That feel when you finally get a food scale

And it turns out I've been.... overestimating everything!?

Not what would be normally expected. I've been estimating my chicken breasts at 12oz.. turns out they're 6.5-7 oz before cooking. Not only does that mean I've been eating too few calories it also means I haven't been hitting my protein macro, which is annoying. That's just one example among many - I've also been overestimating on peanut butter, veggies, cream cheese, all that stuff.

I've lost a lot of weight thus far but I did lose 3lb this week which suggests I really have been cutting too many calories. I'm a little hesitant to change things up since my diet has definitely been working, but I don't want to stall on my training or lose muscle mass. I've been feeling very energetic, no lightheadedness or anything, and my performance in the gym and during sports has been fine.

I calculate BMR at 1830 at my current height/weight and TDEE about 2500 kcal. I have been tracking my daily intake at 2100 kcal but I added up everything today with MFP with a scale and am only at 1300 calories thus far!?

And yes I count all of my supplements, butter, seasoning, everything.

Time for some Ben & Jerry's LOL

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

Just because you were losing weight at what you "thought" was 2100 doesn't mean you can now eat 2100 since you have a scale.

Don't come back wondering why you're not losing weight. (Or only losing a pound a week)

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

Last edited by moore93; Today at 04:50 PM.

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

True that. Going to continue as I have been and monitor my progress, of course. It does concern me that I may have only been eating 1300-1500 calories, if today's measurements are any indication, but no strength or endurance loss and continual weight loss shows I must be doing something right thus far.

Repped

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

I would have to say I know that feel. Food scales are the best.

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

I've been using a poverty mechanical scale that's probably 10-30g off on big measurements and 10g off on small measurements since February.

My dream is to have that 25 dollar eat smart scale just for the zeroing functionality so I don't have to keep turning the mechanical knob on mine LMAO.

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

I bought my scale for under $25 at amazon. Even though your scale may be off +- 10 grams, that's pretty negligible so no need to worry!

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

Oh I don't give two shyts because I get consistent progress assuming I stick to my cals. I also don't eat anything that's really dense in calories so if I'm off 10g I don't mind.

Now if I ate peanut butter and used my scale I could see how this could become a problem.

I still need to buy a scale for push button zeroing though, turning this knob in the back every time I use a different container or add something is a pain in my ass.

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

I got this scale for about $30.



http://www.americanweigh.com/product...oducts_id=2091

Has 999 generic foods in its memory, so you can look up the food number in a booklet, punch in the code and weigh the food and it tells you all the nutritional information. You can also save each item/weight you put in memory so if you're making a cake or something it will add up all of the nutritional information for the batter.

 

That feel when you finally get a food scale

I'm pretty damn sure I overestimate all my food. I do not have a scale currently so I can't prove it but here is how my counting goes.

1 large egg in the morning fried (using 0 cal PAM) = 100 calories
1 fake sausage patty (morning star brand) [box says 80 calories] = 100 calories
1 medium sized plum = 100 calories
1 can of beans (110 calories per serving, 3.5 servings per can) = 400 calories
etc, etc, etc

I usually just round to the next highest 100 calories. I will probably grab a scale in the next few weeks, but hopefully I will be off my cut by then, I have been losing about 3 pounds a week for last few months. I am hoping when I get to 155 I'll be ready to start moving in the other direction so I will slowly raise my calories a bit each week and hopefully get down to 150 before I hit my maintenance calories. At that point I hope be at a low enough body fat where doing a slow bulk will be good.

I'll just have to wait and see how it goes though. I will probably get new pics the first weekend in November and see what people here think, since I think it still looks like I have a lot of fat left.