Measuring veggies - HELP

[canamer]

:daze: Oh the confusion! I've started using fitday to keep track of my food and I'm more concerned than ever about how to measure salad and veggies. I've read the thread about not packing it into a 1 cup measure...yes, I did that too :rolleyes:

I'm getting the idea that 1 cup = 8 oz so really.........you can weigh 8 oz of lettuce (A WHOPPING AMOUNT!) and that is equal to one cup. Is this right?

Also...would that apply to other veggies such as broccoli, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, etc??? It is all weight rather than an actual measuring cup?

HELP please....

THANKS!!!!!!

[Karen]

Hi canamer,

We have had two recent discussions on the subject. It is mind-boggling at first, but it does get easier...

crazy salad question (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35058&highlight=cup+lettuce)

salad (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34406&highlight=cup+lettuce)

HTH,

Karen

[csfdavis]

I get confused about the veggies too. Whatever you do, don't confuse weight ounces with volume ounces. Weighing 8 ounces of lettuce does NOT add up to 1 cup. I think you are supposed to measure it in the cup but leave it loosely packed. What confuses me is that the bag of salad says there are only two carbs (and one is fiber) in a 2 1/2 cup serving, so does that mean that lettuce is nearly carb free?

[agonycat]

Originally posted by csfdavis
so does that mean that lettuce is nearly carb free?

Pretty much. Lettuce is mostly water and fiber. Your body needs it, and it's good for you for so little cost to the carb budget :)

[clwydd]

It really is hard to measure odd-shaped things like vegetables by volume. It's much better to weigh them, but unlike in Europe a scale is not standard kitchen equipment here. It's not so important for the really low-carb vegetables like lettuce, but it is for foods like nuts, where it's really easy to overdo it, or if you're into creating recipes.

The best way to measure accurately is to get a set of measuring spoons and cups (two sets are better) and a kitchen scale. Then you can measure liquids by volume and solids by weight, and be pretty sure that your carb counts are correct. I'm using a 30-year-old Weight Watchers scale and I use a 1-oz square of baking chocolate to adjust it--wildly inaccurate, but better than nothing. I'm in the market for a good electronic kitchen scale; since this is going to be a way of life, it's a better investment for me than a new bathroom scale.

Susan

[canamer]

So, if I have this right...everything should be weighed according to ounces...

We can eat 2 cups of salad = 16 oz on a kitchen scale
AND
1 cup of other veggies = 8 oz on a kitchen scale

Yes??? :thup: PLEASE SAY YES!!!!!!!!!!

[Karen]

No.

One cup or 8 oz. of liquid measurement or dry measurement does not equal 8 oz. of weight. One cup of solids, say tomatoes as opposed to cauliflower will have different weights.

16 ounces or 1 pound of salad weighed on a scale would be an incredible amount, depending on the lettuce used.

Re-read the links in my last post. The best way to figure it out is to know what carbs minus fiber are contained in an ounce of a particular ingredient. Just weighing ingredients unless you know what the carb count is per ounce will not let you know how much of what you can eat.

I heavily endorse the scale because it is the most accurate way to learn about portions and carb counts. A slice of cucumber, for example, and the carb count on it is too subjective.

Karen

[canamer]

Okay..I reread the posts and then I reread mine! I think I understand but didn't make myself clear.

When you are told to eat 2 cups of salad - weigh lettuce up to 16 oz.

When you eat 1 cup of cauliflower....weigh 8 oz of cauliflower.

The reason for my confusion comes because in the Atkins website, the food list has some things listed by cups and some listed by weight. For example....you can have 1/2 cup of squash and that is 2 carbs (again just an example).

So I would weigh 4 ounces of squash for 2 carbs ... now do I have it.

My apologies...I'm not typically this dense on something. I think I've read so many different things!

Thanks so much for your help.

[allisonm]

Originally posted by canamer
I think I understand but didn't make myself clear.
No, I'm sorry Canamer. You do not understand. You have made yourself perfectly clear.

When you are told to eat 2 cups of salad - weigh lettuce up to 16 oz.

No. When you are told to eat two cups of salad, do not weigh up to 16 ounces on a scale. Atkins means to use a liquid measuring cup filled with lettuce up to the 2 cup mark. Do not use 16 ounces of lettuce by weight. This is too much lettuce.

When you eat 1 cup of cauliflower....weigh 8 oz of cauliflower.

No. When you eat 1 cup of cauliflower do not weigh 8 ounces of cauliflower on a scale. This is too much cauliflower. Use a liquid measuring cup and add cauliflower to the 1 cup mark.

The reason for my confusion comes because in the Atkins website, the food list has some things listed by cups and some listed by weight. For example....you can have 1/2 cup of squash and that is 2 carbs (again just an example).

Okay. That means 1/2 cup in a liquid measuring cup. It does not mean 4 ounces by weight.

My apologies...I'm not typically this dense on something. I think I've read so many different things!

You'll adjust. Try going out for a walk to relax a bit. It's a beautiful day here; maybe it is where you are too. :)

Allison :wave:

[canamer]

So, if I weigh 1 measuring cup of cauliflower...let's say for arguments sake that it weighs 3 oz (I have no idea of course!)...

I could then check the number of carbohydrates contained in 3 oz of cauliflower through the carb counter and POOF! there's the info I need (minus the fiber of course)

Am I almost there?

FYI...the Salad thread referred to further up in this thread appears to say to weigh the lettuce to equal 8 oz (therefore equaling one cup).

:confused: It must be the onslaught of info that is creating havoc with my poor brain!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the guidance!

[clwydd]

That's it. And if you use fitday.com to track your food intake for the day, you can usually choose how you are measuring a serving--by weight (oz on the scale) or by volume (oz in a measuring cup)--and then it works it all out for you, which certainly helps my brain.

Susan

[canamer]

:cheer: YAY I got it!!!!!!!!! THANKS!!

Speaking of fitday...I'm finding that the carb amounts differ from what is on this site.

I am correct when I say that fitday does not subtract fiber before placing it in the total?

If so, we can just subtract the total fiber # from the total carb # then, right??

(Maybe I'll get this one a little quicker!) ;)

[Karen]

FYI...the Salad thread referred to further up in this thread appears to say to weigh the lettuce to equal 8 oz (therefore equaling one cup).

Yes, but they were wrong and further down the thread were corrected too! ;)

Karen

[allisonm]

Originally posted by canamer
So, if I weigh 1 measuring cup of cauliflower...let's say for arguments sake that it weighs 3 oz (I have no idea of course!)...

I could then check the number of carbohydrates contained in 3 oz of cauliflower through the carb counter and POOF! there's the info I need (minus the fiber of course)

Well stated. I wish I thought of putting it that way. :)

Allison

[wbahn]

It appears that the confusion has been pretty well worked out, so this is not timely enough to help in this case but might in new situations.

The key to remember is that an ounce is NOT the same as an ounce.

Sound nonsensical? Welcome to the the English System!

The "ounce" where 1 cup is equal to 8 "ounces" is really not called an "ounce". It is called a "fluid ounce" and is a measure of volume. You can call it anything you like. You can call it a Fred.

The "ounce" where 16 "ounces" is one pound is properly called an "ounce" but it is a measure of mass (not force - that's yet another "ounce" that is properly called "ounce-force") but the fact that the word "ounce" is used as part of both names is due purely to the historical evolution of the system of weights and measures. Again, you could call it anything you like. You could call it a Sue.

A Fred and a Sue are clearly not the same measures. There is seldom this type of confusion with the metric system because a cup would be equal to so many liters and there is no automatic tendency to equate liters to kilograms. The confusion comes about solely because of the use of the same word to mean two different things in the English System.

A simple example makes it very clear. If you pour water into a 1 cup measure you have 8 FLUID ounces of water and if you weigh it on a scale, it will show that you have a bit more than 8 oz - it would show about 8.33 oz because, contrary to the old saying, a pint is NOT a pound the world around. But if you pour mercury into that same 1 cup measure you will still have 8 FLUID ounces of mercury but the scale will show that you have 109 oz of mercury - or more than 6.5 pounds!


Look at the bright side - ounces and ounces are easy compared to pounds and pounds. :D

[fiona]

Phew! All this from the same side of the pond !

Something to be said for mum's recipies: 4 eggs, 1 cup sooji, 2 cups flour, 1 cup milk etc and it didn't matter which cup you used so long it was the same cup in any recipe.

I think I need a cup of water ;)

:D
Take care.

[fern]

Hi could someone please tell me what and were fitcom is :confused:

[Elihnig]

www.fitday.com is a free site that will give you the counts (grams of protein, fat, carbs, calories) for your food.

It has some strange defaults, like a liter of dressing so remember to chack the amounts if you use it.


Beth

[fern]

Thanks Beth found the web site I see what you mean about amounts Fern.

[JamieDoyle]

That whole thing about not weighing veggies but doing it by floz is confusing me.. I'm on atkins and in there it now give grams for veggies and salad too.(230g-340g / 8-12oz) of salad veg a day for exapmle on induction. Is this a misprint ? Should I be applying floz ? (everywhere oz are mentioned is occompanied by a gram measurement too) I have DANDR 2002 edition !

Thanks

Jamie

[Avlev]

Please could I have an answer to this one... I'm a bit confused because if I weigh out 3oz lettuce - apparently the amount by weight that is equivalent to 1 cup of salad - there is no way that that could fit into a cup measure... Am I doing something wrong, or is it ok to have 6oz (= '2 cups') of salad for my lunch (with lots of lc toppings!!), plus another cup of non-salad veggies for dinner?

[3xmommy]

I don't know if it's correct, but I eat the romaine lettuce and I break off 2 big leaves and cut it into salad pieces and thats my 2 cups..I
veggies..I take a dry ingredient measuring cup and measure out the 1 cup of veggies..
Maybe I'll get the hang of this sometime...

[spydermary]

I didn't realize everyone was so EXACT in their portions. I go to the cafe and estimate what I think is a cup of lettuce and add a couple slices of cuke, a few peices of celery, a few brocs, approximately 1/4 cup cheese and pour about 2 tbps of ceasar dressing on it. That's my lunch.

Do you really have to be that exact during induction? When I tried this lifestyle before I did the above also and managed to lose about 13 pounds in the first 3 weeks. So I guess I did something right.

[teresamay]

I think what was meant in the book is that on induction - you only use a MEASURING CUP. It is portion control, and we are only allowed 2 cups of salad veggies loosely put in a MEASURING CUP, and 1 cup of other veggies, alos in a measuring cup. It is clearly outlined in the book, in the induction section what is to be measured and how..

[bcbeauty]

Ok so if I am having 1 cup of cauliflower I can cut it up into small pieces to get more in the cup?:D

[Karen]

Exactly! You can stuff a cup with small pieces or just put four larger pieces in the cup and presto! They're the same carb count because they both fit in the cup! ;)

Karen

[teresamay]

bcbeauty, i LOVE the way you think :) :) !. I cut mine up too...

[Gooserider]

Well is there a good way to figure out just how much a salad SHOULD weigh? I certainly understand the notion that it shouldn't be the same as fluid weight. but it seems like 'one cup' of vegetables is a VERY approximate measure.

If I just try to stuff whole lettuce leaves into a measure, I won't get many in if I don't pack the container (which you aren't supposed to do). OTOH, if I chop the lettuce up into little bitty peices, I will get much more in.

When dealing with 'lumpy' vegetables like cauliflower or brocoli, the difference is even bigger.

It seems to me like the only way to get a consistent, reliable measure would be to use weight (or more precisely mass) but I am not sure how to get from the volume measurement to a weight number.

JamieDoyle said his copy of DANDR, presumably a UK edition, gives both gram measures and volume measures; but my American copy only seems to have volume numbers.

Is there a quick conversion chart somewheres?

I would like to get a way to do some sort of check on how I'm judging by volume to make sure I'm not causing a problem by allowing to many carbs via oversized salads.

Thanks,

Gooserider

[taming]

With leafy veggies, I just figure a handful equals a cup. If, over the course of a week, I end up eating an extra 5 carbs that way, it really doesn't matter. Really.

I spent $7 Canadian and bought a scale. I weigh pretty much everything else, except for things that I measure out in teaspoons, Tbsp, etc. The PC version of fitday, BTW, has the advantage of having ounce and gram values for all sorts of things that the on-line version gives only inexact measures (like a 7 inch piece of some odd thing, or a medium something else).

That said, at some point, you really do get good enough at this so you don't have to measure everything all the time. I went on holiday recently for a week and didn't measure a darn thing. I still lost weight, just like when I give in to my fitday addiction.

[Gooserider]

We spent a bit more than that, (about $60 USD) but got a really nice digital scale, does ounces pounds, grams, and 'count by unit' up to about 8 lbs, with tare, and so forth. I don't use it all that often but it's really good when I do.

Alot of my vegetables I do 'unit approximations' just because to me that makes the most sense - I'm not going to cut up a fraction of a vegetable to get the exact weight if it's pretty close. For instance I assume that things like zuchini's and summer squashes (frequent foods) are approx one serving, and so forth.

I'd just feel more comfortable if I had a more solid estimate of what the volumes SHOULD weigh so I could occasionally double check my weight assumptions.

On a related note - are there any good gram counter programs that run under Linux? I know FitDay runs on PC's but unfortuneately many times when people say "PC" they are talking about machines running one of those Micro$oft Window$ virus programs, which we don't allow in our home.

Gooserider