Why you need a food scale

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carrie_eggo
carrie_eggo Posts: 1,396 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I know this is a sort of advertisement for Leigh Peele's book, but it is an excellent example of how easy it is to underestimate caloric intake, even when measuring your food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY
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Replies

  • grapenutSF
    grapenutSF Posts: 648 Member
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    I love my food scale. It's like a coke scale. Super precise. I get mocked for all the food that I weigh, but it's worth it.
  • amem07
    amem07 Posts: 8 Member
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    Does a food sacel really help? I have never thought of using one....... I just kind of guess at what I am eating? Maybe that is why I am not losing a lot of weight?
  • carrie_eggo
    carrie_eggo Posts: 1,396 Member
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    Does a food sacel really help? I have never thought of using one....... I just kind of guess at what I am eating? Maybe that is why I am not losing a lot of weight?

    Um, did you watch the video?
  • Picola1984
    Picola1984 Posts: 1,133
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    Does a food sacel really help? I have never thought of using one....... I just kind of guess at what I am eating? Maybe that is why I am not losing a lot of weight?

    Not a good idea IMO

    Even after weighing my food for so long, I find my guess work to be pretty inaccurate with many foods.

    Its very easy to underestimate the weight of something
  • EbbySoo
    EbbySoo Posts: 267 Member
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    IT IS SOOOO WORTH IT!! LOL. I was pretty good at eyeballing the majority of my staples for the proper serving, but I weighed out my oatmeal serving and it was 3X as much as the serving I was recording, which was 350 calories more per day just in oats, then I weighed my Kirkland prunes, it says on the label 5 prunes=100 calories, was I ever off there, 3 prunes on the scale works out to the 40g serving for 100 cals. Big difference if you go to eat 10 prunes per day no? :) Love it, it's my new geeky tool.
  • modernmom70
    modernmom70 Posts: 373 Member
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    Yes love my digital food scale! I only use measuring cups for liquid. Also you should weigh your bread because a piece rarely is the number of grams it says it is and the nutritional info is based on.
  • bjfrezell
    bjfrezell Posts: 241
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    I recommend a food scale. I'll use measuring cups all the time but nothing beats the food scale. You can definitely over estimate your food weight by just eye-balling the food. My husband mocks me sometimes when I whip my food scale out but he never mocks me on the weight I've lost (which is more than him!) :)
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Thanks. Bookmarked it to use for future forum questions.
  • CheleLynn44
    CheleLynn44 Posts: 339 Member
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    I'm so happy with my food scale. I was actually under-eyeballing a few things. Which isn't horrible, but if I'm putting down I'm eating 6oz I now know I'm eating 6oz!! :happy:
  • PANZERIA
    PANZERIA Posts: 471 Member
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    I ADORE my food scale. My portions were way over what I should have been eating before - you really can't guess your food. Weighing is the only way to be certain, that's for sure.

    I also love that my food scale has a 'tare' option so I don't have to do a lot of math, lol.
  • Goosiesnougs
    Goosiesnougs Posts: 420
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    LOVE my food scale, but can anyone answer this....When I measure out half a cup of ice cream (not a lot for a serving size, is it?)
    It is totally different than when I put it on the food scale and measure it in grams (I forget exactly how many it is for my slow churned pistashio!!) I get to eat WAAAAYYYY more than when I try to stuff it in the measuring cups. WHY IS THIS----I am not complaining!
  • sheystar
    sheystar Posts: 58
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    you need a food scale because it is very helpful. especially for me because i love nuts, and it is very easy to overeat with nuts. not to mention they are high in calories. i weigh them on my food scale and in that way i can keep everything in control. right nowi just ate 10 grams of almonds :)
  • failnomore
    failnomore Posts: 39
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    I weigh EVERYTHING!! To the point my husband thinks I'm losing it :tongue:
  • Bean615
    Bean615 Posts: 132 Member
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    my food scale changed my life! it really showed me how much i was over-eating.
  • JaimeBrown5
    JaimeBrown5 Posts: 324
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    LOVE my food scale, but can anyone answer this....When I measure out half a cup of ice cream (not a lot for a serving size, is it?)
    It is totally different than when I put it on the food scale and measure it in grams (I forget exactly how many it is for my slow churned pistashio!!) I get to eat WAAAAYYYY more than when I try to stuff it in the measuring cups. WHY IS THIS----I am not complaining!

    I noticed the same thing.... so I stuffed it in a measuring cup, then dumped that on the food scale and made a mental note of what it weight in grams. Then I just use that number of grams to measure it out later.
  • NicolePatriot
    NicolePatriot Posts: 621 Member
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    I just got one for Valentine's Day! It is awesome. Highly recommended :)
  • Tammelina
    Tammelina Posts: 9 Member
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    I've been putting this issue off for weeks.... Going shopping this weekend!!!
  • dizzyblondegirlie
    dizzyblondegirlie Posts: 40
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    I am in love with my food scale! it's a digital one that I got for xmas. Use it for most meals. I weigh everything where i'm not using something pre-prepared or a 'whole' something.

    I find it really useful for creating my recipes on mfp as I can them work out the cals in one serving. Would definitely recommend getting one. No matter how good you think you are at gestimating weight, every time I weigh something I have a guess first and I'm always way off. They are cheap so definitely buy some x
  • jeccalou
    jeccalou Posts: 92 Member
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    Yep, love my scale. Takes all the guesswork out of calcuating my portions, and I am much more confident about the accuracy of my calorie intake.
  • TubbsMcGee
    TubbsMcGee Posts: 1,058 Member
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    I love my food scale!

    I can't imagine my life without it.

    My battery died in my old one and within 2 hours I had replaced the entire scale with a fancier version

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