Pardon my ignorance, but how does everyone go about getting an exact serving size on certain products?
For instance, with peanut butter, do you use enough peanut butter to cover the base of the spoon, is it barely above the lip of the spoon, is it well above the lip of the spoon, is it heaping, etc. And with peanut butter, most serving sizes are 2 tablespoons, so you need 2 spoons of the same serving size. How do you know EXACTLY how much to use for a serving size? Same goes with milled flax seed.
With liquids, such as olive oil, it’s easier, because any that goes above the lip of the spoon spills over. Does the same apply to food?
Sorry for a weird/dumb/odd question, but I would like to know how much is one serving, and how to go about making sure I am using a correct amount.
You know, they totally make food measuring tools. Like cups and spoons, but for measuring.
BTW, you scrape a measuring spoon level. Unless the serving is labeled a “heaping teaspoon.” But i would say that is more for recipes, not food labels.
For peanut butter, serving size is generally 2 tablespoons for your normal ~200 calorie serving. I just took a tablespoon out, scooped an even scoop, and spread it on the bread to see about ‘how much’ it was. Now, I just try to duplicate that amount of peanut butter thickness when I make a sandwhich. Turns out I was only using a half a serving per sandwhich previously.
If someone is prepping for a bodybuilding show and those extra 10-20 calories would matter then ok, have at it. But someone trying to lose fat(or god help me if it’s someone try to gain size) really worrying about it to this point is pretty irrational.
I’d put my money down on the guy who doesn’t stress about exact serving sizes but worries about stringing together 6 months in a row of not missing meals over the spoon weighing OCDer any day. One of those guys is going to burn out pretty fast, hopefully it’s obvious who it is.
it has accuracy to the gram and has the capacity to tare plates or shaker bottles so you can actually record each item accurately whether food or supplements.
with this method, one can eliminate the +/- 10% error with other measurement tools. to get this accuracy on small doses, obviously a scale with 0.1g or even 0.01g accuracy is needed.
using the SR20 database, one can calculate exactly what they are consuming or use software like fitday.
for liquids, having some accurate measuring tools is key. spoons vary quite a bit, the tablespoons i have measure from 12-19mL, now i know which is which, but a couple measuring spoons are more accurate and cheap:
if you need bigger, like cup size:
if found these with a quick search, they are decent and the two together are like $11.
and in case anyone needs to know what drop, smidgen, pinch, dash or tad is, there is a nice little table here:
id disagree - you need to weight stuff and be anal from the start - otherwise you could always be working from a mis conception of quantity and nutritional worth.
you shouldnt weigh every spoon of peanut butter you ever eat, but you should weigh enough so that you learn to judge calorific values of most foods at a glance.
[quote]chutec wrote:
id disagree - you need to weight stuff and be anal from the start - otherwise you could always be working from a mis conception of quantity and nutritional worth.
you shouldnt weigh every spoon of peanut butter you ever eat, but you should weigh enough so that you learn to judge calorific values of most foods at a glance.
[/quote]
That’s my take too. I’m often surprised how much I’m off on guessing measurements. It only takes a week or so using a scale and measuring spoons to calibrate yourself.
I just don’t see a large number of posters who come on here and say “you know I thought I was getting 1 tbsp of peanut butter and turns out it was 1.5! Now that I’ve measured my results have been skyrocketing!” What we do see is people who eat twice a day and have no idea about nutrition worrying about tiny things like this when they are missing the big picture by a mile.
Thanks for everyone’s input so far, much appreciated. Ironically, I was reading gustavopacho’s Physique Clinic thread, and Chris Shugart stated this about peanut butter:
Make sure you use exactly one serving. Weigh it and/or use a measuring device. It’s easy to overdo peanut butter as it’s calorically dense and you can get a lot on a “spoonful.” Don’t just eyeball it.
I just have my plate/bowl of whatever, stick it on my kitchen scale, zero it, and then add the peanut butter. Maybe it’s anal, but it takes an extra, oh, ten seconds; not really a big deal.