Portioning out food

[Hill_Billy 14]

Do you guys portion out your food with measuring cups or do you weigh it? Depending on the food, 2oz by weight can be a lot more or less than 1/4 cup, so I’m just wondering how you do it. I just want to do whichever is best for my long term success!

[joleza 11]

really good question, i was also wondering that. my dr is saying 4 teaspoons, which depending on what that is could be several ounces, or not even 1. it is all very confusing. i am at week 6 today. i am just excited that in 2 more weeks i can move up to 1/4 cup, which is more than 4 teaspoons for sure. this is hard, and i want to eat a big salad.

[catwoman7 10,876]

depends on what it is. Something like yogurt, I measure. meat - I weigh. I'm thinking the more solid something is, weighing is probably more accurate.

[Hellie1028 20]

I think that generally liquids should be measured by volume and solids by weight.

It kinda makes me think about all the times I used a measuring cup for flour/ sugar versus the Great British Baking Show weighs those items.

[BigSue 1,320]

I weigh almost everything. It's more precise and I don't have to wash a measuring cup. It's easier to divide things into equal servings that way, e.g., dividing a 150-gram yogurt into three 50-gram servings, or calculate how many servings (or what fraction of a serving) I'm eating for the purposes of food tracking. Some things are difficult to measure accurately by volume, like Protein Powder. "One scoop" can be very different amounts depending on how tightly you pack it in the scoop.

[MotivatedMomma 14]

Everyone has different opinions, im just sharing mine.. but my dietician said to never weigh when portioning. Your stomach is restricted by the volume you can eat not the weight of the food. You should be measuring your food out by portion size.

[ms.sss 14,711]

I measured by volume exclusively the first month.

After that it was primarily by weight, with sometimes volume (i.e., liquids, semi-liquids, sauces, etc...)

[sdjohnson7 79]

I measure out my meats ( scale) and use measuring cups for everything else .

[Ajjacobs 6]

I am almost 4 weeks post op VGS. I use measuring cups still because anything more feels like too much. As I advance because of the importance of getting enough meat/protein, I probably will start weighing my meat.

[angryspice 31]

I thought getting a food scale was a little fanatical, but I recently broke down and got one and use it ALL THE TIME. I always weigh meat portions at home. sometimes I go little crazy and weigh the bones after when I eat bone-in meat so I know exactly how many ounces of meat I consumed. I have also used it to weight Pasta (once), nuts, block cheeses, granola, and basically anything that has the weight specified on the nutrition label to ensure I don't overestimate portions. the only things I don't care enough to measure are veggies since the more the better really.

I also use measuring cups and spoons a lot, especially for liquids, but found them to be inaccurate for things like cashews or whatever (for example, a 1/4 cup of cashews is usually more than 1oz which is the proper serving size), which was another reason to get the food scale. I highly recommend getting a food scale if you don't already have one. it has definitely helped me track Protein and calories more accurately.

Edited October 7, 2020 by angryspice

[maslman 65]

I have a food scale that I generally use for solids, but because of the limited volume of my stomach right now I've mostly been going by volume. Instead of making a measuring cup dirty however I bought a bunch of cheap plastic containers that are either 2 or 4 ounces. I put what I'm planning on eating in there, snap the top on and go.

[al0vely 24]

At my WLS they say use cups - not weight.