Hi all,

I've yet to be banded and I"m looking to lose weight over the next six months. I would like to weigh my portion sizes to make sure that I'm only eating 3-4 oz of protein with meals. Is 3-4oz recommended? Where does one purchase a scale for this? Does anyone else weigh their food? Thanks for your help and advice. :laugh:

You can get a kitchen scale if you want. You can get them in most stores that sell kitchen supplies.

I don't really measure, I did at first so that I could figure out how much food I could handle but after a while you get a feel for it and are able to serve it up without weighing and measuring, and your band will let you know when you've had enough. It takes more than 1/4-1/2 cup for me though. I guess I am eating around 1-2 ounces of meat and 1/2 cup of veggies maybe a little fruit for a total of 3/4-1 cup max per meal but my needs vary from meal-to-meal and fill-to-fill. Also the type of food you eat makes a difference. A softer mushier food is not going to fill you up like a denser heavier food.

I never used a scale, I used measuring cups or just used tricks to eye up my portions. Here are some handy hints:

1 oz meat=size of matchbox

3 oz meat=size of deck of cards/bar of soap

3 oz fish filet=size of a checkbook

1 oz cheese=four dice

With the band, it's all about VOLUME, not weight. I wouldn't recommend a scale, but you may want to buy some extra measuring cups.

In the beginning I measured everything, so you're 1/2 cup and 1/4 cups are always in the dishwasher.

Congrats on your upcoming band!

I am really a mixture of measuring and weighing. I did buy a scale (amazon.com) I use it for my meat and when I'm measuring out a serving (usually an ounce) of say crackers, etc.

I find the scale really helpful with the meat because I might have made braised beef where its smaller pieces or want to portion pieces of already sliced grilled chicken or am measuring a piece of fish which is thinner than other cuts of meat. I have to admit - I really thought I had a good idea of what different serving sizes would look like and was very surprised how off I was.

Other things I always measure and for that reason it is very helpful to have extra 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 cup measures. I also buy tons of the 4, 6 and 8 oz tupperwares (even found a website -plasticcity) where they had disposable ones. That way after I make a meal I immediately just put it into those size containers and I'm all portioned out.

Good Luck!

Yeah, a scale can come in handy when measuring certain items: hard to measure a fish filet with a measuring cup without mashing it up.