How accurate are you?

The bowls that I own are a little over 1 cup so with a lot of things, I eat 1 bowl or half a bowl. My measuring cups would get super dirty if I had to use them everytime. -_- Try to look for containers around your house that are close to 1/2 cup or a cup

I use a measuring cup for everything since I don't trust myself to estimate portion sizes correctly.

Sadly, I can't measure everything I eat as I don't have a kitchen scale, so I estimate everything. But I always log a little more than I think I ate, just to be sure.

buy a kitchen scale...and use it!!!!

Lets just say I have a new food scale and it's already worn out.

if you don't measure accurately or be honest about your serving sizes, you likely won't get results. It kinda defeats the purpose.

Measure and weigh almost all of it... Unless I am out at a resturant... then I guess it but I have gotten pretty good at the guess since weighing things for a year plus.

I have a pretty good idea of a serving size without weighing.

I measure the first few times, then when I'm used to seeing it in the bowl, or pan, or cup, I can tell easily how much it is. Photographic memory. :drinker:

I'll admit it - I just guess. When I started, I said if estimating didn't work, I would get a scale and be more careful. But I lost the weight with no problems.

I tend to be as accurate as possible. Probably my OCD side of thinking. But sometimes I go "eh, close enough".

With meat/cheese/unprocessed grains, I weigh, unless it's something discrete like a chicken leg, in which case I use the entries. I figure that a bit of +/- will average out over time.

With veggies, I tend to use a 1 lb package and just write down 1 lb of veggies.

With fruits/processed grains, they tend to come in discrete quantities so I'll write down, for example, half a cantaloupe, two slices of bread.

With liquids, I have checked my glasses and know where 1 cup, 2 cups, etc are so I don't have to measure every time.

I have scales and measuring cups. I learned to pre-portion my meats etc for sandwhiches and meals. From there I learned how much my bowls and cups held of a particular food (where a cup was etc).

It helped that I figured out I'm pretty good at off the cuff weighing and measuring thanks to 7 years of making dog food and having to portion and weight it as I put it into baggies and freeze it. (go figure that I had learned to control, portion and ensure my dogs were eating healthy for 7 years before I realised I should be doing this for me too!!!)

But I get as exacting as possible. I want to make sure I'm not going over and sabotaging my efforts here!

I use a scale when I cook and eyeball when I eat out.

I don't bother measuring/weighing spices, onions, garlic, herbs, lemon juice, or vinegar.

I also don't measure oil, I eyeball it. It is close enough for me. And I only use oil in salad dressing or when I am sauteeing, so I imaging some stays in the pan, so I don't need to be perfect.

I also don't bother with logging a splash of something most of the time. I might add a tiny bit of coconut water to my water. Or a bit of almond milk in my tea. It adds up to an ounce or 2 typically and that works out to about 15 calories at the worst case so not enough to trouble myself with.

measuring cups/spoons are very inaccurate. i use a digital scale for everything. that probably adds about 30 seconds to my meal prep time.