How many ounces is this?

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jannygirl
jannygirl Posts: 15
in Introduce Yourself
Hi everyone,
Does anyone have a great way to eyeball how many ounces you are eating..ie. with meat, fruit, veggies etc? All always heard that you cannot go wrong with a serving size being the size of your palm? Thanks for any help!

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  • kicklikeaGIRL
    kicklikeaGIRL Posts: 867 Member
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    Hi Jannygirl! I personally weigh all of my food on a scale and measure my liquids in a measuring cup. However, I found this great little thing on WebMD which helps me when I am going out to eat, or having dinner with someone else. Because, I know I don't want to bring my FOOD SCALE to applebees..hahaha! Hope this is what you were looking for!

    http://www.webmd.com/diet/printable/portion-control-size-guide
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    I've been told that it's pretty hard to just eyeball many foods - I found a nice food scale on amazon.com ($25 - tons of good reviews, qualifies for free shipping) - specifically for this reason. I found I was over or underestimating on a lot of the foods like what you listed.

    http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Digital-Kitchen-Silver/dp/B001N07KUE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1256324264&sr=8-2

    Sorry this isn't much help, but I'd highly recommend you buy a scale if you can.
  • CasperO
    CasperO Posts: 2,913 Member
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    Hi everyone,
    Does anyone have a great way to eyeball how many ounces you are eating..ie. with meat, fruit, veggies etc? All always heard that you cannot go wrong with a serving size being the size of your palm? Thanks for any help!

    Funny stuff,,, "The size of your palm" probably isn't a bad idea for a nice roasted boneless chicken breast. But a brownie the size of your palm would be about a jillion calories - and a salad the size of your palm isn't even a good start.

    I have a pretty good eye now and I can judge what I'm getting,,, but I've been using a food scale for a long time. I'm with the rest of these guys - recommending a scale. It'll teach you how much is too much. :smile:
  • ShellyLee
    ShellyLee Posts: 293 Member
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    I tend to eyeball things as I don't have a scale, but use my measuring cups and spoons as much as I can. A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards. When I buy things like chicken I'll open the pack and put each breast in a ziplock before freezing it, but I try hard to check the weight before so I can try to estimate the size of each breast. Pasta tends to be hard. When I do penne or small pasta I use about a half cup dry as a serving size. I believe I've heard that for long noodles a single serving is about the size of a nickel is around (dry of course).
  • Kpablo
    Kpablo Posts: 355 Member
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    My dogs eat raw meat. I know sounds gross to most pet owners. I spent several months weighing their meat for them before feeding. So, I've had experience knowing what is a pound or 20 oz or 6 oz.

    Also, with my dog's meat, I pre-package it and label the quantity of it for the entire week, so I'm not having to weigh it each time. You could use this for your food too.

    But, if you want a scale, I got one when I first started weighing meat at Walmart. It's nothing fancy, but it tells you what you need to know. 5 bucks.
  • jannygirl
    jannygirl Posts: 15
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    Thanks guys, it is all really good advice! It looks like everyone uses a scale. Looks like I will be getting one.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    also you can get them at marshals or ross for 1/2 the price
  • CasperO
    CasperO Posts: 2,913 Member
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    I would recommend you spend the extra $10 and get a digital. Those silly spring & dial things are useless. We had one and replaced it within a week. Just too hard to use.
  • jannygirl
    jannygirl Posts: 15
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    Took note, thanks a lot :smile:
  • njjswim
    njjswim Posts: 178 Member
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    3 oz chicken breast is the size of the palm of your hand. But one tsp of peanut butter is equivalent to 3 oz serving of protein. The average of protein for us gals is 4-6 oz per day of protein. The palm is good for all you grains etc but for fruit is has to be fresh for a palm full not stacked high and for dry foods like raisens it is one about a tablespoon. The best site to teach you about protions is mypyramid.gov. That site will teach you about foods and what a serving is and printable pdf files and handouts on all kinds of conversions and recommendations and your own pyramid and it is all free.
  • njjswim
    njjswim Posts: 178 Member
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    YOU can use a scale but you can also loose weight just keeping with a ballpark. I lost over 90 lbs for each of my 5 pregnancies and it took about a year but you can do it with just some comman sense and Mypyramid.gov teaches you all that and offers other great sites for nutrtion and fitness:flowerforyou:
  • jannygirl
    jannygirl Posts: 15
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    Thanks njjswim! I will check out the site :smile:

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