Food scale...Do you weigh your portions?

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  • Jessica0982
    Jessica0982 Posts: 209 Member
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    I weigh my portions out so I can see what I'm working with. I don't want to assume because at times I've done that and been shocked to see that I can either eat WAY more or that I'm way over what I thought it was. So I weight out portions now and then figure if it's a handful or if it fills a certain container then it's X amount of grams/ounces. It helps!

    I got my food scale for $10 and it's been awesome! I don't weigh everything but I do weigh quite a bit.
  • smbyrd13
    smbyrd13 Posts: 52 Member
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    I've started weighing pretty much everything and it helps me so much!! I just buy regular bags of healthy snacks and use my food scale to make my own 100 cal packs. Saves a lot of money and I know exactly how much I'm eating!
  • tataliciousd89
    tataliciousd89 Posts: 465
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    When I first started I didnt have a food scale and i still had pretty good success, but I'm just a little OCD and prefer to know the exact amounts I am taking in.
  • hbrittingham
    hbrittingham Posts: 2,518 Member
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    Yes, I LOVE my food scale! At this point I am great at eyeballing (eyeballed an ounce of beef jerky, and weighed it at 1.1oz) but I still think it's fun to weigh it. :)

    I love it, too. It's a challenge to me to see if I'm right or wrong. I am pretty much dead on, if anything, I underestimate. Which is another reason I weigh my food (mostly protein). I don't want to short myself ANY food. LOL
  • momuv3princesses
    momuv3princesses Posts: 154 Member
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    I weigh most stuff. I really wish I could weigh everything but sometimes it is just too difficult! I think it would be easy if you were cooking for yourself but cooking for a family where you are preparing everything together it just makes it harder.
  • Pkiddy
    Pkiddy Posts: 145 Member
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    If you dont know how much it weighs or the amount you are having, you cant count your calories.

    The end

    ;-)
    [/quote]

    What he said!!!
  • laura2706
    laura2706 Posts: 9 Member
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    Ugh, it is so good to hear other people do this! I weigh mine as much as I can, because then you know exactly what you're eating, and can make the best decisions for you based on that. Unfortunately when I'm around people they think it is a strange habit, and I get accused of being anorexic, which is exceedingly insulting! Lol. So now I mostly have to do it when nobody's around or try to mentally make rough estimates, but it's never as good. And you feel like you are sneaking around which is typical of people with anorexia! Ahh! Frustrating much haha! I don't think it's unhealthy at all (provided you do it for the right reasons of course and aren't TOO controlling) most people who don't are just unaware or in complete denial.

    I wish I didn't feel the need to though in all honesty, life's so much easier and in some ways better when you don't. Unless the scales start creeping up, I guess. :L
  • suzycav77
    suzycav77 Posts: 189 Member
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    I weight everything, otherwise I worry I'm giving myself too much. I have a pen and paper in the kitchen so I can write down weights then add them to MFP when I have time.

    Drives my husband mad sometimes when we're serving up dinner, haha!

    Sometimes with things like mayo if I don't eat it all I'll weigh whats left to be accurate...I think thats OCD though :laugh:

    Obviously I'm not that particular about it when eating out or at friends and just guess
    i'm just the same as u it drives my husband bonkers lol :laugh:
  • CuppycakeKaren
    CuppycakeKaren Posts: 31 Member
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    I weigh and measure everything I put in my mouth..for me it's a good habit to get into. That way, when I am out for a meal, or at a friends for dinner, I can "eyeball" the portions and get a good idea of the amounts to enter into my food diary. My portion sizes previously were WAY off base!! Just my opinion and what works for me!!
  • rebyekah
    rebyekah Posts: 24
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    I guess I'm the only one who doesn't, lol. I read the packages and guesstimate. I'm the type who would go completely OCD if I did measure, so I just go with it. Lost 19 lbs., so I guess I'm ok!

    Ditto to that. That would have made me absolutely crazy! I weighed and measured nothing the whole time I was losing weight. I guesstimated everything from the package. I still lost 90 lbs. I'm sure my weight loss was slower than if I had weighed or measured, but I wanted to only make changes I could do for the rest of my life. I wouldn't want to measure everything forever! I eat out a lot too, so that would have been pretty impossible. Do what you feel comfortable with. If you measure stuff for a while you will soon have a good idea what a portion looks like. After that I say forget the scale, but that's just me.

    BTW The other day I did measure out a cup of cooked rice I had already portioned out, just to see if I had been lying to myself all this time...it was exactly 1 cup! You can learn to train your eye pretty well.
  • mavsgurl30
    mavsgurl30 Posts: 44
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    i weight out all my food too. it's just much more accurate when you are calorie counting. it's really taught me how much a serving really is, or what 4oz of chicken looks like. sure, when i go home to visit my mom and bring my food scale she thinks i'm nuts, but whatever lol...it works for me =)
  • StrongGwen
    StrongGwen Posts: 378 Member
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    absolutely! part of my challenge is learning to recognize portions. If I don't weigh and measure then I always end up with more than I think. Until I am a lot better at eyeballing portions, I have to weigh & measure to train my brain.
  • jessicahelene
    jessicahelene Posts: 77 Member
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    I do weigh my portions for calorie dense items like peanut butter, salad dressing, meat, potatoes, etc.

    Also a food scale is awesome for recipes because you can weigh out the stuff instead of measuring. Examples - a cup of flour weighs 120g. Very helpful. Also a cup of blueberries is 140g. Things like that make it easy to measure without dirtying a bunch of measuring cups and its more accurate.

    ETA - the weights of most foods vs. volumes are available on nutritiondata.com
  • jhardenbergh
    jhardenbergh Posts: 1,035 Member
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    Do you trust the portion size and calories when it's printed on the package?

    Always. I wouldn't have anything to go on, otherwise. I use what I'm given, and it works.

    I weigh everything, it's the only way to know that you are accurate with what you're consuming. I trust the info on the packages are correct, however, How does that match up to accurate serving sizes is something else. Take pasta for example by the box a serving of pasta could have 200 calories and 45 grams of carbs, but in an accurate serving of carbs is more closer to 100-125 calories and 15-20 grams of carbs, which is why it is important to weigh out everything. Is it possible to weigh all the time, probably not, but if you plan out your meals everyday, it makes your meals and your portions a whole lot more accurate.
  • iamahealthychick
    iamahealthychick Posts: 207 Member
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    I weigh and measure (tbsp/cups etc..) everything, right down to the milk in my coffee.
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,453 Member
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    yes I do weigh a lot of items, if the label gives the cals per grams or something - like cheese for example. If the cals are put down for a volume measurement, then I'll measure using my cups.
  • gp79
    gp79 Posts: 1,799 Member
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    I weigh meat, noodles, flour, cheese, vegetables and some other items. Over time it's given me good understanding of what 10oz of meat looks like for instance (I know some of your minds went to the gutter there...ha ha...) I don't feel I need to do it but I sometimes get a bit OCD with my diary.

    It's an unpopular habit that will cause others to think your weird! I've brought this up in conversation before...very unpopular.
  • Inebriated
    Inebriated Posts: 271
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    I always weigh what I'm eating.
  • ki4yxo
    ki4yxo Posts: 709 Member
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    I've never weighed any thing. I'll over estimate,
    plus I hardly ever finish everything on my plate.
  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
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    I weigh every gram/ounce and it makes a HUGE difference. Food labels, measuring cups and "best guesses" are usually the reason why people say they can't lose weight.

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