The "Tare" button--my new best friend!

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Azdak
Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I suspect most normal people already know this, but for the few slow learners like myself, I thought I would share my "slap myself in the forehead" epiphany.

I am sure that most of your scales have a "tare" function which resets the display to zero after you have placed a container, etc on the scale. That's the most obvious use.

As we all know, it gets very tedious after a while having to measure all your food. Sooner or later, many of us tend to drift to "visual estimates" with varying degrees of success.

What I realized was that I can use my "tare" button to incrementally measure just about anything I add to many meal items, instead of getting out multiple measuring spoons and cups. Just about every food label lists the serving size in grams, as well as the standard "cooking" unit of measure.

Example: if I am making a sandwich, I just put the bread on the scale, push tare, add some peanut butter, push tare, add the jelly--voila!--measured to the gram with no spoons to wash. The same thing with salad dressing, sauces, etc, etc.

It has made measuring these items so quick and easy that I am remotivated to keep on top of my food intake.

I am sure you are all rolling your eyes at this point and saying "thank you, Captain Obvious"--but I was excited :tongue:

Replies

  • berlin80210
    berlin80210 Posts: 59 Member
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    Those moments are the best ;-)
  • meganlkp
    meganlkp Posts: 41
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    BIG LOL!! :) thanks for sharing - v.v. funny!
  • lotusfromthemud
    lotusfromthemud Posts: 5,335 Member
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    I just had a facepalm moment. . .because I'd never figured that out.

    Thanks! I will now be a speedier weigh-er.:flowerforyou:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    I just had a facepalm moment. . .because I'd never figured that out.

    Thanks! I will now be a speedier weigh-er.:flowerforyou:

    Me too! How many times did I measure bread, measure turkey, measure cheese, measure....OMG...DUH!
  • Bryan190
    Bryan190 Posts: 54
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    The tare button is indeed a great convenience of the digital scale. I also find being able to switch from ounces to grams convenient as well, and making full use of these features saves much time and dirty measuring spoons. For the peanut butter sandwich example, where one serving of Smart Balance is 2 tbsp or 32g, I tare the plate and bread then pick up the bread and spread what looks like what I want on it and put it back on the scale. So if the scale shows I added 18 grams then just use a calculator to convert 18/32 to the decimal amount (0.5625) and put that in as the number of servings - no obsessing about trying to exactly hit a set amount of anything but accurately recording everything, quick and easy and nothing gets dirtied other than the knife I spread it with.
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
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    I suspect most normal people already know this, but for the few slow learners like myself, I thought I would share my "slap myself in the forehead" epiphany.

    I am sure that most of your scales have a "tare" function which resets the display to zero after you have placed a container, etc on the scale. That's the most obvious use.

    As we all know, it gets very tedious after a while having to measure all your food. Sooner or later, many of us tend to drift to "visual estimates" with varying degrees of success.

    What I realized was that I can use my "tare" button to incrementally measure just about anything I add to many meal items, instead of getting out multiple measuring spoons and cups. Just about every food label lists the serving size in grams, as well as the standard "cooking" unit of measure.

    Example: if I am making a sandwich, I just put the bread on the scale, push tare, add some peanut butter, push tare, add the jelly--voila!--measured to the gram with no spoons to wash. The same thing with salad dressing, sauces, etc, etc.

    It has made measuring these items so quick and easy that I am remotivated to keep on top of my food intake.

    I am sure you are all rolling your eyes at this point and saying "thank you, Captain Obvious"--but I was excited :tongue:

    Well it wasn't obvious to me, in fact, I didn't even know what "tare" was, I used to just look at the word "tare" on the scales in wonderment :laugh:

    Thanks for that info, it will come in very, very handy!! :flowerforyou:

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