A tribute to my food scale.

Okay, I'm always talking about my digital food scale on this website. I love it.

One reason I talk about it is because of a past problem I had once while calorie counting without it. Due to fear of eating too many calories, I was completely underestimating the calories in my food. I was afraid I would eat too much, I couldn't be exact without the scale. I quit calorie counting thinking 1600 a day was WAY to restrictive for me (in reality, I was eating around 1100 a day)

Anyway, the scale has taken 99% of the mystery away.

Sometimes I see people post sample menus that are WAY off calorically. Usually way-under, which should be a good thing.... until you feel like you can no longer calorie count because it is too restricting.

I also see people who write, "all I eat for a snack is a handful of nuts. I don't know why I'm not losing." Each 1gm of nut has about 6 cal. So, I handful could be anywhere from 60 - 200 calories. Same with peanut butter and oil, etc.

Anyway, if you are new to calorie counting, invest in a good food scale.

I have one ... sitting in its box, unopened, which I bought 2 months ago. Its a WW scale and I figured it just weighed food, but apparently it gives points plus values too. I think that is why its still sitting in the cabinet because I started counting calories instead. I haven't "needed" it yet....but I know it would be a good tool to use in addition to my measuring cups/spoons.

I agree completely. I love my digital kitchen scale & use it daily. I'm like you: I tend to overestimate calories and that leads to undereating and feelings of deprivation. The food scale solves that problem. Another benefit is that it cuts down on dirty dishes. In the past when I just measured, I would have measuring cups or spoons to wash all the time. Now, though, I can just add my food to my plate or bowl, zeroing out the total with the "Tare" feature before adding a new food. For instance, I used to measure out my peanut butter, but now I put my plate on the digital scale, my toast on my plate, turn the scale on, and just put my p.b. on the toast, weighing it at the same time.

Prior to having a food scale, I restricted myself to packaged processed foods when trying to lose weight. It was the only way to count calories.

Now I can use whole foods and still stay on track. Much better.

I learned a new trick with the scale for things like peanut butter, mayo, etc. I put the jar on the scale, tare it, and then scoop out until it reads -15g or whatever amount.

I love love love my scale

It does save a lot of dishes from getting dirty.

I also like the "subtract" trick, but haven't used it yet.

I have a philips digital scale that you can reset, so no math needs to be done. Basically, you put your plate on it, hit reset, you are back at 0.

Then put the chicken breast on it, weight it, then hit reset before putting the potato on. I usually keep postits in the kitchen, I write down the grams there.

Anyway, I just wanted to post this thread, letting other calorie counters know how easy and accurate it can make things.

I have one. I use mine all the time and I love it.

Things I could not contemplate losing weight without:

* bathroom scale
* some means of charting my weight loss on a graph
* some means of counting calories (this and the last are accomplished by good dieting software)
* measuring cups
* electronic kitchen scale

One thing I've always wondered is how people manage to cook pasta or rice without measuring first. I've always done that, especially since I am a firm believer in getting the rice-water ratio right for perfectly cooked rice. I think it's partly because my memory is so poor that I'm hopeless at measuring anything by eye, so I've been relying on the scale for cooking pasta for years, well before I started dieting. When the scale broke down, I wouldn't eat pasta until I had a new scale!

I NEVERRRRRR THOUGHT OF THAT!!!! That's genius! You seriously just...wow, you don't know what you just did for me hahahaha. Thank you!

I've been meaning to get one for a while now. I've noticed that not all measuring cups are created equal so weighing would be so much more accurate.

I have to buy one online so that's why I haven't gotten one yet. (laziness)

Esofia: That would actually make a good thread: "Things I could not contemplate losing weight without"!

I am so going to have to get one. Even if just for the fact I'll probably have way too much fun measuring stuff (I am easily amused ^_^). Would I have to get an expensive one or would something cheap from Wal-Mart do?

I've been very successful without a food scale thus far, although I have been using measuring cups and things. If I really needed to figure out the weight of something I've googled "4oz of chicken" and looked at a picture.

There's a big reason why I haven't gotten one though, as I'm really afraid that it would put me into the realm of an eating disorder. I've seen myself getting obsessive about the calories I've consumed or going to consume and I've had to step back and relax. I've got an obsessive personality and I really do have to be careful. There are some situations I avoid just so I don't trigger that obsessive center of me.

It's one of the reasons why my video game loving self avoids games like World of Warcraft...I know I would become one of those people who never sees the light of day and sits at the computer all day long. I generally need my games to have an ending or I'll go off the deep end. Skyrim being the exception as it's on the Xbox and therefore in the living room and I need to share that TV so I do get kicked off.

It's the same principle with watching my food intake. I'm not really sure I can take that extra step without going overboard. I saw how I nearly flipped out when going out with my fiancee and his friends when we had to switch restaurants unexpectedly after I had researched the original one we were going to. I really had to stop myself and realize that it wasn't a big deal if I was over my count by 100-200 calories in one day and I really needed to stop obsessing over it.

I think it's best for me to avoid the food scale for the time being until I'm sure that I wouldn't start getting obsessive about weighing every little thing I eat. I already measure, count out parts of a serving, etc., so I'm sure I can't be off by too much anyway.

Even if I am, whatever count I'm getting is clearly working.

Perfect thread to post this in.

So how can you tell if your food scale is off?

Today I was weighing out spinach dip. The serving size was 2 tbs (30g). I put my container on the scale and hit tare. It went down to 0 just like it should. I added one tbs of dip to the container and it came up as 36g. So either my digital scale is way off or the nutrition facts are wrong.

This makes me nervous because now I'm not sure which to trust. Is there a way to test my scale with something.

Leah: Test it. X ounces of water by volume is X ounces of water by weight (8 ounces by volume weighs 8 ounces, etc).

edit: And if it's off, check your batteries. Low batteries = inconsistent results.