There is no magic pill you can take to lose weight. No secret tricks ... no quick solutions. For me there was only ONE way to lose weight. Eat less calories than I burned. Simple.
Not so simple as I found out but it was pretty darn close.
If I had to identify the single most helpful tool I had during my weight loss I would have to say it was my kitchen scale. Knowing what you are eating is the first step to controlling WHAT you are eating. Measurement by volume is ok for some things ... liquids for example but measurement by weight was absolutely crucial to my success in losing weight.
The scale you get is important. Look for one that has a high maximum weight capability. This is important for Taring (zeroing) out the weight of large pots or volumes when needed to determine the weight of something to be added to an already existing pot full of other ingredients.
For instance when I make spaghetti and there are others eating the same meal it can be difficult to determine my correct share of, say, the pasta, when cooking in bulk, for calorie counting purposes. My son is a twig, he has an appetite like a horse, he wants more than one serving for himself and that's ok ... he is active, he burns it off ... me on the other hand I want a strictly maintained portion ... I am eating a calorie deficit of 500 calories a day from my maintenance so any overestimation on a daily basis can affect my weight loss significantly.
What I do in this case is I weight an EXACT 3 portions of the dry spaghetti pasta. It only takes a second. It's usually 85g dry weight per person so 255g. I cook it as I normally would and when done I drain and give it a quick rinse like I always do. Then I dump the whole lot into a large bowl that was zeroed out on the kitchen scale to get a total weight for the 3 portions. I divide that number by 3 to figure out exactly what a single serving of cooked pasta is and I portion it on my plate. My son can then dig in and take as much or as little as he wants.
Nowadays I know that a serving of my homemade sauce is 2 ladles, about half a cup and I know that serving has about 260 calories. How do I know?
Well I use the website Livestrong.com to log and calculate the calorie counts for everything I eat. It has a MASSIVE database that includes information on every food I eat and if something isn't there I can ADD IT. I can store and log my own personal recipes there and they calculate the calorie counts for every recipe I make depending on what particular ingredients I use and how much of them I use.
In making my spaghetti sauce I have created and logged it soo many times I know that it makes roughly the same volume of sauce each time and I know based on repeated calculations that as long as I start with roughly the same volume of ground beef the calorie count is very consistent over time as well. Knowing that makes it easy.
Make a batch of spaghetti sauce. Tare a LARGE empty bowl and tare it. Weigh entire batch of sauce. Decide what a reasonable serving size is. What I did is I put my pasta on my plate and I put however much sauce I thought was a serving. I did it with the ladle I always use to serve my sauce. Turns out that ladle is about 1/4 cup and a serving for me was 2 ladle fulls. I weighed the 2 ladle fulls to use to calculate how many servings in the entire batch. then I calculated how many calories in each serving. I did this each time I made the sauce for several months but eventually I learned that 2 ladles was a serving and it came out pretty close to 260 calories a serving for the sauce.
Without my scale I couldn't be nearly as accurate. I know it sounds like a lot of nit picking but you have to understand. I have a problem. I have a BIG problem and this is what I have to do in order to solve it.... and it works and it IS working. Now that I have done the initial legwork, portioning out my serving now is very quick and easy. I no longer have to do all the calculations I just make sure the pasta serving is correct and that takes no time or effort, mental or otherwise, and I top it off with 2 ladles of sauce. Calorie count? 310 for the pasta ... 260 for the sauce ... total 570 calories. It a generous serving. It's filling and tasty. I am not deprived AND I am eating the same food as the rest of my family.
Another thing to look for in a scale is the weighing surface. I ruined my first scale by trying to weigh one too many pots right off the stove. It was plastic and I warped the weigh plate beyond repair. My new scale has a flat aluminum surface but glass is probably acceptable as well. Both easy to clean and more durable than plastic. If you aren't dumb like me plastic is fine ... I still miss my first scale.
One last thing to look for in a scale. Check to see that it measures in units of ONE. My new scale doesn't seem to recognize that there are TEN numbers between 0 and 10 and it refuses to give me odd measures ... no 1, 3, 5 ,7 ,9 gram servings for ME. Yeah right ... for a pot of spaghetti that's fine but how about measuring a tsp of cinnamon or sugar ... or SPLENDA.
My new scale has a max weight of 22 pounds ... my old one was only 11 ... and while I have actually appreciated the increased max weight at least once, I miss being able to weight in units of ONE several times EVERY DAY.
Of course you may let your budget be your guide, it is possible to get a scale that meets all your needs quite well, even on a budget! Check your local hardware or grocery store for a budget model and you local cooking store for a more upscale model.
IA
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