Food Scales are they helpful?

Does anyone use one of these things. I need one because I have no idea what one ounce of food looks like or a 1/2 cup of nuts, etc. Just now I ate a little bitty piece of vday cake from the bakery but I don't know if it was an ounce or what. How do you know by just eyeballing? Anyone got any tricks?

As far as I know there aren't any tricks - you should really get one!  You can get pretty cheap ones (for less than $20).  I'd never know what 4 ounces of pasta was without it!

scales are helpful, but you don't need a scale to know what a 1/2 cup is.  volume and weight are different, you know?  and measuring cups are cheap.

Food scale has been indespensible for me. 1/2 cup broccoli chopped into small pieces is a lot more than 1/2 cup chopped into larger pieces-- so it can get confusing. I love my scale. It makes everything incredibly easy. It has a tare function where you can put a plate on there and then set it to zero. So you can count the first item. Then tare again, and add your second ingredient on the plate etc. Definitely get one. Mine was like 15 bucks and it came with measuring cups.

buy one.  As an older cook, I had one for baking, but was amazing at how I was overestimating my serving of food, when I started my new healthy lifestyle.

Now, instead of a plain scale, wish I had one that told grams as so many things now adays are in grams.

I just bought one through amazon.com for $6.95. I knew that I had to have one to start my healthy way of eating. sometimes you need to measure ounces not a 1/2 cup.

Thanks, I'll definitely check it out!!! I want to find one that does the most for the best value.

I use a little $5 one from Bed Bath and Beyond for everything.  Though mostly meats like chicken and beef, and pasta.  I had no CLUE what 2oz of dry penne looked like....now I am am pro! :)

I bought an electronic one, and it cost me about $50. It sits in a drawer and never gets used. For me, measuring cups work just fine! I assume half the calorie content reported on items is only approximate anyway, so I simply give myself a little overestimation on the calories if I'm really not sure and it's usually OK.

I actually just bought one today.. and i love it. I had no clue what a half of a cup of chicken looked like until this morning. I bought it in wallgreens for 5$, it has grams and ounces, its the best investment for a diet, especially with the calorie counter

I've been using one for years.  You won't be sorry for getting one!

I went with a nice one I don't mind keeping out on the counter and it was $49 with bells and whistles.  You can go cheaper, but whatever you do, get one...I was still going over portion sizes and what I thought I should put in CC by DOUBLE...get one and stay honest...30 pounds off since Oct and I would not have dropped that much if I "eyeballed" it!

Buy it. It's definitely worth the investment. Eyeballing is REALLY hard to do, not to mention a lot of prepackaged & processed foods weigh more than the label suggests, so they contain more calories (such as granola bars, oatmeal, tv dinners, etc).

you MUST get one! it will be so helpful.

you cant really tell just by looking at food as foods all have different density so its not always about the size ;D

definitely worth it, if you are serious about losing weight. It is especially useful if you find it hard to limit food, as you can use it to maximize the calories you eat without going over CC's recomendations. My husband who believed he could never lose weight unless with something extreme like Atkins has been loosing weight at 1 to 2 pounds a week just going by CC's guideline of how much calories he should be eating. weighing the food allows him flexibility since one days going over the limit can be easily averaged out by having less than the recommended amount the next few days.  No guessing that he was eating less. he likes a snack before bed(claims he cannot go to sleep easily when he is hungry). That end of the day snack varies  to keep him within limits.  150 grams of Ice Cream to 200 is a favourite with the amount varying depending on the flavour (calories in the flavour) of Ice Cream.  With a scale and CC he can figure out if exactly how many grams he can have -he wants that extra spoonful if he can get it and still be a "good" boy.