Hi there,
I am really thinking about getting a kitchen scale. I have never used one before and am not completely sure what I would use it on besides pasta. Why is pasta so hard?

Do you use a scale? What foods do you weigh the most? Does it help you?

I use my scale daily! I use it to measure cheese and other dairy products, and all meat. I just realized that I weigh a lot of fatty things, LOL. I'm not a fan of eye-balling the super rich stuff, because I tend to be WAY off!

I picked up a scale from Canadian Tire for pretty cheap, like $20-30 (which means $5 bucks in the US.. I kid!), and it's digital.

It can take a bit of getting used to, but once you're in the swing of things, you'll measure more often than not.

In the beginning I thought I'd only use it for pasta, too, but I use it daily now. It's more accurate than measuring cups or spoons and I use it for stuff like cereal, chips, almonds, etc. It helps a ton when I make casseroles or soups, as I can measure out servings and get them far more equal than just eye balling.

I have The Biggest Loser digital scale. Purchased it at Bed Bath and Beyond witha 20% coupon.

Great, I will pick one up this week.

I've had food scales before and they always seem to get thrown in a drawer. So I hesitated to buy the WW digital scale, but I am so glad I decided to spend the money. It is so easy to use, and it'll even figure up points for you.

What I like about it the most, I think, is that it has a glass platform on it instead of a bin of some sort. Because of this and the fact that it's digital, I can put a plate on it, zero out the plate, then add what I want to weigh right to the plate. Easy peasy.

This is EXACTLY what I do! If I'm making a plate with several things I can even zero it out between each item.

I was just telling my husband that I hear people saying they hate to count and measure but I feel so much more "sure" about my calculations when I'm weighing stuff out!

I've tried so many times to get away fom measuring everything because I find it a hassle, but I always wind up gaining the weight back I worked so hard to lose because of portion creep. I'd rather be sure, too.

It's just takes getting used to it, y'know? I've always been one of those " intuitive " cooks who doesn't need a recipe. Since I've gotten that scale, I've gotten many of my recipes nailed down so I make only what we can eat at one sitting, or maybe enough for leftovers the next day. Nailing down my recipes also means not have to taste test as I cook.

Yeah, it's hard to change years of cooking and eating habits, but change is good!

YES YES AND YES!!! I live by my scale. I measure everything on it. I do the whole put my plate and zero out between things, too.

I measure meat, cheese, potatoes, essentially anything with a point value.

I'm going to look into the WW scale though, especially if it calculates points for you!

Someone just mentioned the Perfect Portions scale on myfitnesspal.com. It's $50 but looks amazing. I'm going to see if they have it at Bed, Bath & Beyond so I can use a coupon. I really need a good scale.

I have this scale I got from BBB:
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/prod...p?SKU=16983853

I like it and mostly weigh meat. I like that it is slim so I can stash it between the bread box and wall (when not in use). It seems to measure accurately. I've not used the nutritional information features but I think that has potential in that you can add your own foods (up to 99 I think) to the database in addition to the ones already included. But then you would have to convert to PointsPlus....The more I think about it, the nutritional features are probably not worth the extra cost because we're already reading labels.

Okay, so today I bought this cheap scale from walmart because I was unsure of just how much I would use it, plus the expense of the other ones made me *gasp* out loud. So, I guess my question is; is my small inexpensive one just as good as the ones that make me say "holy crap. keeping in mind that it is not digital and will only weigh up to 32oz and it's smaller than a glass of ice water.
Thanks

It should be fine if you feel comfortable reading the measurements. As others have said, a benefit of a digital is that it can be zeroed out to weigh each item as you add it to the plate.

My digital scale was $20 at Target. I use it for everything.

ImImportant..... okay, 20 bucks I can handle, but they wanted over 40 *gasp* bucks at walmart....I think I may try it out for a week or two then move to the digtal one depending on how much I use it. Thanks for the help!
Shell

I second (and third) what everyone has said here. Pasta and cheese can be soooo deceiving! Yet with steamed shrimp you can pile it on! Using a scale at home has also helped me eyeball food when I'm eating out.

$40 seems like a lot for a food scale. I don't think I paid that much for my body weight scale. I bought the Biggest Loser scale at Bed, Bath and beyond and used my 20% off coupon. I'm pretty sure I didn't pay over $20, maybe $30 and I use it more than I ever thought I would.