Okay, I realize that my *****ing about it is ultimately pointless, but it just boggles my mind that whoever writes up the nutritional info actually thinks this is the best way to do it. :huh:

    They don't think it's the best way t do it, but most people are too lazy to get out a scale and somehow think measuring cups are better.
  • maryjay51
    maryjay51 Posts: 742
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    i dont weigh anything..ill buy a lb of ground turkey breast and split it up four ways = 4oz a serving .. chicken breast i figure that 4oz is about the size of what in the palm of my hand or chunk it up and throw it in a measuring cup to get a cup of it ... i dont worry about exact details and just use most of these measurments and oz as a general guideline. lost 80lbs so far so i must not be doing too bad with that way of doing things
  • frugalmomsrock
    frugalmomsrock Posts: 1,123
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    The last picture shows how silly my scale gets when it's been tared with something on it. I don't know why it does that. I usually just use saran so I don't have that problem. I know it's accurate if i just use it without taring with anything on it though. I use it to mail things all the time, and my measurements always match what the post office has on theirs, and they calibrate theirs often.
  • raevynn
    raevynn Posts: 666 Member
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    I'd weigh a couple more things that are supposed to be 28g - and see what happens.
  • jmuhnie
    jmuhnie Posts: 93 Member
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    I bought an OXO brand scale for my wife and I to use. I think it has created a monster. She weighs everything...on the bright side I get to eat more potato chips (crisps for some people).

    The scale itself is very quick and has a detachable front so I can put large dishes on the scale and zero then.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    I've been having problems figuring out serving sizes ever since I started tracking, so I bought a scale. I'm making tacos tonight, and I wanted to figure out the servings of all the ingredients.

    The serving size for the shredded cheese is 1/4 cup (28g). Out of curiosity, I weighed out the 28g IN the 1/4 cup measuring cup. As you can see in the photo, it's heaping and falling all over the place because it will not fit in the cup. It actually FILLED the 1/2 cup measuring cup, which would mean 28g is TWICE AS MUCH cheese as 1/4 cup. Even squishing it down wouldn't get it to fit in the 1/4 cup.

    BRC2


    So.....WHICH IS IT?? Which serving has 110 calories as the package states? Because obviously 28g has quite a few more calories than 1/4 cup. Why the hell can't they just make the serving sizes according to WEIGHT for everything that's not a liquid?? How the hell is anyone supposed to know how many calories they're consuming when the measurement system is so completely f**ked?? :explode:

    OMG, this is beyond frustrating.

    Forget cups and anything that says "cup of this" or a "cup of that". Weight is weight and if you have to have say 28g of something, you will know that 28g is 28g on the scales, but in the cup it may not be accurate.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    But where are they even getting the 1/4 cup measurement from when they put the nutritional info on the package? Because obviously you cannot fit 28g into a 1/4 cup. I just want to know how many damn calories I'm eating. When the difference is literally TWICE AS MUCH between the 2 measurements, how do I know which they were using when they got the figure of 110 calories? Because if it was 1/4 cup, then I'm actually eating 220 calories if I go by the weight.

    Who the hell thought it was a good idea to measure anything other than LIQUID in measuring cups? The nutritional info is required by law to be on the package, but what the hell good does it do when it's so inaccurate and confusing? :(

    and you will know EXACTLY how many calories if you weigh stuff and forget the cups :)
  • dustyhockeymom
    dustyhockeymom Posts: 537 Member
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    Want to hear something that will totally throw a monkey wrench in. When I weight 28 grams of my shredded cheese, it's less than a 1/4 cup which is also the other unit of measurement listed. :laugh: If I have the option I always go with the weight. Sometimes its more than the volume given and sometimes it's less but I think it is generally the most accurate way to do it.
  • BoxingClever
    BoxingClever Posts: 25 Member
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    Want to hear something that will totally throw a monkey wrench in. When I weight 28 grams of my shredded cheese, it's less than a 1/4 cup which is also the other unit of measurement listed. :laugh: If I have the option I always go with the weight. Sometimes its more than the volume given and sometimes it's less but I think it is generally the most accurate way to do it.

    I was talking to a friend about this earlier, and the serving size for her shredded cheese was still 28g, but 1/8 cup. And when she put it in the measuring cup after weighing it, it was closer to 1/4 cup (which is what mine was supposed to be.) UGH!
    If 28g = 1oz (of ANYTHING) then why the hell don't they just put 1 OUNCE as the serving size? Why do they have to bring the cups into the picture? Bah.
  • lexik09
    lexik09 Posts: 132 Member
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    It makes sense. A cup of flour doesn't weigh the same as a cup of sugar or a cup of shredded cheese. Shredded cheese is especially rough to measure by volume due to all of the space between the shreds.

    This is why so many of us on MFP keep telling others to BUY A SCALE. :bigsmile: Volume measurements are pretty useless. Weight is where it's at!

    I totally 100% agree!!! you should be weighing your food! thats where you will get the most accuracy! i would be lost without my scale.
  • PAnn1
    PAnn1 Posts: 530 Member
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    A stick of butter is 1/2 cup.

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