A food scale is a crucial investment (Alli, overweight, supplements)

[lair8]

Consider how much money people spend on weight loss programs and products. Supplements. etc. Yet they miss out on the one investment that will actually help you lose weight you can find for only $20-25 online. A food scale.

Some may say it's inconvenient, but is it really? It takes less than a few minutes total per day to use it. This is the same amount of time many overweight people will spend reading articles about nutrition/weight loss or other theorycrafting.

Example: Put a bowl on the food scale. Tare it. Check the box of the food you're eating to see the number of grams per serving. Pour it in until you hit the desired amount of grams. Done. Under 30 seconds.

This is very useful for calorically dense foods like cereal, oatmeal, rice, pasta, nuts, etc. These have a reputation for being fattening in excess, but are totally fine in moderation.

Like with many habits, we're deterred from doing them because it seems like they require a lot of steps. Yet once we practice it, we realize it's so simple. I'd be lying if I said I used this for every meal of every day, but I still use it frequently. Weighing food help you guesstimate better. This means, in situations, where you're unable to count calories or just feel like eyeballing it, you have a better understanding of what portion size you should be eating.

[steiconi]

A measuring cup works just as well, and is much cheaper.

[KaraG]

I got my food scale, just a small measuring cup you put on a simple scale, from the grocery store. Maybe $5 or so. No need to buy any fancy digital scale.

I split everything I cook into single serving containers.

[fleetiebelle]

Weighing your food can work for some people, but for others it's a entry into obsessive behavior around food and disordered eating, so it is important to develop a healthy relationship to what you're eating and how you're eating it. When it comes down it, the average person has no idea exactly how many calories they're burning (and smartwatches are notoriously unreliable) and foods can vary from what the labels and the internet says. If a scale helps people get in touch with what are healthy portions for their own day-to-day needs, that's great, but it can be overkill.

[lair8]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

Weighing your food can work for some people, but for others it's a entry into obsessive behavior around food and disordered eating

Yeah. And you don't have to use it every meal for every day of the rest of your life. But it's a good starting point.

Once you get in the habit of using a scale for a month or 2, you have a baseline of what your portion sizes should be like. And from there, you can just make it a natural habit without having to scale.

Though if you start gaining weight, it's time to bring back the scale for a bit to recenter yourself.

[lair8]

And yes, a measuring cup is perfectly fine too.

[tickyul]

I guesstimate and it seems to work fine.

[luckyme609]

I think if you are really committed to a diet plan thats counts calories scale is a good investment along with measuring cups. We tend to underestimate weight and volume when it comes to calories. You would be surprised by how much.

[reneeh63]

I don't use mine for dieting...but it definitely gets at the DENSITY of food.

I use mine for the many, many recipes that are based on weight rather than volume and recipes stated in grams rather than Imperial. Obviously, recipes can be relevant to weight loss as well. And you can get perfectly reliable ones that go up beyond 10 pounds for like $15 so very reasonable.

[sera]

Have used mine for years; ie large carton of Oikos yogurt, 32 ounces. Put it on the scale, scoop out the ounces I desire. Favorite ice cream after a week, still have half of it ! Since weighing a portion, well, except a couple times !

Tillamook, MALTED Moo Shake.