How to Use a Food Scale

Getting Accurate with Your Nutrition

Maintaining a healthy diet often involves tracking your food intake to ensure you're meeting your nutritional goals. In a world filled with oversized portions and hidden ingredients, it's easy to underestimate or overestimate what you're consuming. This is where the importance of accuracy comes into play.

Why Being Objective is Important

To truly understand what you're putting into your body, being objective about portion sizes is crucial. This is where a simple tool like a food scale comes into play. For as little as $10, you can drastically improve the accuracy of your food tracking and move away from subjective estimations.

How Accuracy Trumps Subjectivity

While estimating portions with your eyes might seem convenient, it often falls short in accuracy. Especially if you have specific goals like changing your body composition, using a food scale can make a significant difference. While eyeballing can provide a rough estimate, it doesn't compare to the precision offered by an objective metric.

Tips for Using a Food Scale:

1. The Tare Button 

One of the most valuable features of a food scale is the tare button. This feature allows you to zero out the weight of the container you're using, so you're only measuring the weight of the contents. No more struggling to subtract the weight of the container manually – the tare button does it for you.

2. Measuring Butter & Oils

When measuring ingredients like butter or oil for cooking, using the tare button can be a game changer. Instead of trying to balance a pan on the scale, place the stick of butter on the scale, hit the tare button, cut off what you need, and watch the scale display a negative value – indicating how much you've used.

3. Measuring Nut Butters (& Why it’s so Disappointing)

For those who enjoy nut butter, using a food scale can be an eye-opener. Often, what seems like a tablespoon of nut butter can turn out to be significantly more when weighed. This can be disappointing but sheds light on how easy it is to underestimate the calories you're consuming.

4. Measuring Protein Powders (& What it has to do with Baking)

Even protein powders can be deceiving. Just like how packing down flour can lead to inaccurate measurements in baking, scooping protein powder can result in more grams than you realize. Precise measurements matter, especially when you're working towards specific nutritional goals.

It Might Help you Wash Less Dishes

Using a food scale not only boosts accuracy but also simplifies your kitchen routine. By directly placing your bowl or plate on the scale and adding ingredients, you eliminate the need for multiple measuring cups and spoons. This not only saves time but also minimizes the number of dishes you'll need to wash.

What Metrics to Use with a Food Scale:

Choosing the right metric for your food scale depends on your preference and what aligns with your tracking method.

1. Measure Meat in Ounces 

If you're used to measuring meat, yogurt, or cottage cheese, using ounces might be your preference. It offers a straightforward way to gauge portion sizes, especially for items commonly sold by weight.

2. Measure Powders, Nut Butters, & Oils in Grams or Milliliters

For ingredients like powders, nut butters, and oils, grams or milliliters might be a better fit. These metrics provide more accuracy for smaller quantities and are commonly used for dense ingredients.

What Actually Matters is Staying Consistent

Regardless of the metric you choose, consistency is key. Regularly using your food scale, whichever unit you prefer, will help you build familiarity with portion sizes and improve your tracking accuracy over time.

Increasing your Awareness Of Food

1. Eating out at Restaurants

Another benefit of using a food scale is the increased awareness of portion sizes. This knowledge becomes especially handy when you're dining out or eating at someone else's house. Having a clear idea of how much you're consuming can help you make more informed choices.

2. Flexing your “Food Memory” 

Consistent use of a food scale at home trains your "food memory." This means you'll develop a better sense of portion sizes and won't be caught off guard when faced with unfamiliar portions elsewhere. You'll be better equipped to estimate accurately, even without the scale.

Setting Yourself Up for the Long-Term

While you might not need to use a food scale forever, the awareness and precision it provides can set you up for long-term success. Over time, you'll be able to rely more on your developed "food memory" while still maintaining a solid understanding of portion sizes.

In the quest for better nutrition and achieving your health goals, using a food scale might just be the secret ingredient you've been missing. Whether you're cooking at home or making choices at a restaurant, the accuracy and awareness it offers can make a remarkable difference in your journey.