My experiences with using a scale to weigh food after estimating

So I used to just estimate, but I bought a postal scale recently and I've been checking myself. Here are a few things I've found:

- for me, the 1 cup of cereal was exactly the right amount of grams. I didn't heap up the cup measure though.

- cheese: I was bang on when I just cut slivers to put on crackers (I would visualize 1 oz as the size of a domino)... but when it came to grated cheese, I was underestimating.

- chips: I don't eat chips much, but I was going to eat the last little bit in a bag my bf had because it did NOT look like much. The serving size was "10 chips" and came in at 140 calories. Well it looked like about 10 chips but they were broken up so it was hard to tell I guess... I weighed them and it was actually the equivalent of over 2 servings! So I decided to skip them altogether because that was sort of shocking

- fruit: Most pieces of fruit I have weighed seem to count as a "large" piece of fruit as far as this website goes

- pasta: again my estimates of 1 cup seem pretty accurate for weight, I guess I have good measuring cups or something.

- pop: I decided to find out how big my glass was and filling it up not even all the way was 12 oz of Pepsi (I don't drink pop very often but once in a while for a treat... that was a bit of an eye opener too). I guess this is actually a positive thing when it comes to drinking water out of the same glass, though, because it means I was getting more than I thought.

It does feel a little obsessive weighing everything I eat, but I'm trying to make it feel "fun," mostly I've been treating it as a curiosity experiment to see how accurate my guesses have been.

What have your experiences been with weighing your food?

I had some nasty surprises.  The "cup" of cereal had apparently settled in shipping and was more like a cup and a half gram wise.  Meat portions were another thing where my scale saved me - particulary lunch meat. 

im so jealous, i really want a scale to measure my food!

I think by having a scale, it only shows your tenacity and committment to your goals. I have a postal scale for my ebay side business but I haven't used it yet. I think it's a great tool and assist. Keep up the good work.

I bought a food scale about a year ago and it totally opened my eyes about how 'off' I was in guestimating.

I've used it almost daily ever since.

I'm a weigher!!!  It's more habit now than anything else but I always weigh things before they go into the pot.  In my bad old, fat old days I would boil the water and liberally shake the pasta jar into it.....  When I actually weighed out a 2oz serving of dry pasta I though I was going to starve to death!  Funnily enough, I didn't :-)

I can guesstimate really well these days but the scales stay on the kitchen top right next to the chopping board...... they've literally saved my life.

I love my scale too. I've had it for about 5 months so I don't use it as often now..but I do use it nearly every day! There were a number of things that surprised me (for instance flax seed is heavier, salad is lighter) but I think it's kind of fun too. Pasta and meat are the things it has really helped me with; like gi-jane, I didn't think I could possibly live with just one serving of pasta. Now I have that one serving, salad, another vegy and I'm set!

Oh man, I want to get a food scale now but I'm afraid that I'll become too attached to it. Like weighing water to make sure that I;m really drinking 8 oz 

No but really, I'm about to get one soon!!!

I use a scale as well. I think it makes the process more accurate and I am able to budget quite nicely.

What do you look for in a food scale.  Will they all measure grams, ounces, ? I'm looking one that is computerized and that if I want oz i just push a button. Can anbyody help thanks

Ehe. When I first bought mine a year or so ago.. my "3 oz." of meat was really 6. Woops!

Original Post by bocajr9:

What do you look for in a food scale.  Will they all measure grams, ounces, ? I'm looking one that is computerized and that if I want oz i just push a button. Can anbyody help thanks

I got mine at wallyworld for about $30,-, it has a button on the bottom where you can change it from grams to oz if you want, mostly I weigh in grams though, since on most labels they give grams next to cups, what I like best in this scale is that you can set it to 0 with a bowl on it for example and then fill the bowl with yogurt, set to 0 again and next weigh your cereal, very handy.
I can not live without my scale anymore, indeed like gi-jane said, it is has been a life saver for me and it is right there next to my cutting board

I started weighing all my food about 2 months ago. I found cereal was pretty accurate like you had mentioned, sometimes even a little more then what I though.

Peanut butter, geeze I was going WAY over. I couldnt believe how little of an amount you get with 15g.

Veggies, I found I was under estimating alot. Like a cup of zucchini I was about 1/2 off to 1/4 off.

Its pretty crazy what you think is the amount, and what the ACTUAL amount is.

Thank God for my scale, I have no idea where I would be without it now haha!!

I cant go anywhere without that thing, and I weigh absolutly everything

Oh and again like posted earlier, I also found that fruit is considered "large" which kinda sucks because I always thought mine were either small or medium"ish"

I weigh my food pretty obsessively and have found some discrepancies when measuring by volume. 

Flours, polenta/grits, whole grains, and similar items tend to be the biggest offenders -- denser than their packaging suggests.  The brand of grits that I use, for example, claims that 35 grams is 1/4 c, but I find that 35 g of grits only fills up 3/4 of the volume of a 1/4 c dry measuring cup.  Knowing this has actually made me a better baker, though, as I can now easily avoid using too much flour (or whatever) in a recipe by just measuring by weight.

I found that some things I was spot on and others off. But the biggest thing is that I used to think weighing my food was obessive and bothersome and nit-picky and just too much effort and too intense but I've found that I actually like doing it now and it actually helps me understand food better, to recognize that 4 ounces of chicken is plenty. I used to hear 4 ounces and think that wasn't enough food and now I realize it is. (I don't think I understood what an ounce was.) And now I just love it.

I've found it freeing, not restrictive. It gives me the ability to really know my food and make choices that work for me instead of just eating blindly. I wish I had started doing it early, but I did it when I did it and I'm happy now.