OK, I thought after all this time I was pretty good at eyeballing portion size, but I still check up by weighing once in a while to make sure I'm not slipping, especially with calorie dense things like cheese. As my special treat for when I'm hiking, I get to have peanut butter (usually I avoid it nowadays because it's easy for me to want way too much of it.)
According to the label it's 190 cal for a 2 tablespoon (36g) serving. I put it on rye crackers, what seemed to be 2 tablespoons, a good but not overly excessive looking serving -- only I had the scale right there on the counter, so I weighed the crackers before and after:
66 grams of peanut butter -- my "2 tablespoons" were closer to 4, and probably 350 cal instead of 190. I'm going to keep checking myself once in a while...
I don't weigh peanut butter, but I do use a tablespoon to measure it when I have it. It's one of the few things I measure out because it's so high in calories!
I should start weighing my peanutbutter or use a spoon. I sometimes have it 3times a day and I know in my hearts heart that I am overestimating it. Haha. Thanks for reminging us!
I did this for my hubby once. When he saw how little the amount was, he was shocked. It's really easy to overestimate portion sizes when just 'eyeballing' it.
Me too - it's one of the few things I actually measure precisely as eyeballing it can mean hundreds of calories mistake whereas with most things it doesn't make much difference.
I love peanut butter, but I have always hated the calories/fat, so I was thrilled to find PB2. 2 tblsp = 45 cals. I think it tastes good too.
I like PB2, but it's not as filling because of the removed fat. So, for me, it's a catch 22. I get less calories from that item, but then I need to eat something else anyway as I don't find it as satiating, so in the end it's a wash and who says the other thing would be as good for me - nut fats are good fats.
My scale is just a cheapo digital scale, no particular name brand. Digital scales are pretty easy to get outside the US just in a supermarket, because lots of recipes give all the ingredients by weight in grams. So a lot of my baking recipes are like 550 grams flour, 25 grams butter etc. The reason I tried weighing is that the peanut butter is so sticky I didn't want to lose any on the spoon!
Isn't it amazing how looks can be deceiving? Here in Israel, I know that the bread look and weight is very misleading. I was eating a specific brand of rye bread for months, enjoying 2 slices a day and thinking I was within the calorie count of what a regular slice of bread is. Wrong! When I actually got out my kitchen scale to weigh the slices, I found out each was 60 grams. So I was actually eating 4 slices of bread instead of 2!
It's the same with "light" bread. In the States, light bread is 40 calories each (or thereabouts). In Israel, each slice is actually 60 calories by weight. so "light" bread isn't so light...
So this time I *weighed* the peanut butter...
