“But I track all my food…” One small adjustment I made changed EVERYTHING
This one’s for my friends out there that choose to track their caloric intake. Tracking isn’t for everyone, but some people find it to be a useful tool.
MyFitnessPal, Noom, Loose It!.. there’s many choices out there. In fact, it can become such a habit to log our food, it’s really not an inconvenience. For years, I logged everything and really did not understand why my weight wouldn’t budge when in a caloric deficit.
I so enjoy fitness and healthy eating, however I am not the girl who won’t go out because I don’t know exactly how my restaurant meal is prepared (I’ve been there before, and it’s just not fun). So, like many others, I took to the eyeball approach. I still logged my food and thought my guesses were pretty accurate!
For example, a restaurant chicken caesar salad with balsamic vinaigrette would be:
4oz cooked chicken breast- 184 calories
150g lettuce (about a sweetgreen serving for perspective)- 25 calories
20g Parmesan Cheese- 86 calories
1/4 cup croutons- 50 calories
2 tbsp balsamic- 60 calories
Total calories= 405
After some time of confusion, I decided to buy a food scale. This changed everything. Of course, I wasn’t planning to bring it with me out, rather use it when I ate meals at home. Why was this so impactful? Portion sizes at restaurants have gotten so much larger, my 4oz eyeball was sadly mistaken.
So, I took some time measuring different foods to get an understanding of what different ounces really looked like…
My salad I mentioned a few lines up? Was really:
7oz cooked chicken breast- 327 calories (make sure you log the chicken in the state it is in when you weigh it: raw or cooked, this is important)
150g lettuce (about a sweetgreen serving for perspective)- 25 calories
30g Parmesan Cheese- 130 calories
1/2 cup croutons- 93 calories
3 tbsp balsamic- 90 calories
Total calories= 665
WOW! What a difference!
My food scale, linked here, has been such a useful tool and transformed my perspective on food portions. It’s one small adjustment that made all the difference.
As I used the food scale more and more at home, I noticed myself portioning out what restaurants gave me naturally. It become somewhat of an auto pilot response. Putting in the effort to purchase and use the scale has been such a game changer in my overall awareness of portion size. Going out to dinner has become so fun! And using a food scale is not forever! I rarely use it now :).
Im curious… how do you feel about food scales? Do you use them?