Food scale -- good idea? Bad idea?

[Misnagid]

What's the consensus on this?

I'm finding it hard to use Fitday without a scale.

[Chicklady]

I wouldn't live without my scale. And you're right....it makes fitday much more accurate. There's a big difference, in say for example, a "large chicken thigh" and the actual weight (they must've used growth stunted chickens!!!)

[Misnagid]

It seems like it would be a good idea for "portion control." I have no idea about portions, personally, except for eyeballing what the package says about it being "four portions" so it's 1/4 of the contents.

Any suggestion of a specific scale?

[Elsie150]

I say GREAT idea!! Buy a digital one that reads both oz and grams if possible.

[Chicklady]

Look for a digital, something with a TARE feature. Also, if it does grams as well as ounces, so you can be more accurate with little things. Mine doesn't have a brand name on it, for some reason! I bought it on ebay for $10 including shipping, and it's worked great for 3+ years.

[sadie147]

I'm with chicklady, I love mine. I no longer need to use it every day, but it has helped give me a really good idea of what proper portion sizes are. Since i don't really eat packaged foods, i'd have to guess at the weights and serving sizes, i always found this especially hard with meats and nuts. I'd always underestimate what i was actually eating.

[Kellen]

If you want instant satisfaction, Target has a good chefmate one for 50bucks, with an info bank built in, that gives you the nutritional analysis of lot's of foods. (and the tare, grams & ounces feature) There's a learning curve with it, but it's cool.

That said, it turns out I just weigh, write it down, and enter in fitday, and really don't use the nifty 'brain' feature. So you could prolly get a cheaper model. I couldn't wait to have one shipped.

Now after using the scale with fitday, I can do a pretty good guess with measuring cups and even my own hand's 'grab' feature. I'm amazed at the way I can grab a handfull of grated cheese or chopped chicken and have it weigh 2 or 3 ounces, just by feel. I mean usually it's almost exact.

[Kansas Deb]

Yep, very handy. I ordered mine online. It has the tare feature and measures ounces and grams. Digiweigh is the brand name. Don't get a cheap one from Wal Mart. I got one there and when I got it home it didn't work.

[brandywine1241]

I enthusiastically agree with all of the above comments. I have one that weighs in kg/grams and lb/ounces and allows you to reset the weight to 0 at any time. (Is that the TARE feature?) It makes it very handy to weigh each ingredient such as various salad veggies. The only thing I don't like about it is that it has a small platform which makes it hard to see the readout unless your container has a fairly small bottom. I got mine at Bed Bath & Beyond using one of their 20% off coupons for about $20.

[Chicklady]

Yep, thats the tare feature. Very handy so you don't have to keep changing dishes to weigh.....