Measuring--volume vs weight

Thanks!

Morning Patty

I know this can be confusing, trust me early out I was not sure either. I will tell you what I do and it works for me.

Dense protein I use a kitchen scale and weigh out 3oz or 4oz. For veggies I use volume, so 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup. For brick cheese I use weight, I will cut a piece and put it on my kitchen scale and see if its 2 or 3 oz.

Anything "liquidy" like say yogurt is by volume, so if my yogurt container says 100 grams I use that but I don't actually scoop it out of the container and put it on a scale, its already a pre portioned individual serving. For condiments, I do measure with my tbp or tbsp otherwise its too hard to over eat on them.

For liquids, I know how much volume my coffee mug holds for example: 16oz volume, and I measured it out long time ago to be sure.

So most of what I eat is by weight, i.e. on a scale. Liquid is by volume i.e. 1/2 cup, or 8 ounces. Hope that helps answer your question and not confuse the situation even more LOL

We are all different people, starting this journey at different weights and some like you are revisions. Slow weight loss does not mean you are doing anything wrong, I just wanted to reassure you that for you slow & stead wins the race!

Keep you the great work!

Thanks!!

I've been guesstimating my water bottle since surgery- and finally yesterday I measured it. 16 ounces/500 mls. :)

If you are new and trying to avoid hurting your new stomach, volume is the only thing that matters.

If you are interested in tracking calories, volume is nearly useless. Weighing is the only way to go. Grams would be best, but since most of the info in MFP is in ounces, that's what I use. My scale weighs ounces in .05 increments.

When I was using protein powder, I weighed it instead of using the scoop they provide. Do a simple experiment. Take five different scoopfuls, and weigh each one. You'll be off each time, and usually over by about 15 percent. That's a lot of extra calories.

Grim -This is probably the best advice I have received on here so far and it was from you a few months ago! What a difference it made. Again, thank you.

About 2 years after surgery, my kitchen scale broke. I had a panic attack! No one local had one, so I had to overnight one from Amazon. The scale was only 13 bucks, and the shipping was more.

I believe it, I would have done the same!

Hi Grim,

If after your 3-4oz of protein you have room and want veggies, how do you know how much is too much? Should those be weighed? I just like raw peppers, arugula etc and my pouch won't stop me but I don't want to stretch things.

If stretching is your concern, go by volume. It won't do anything to help figure calories, but bulk matters.

You could eat 10,000 calories of frosting and not feel full, or stretch anything. It would slide right down. But 10,000 calories of broccoli or celery would fill the back of a pickup truck, and make you explode.

If it is volume of something dense, I wouldn't go past a half cup. For a newbie, I'd say a quarter cup.

And for the record, if I had room after my protein, I'd have more protein. The last time I ate a vegetable, no one knew the words "Twitter" or "Instagram."