Buy Walking VideosMeasure Your Food
I have been doing Weight Watchers for a LONG time. When I first started, I measured my portions faithfully, but over the years, I’ve gotten a little lazy. If you had asked me this morning how much a 1/4 cup of nuts looked like, I would have pulled out a small handful and shown you, safe in the knowledge that I was right.
But I would have been WRONG!
And not wrong how you think. This morning, I decided to measure my “1/4 cup” of almonds. I pulled out my handful measurement that I’ve been using for the last few years and put it into a 1/4 cup. Here is what it looked like:
For the last few years, I’ve been eating approximately 1/8 cup of nuts and counting it as 1/4 cup. I’ve been cheating myself out of food.
Whenever you eyeball your measurements, you have the chance of getting things wrong. Either you’re under estimating and you could be eating more food, or your over estimating and you’re eating more calories than you counted. If you haven’t measured within the last month, it’s time to get the measuring cups out and start using them again. You might be cheating yourself and you don’t even know it!
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June 17th, 2009 at 10:12 am
I don’t think I can ever stop measuring. I just am no good at eyeballing.
June 17th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
great point…I try to always measure too
June 18th, 2009 at 5:34 am
Hey they do it on TV! Liars. They should make into a Food Network contest. I usually measure by hand if its a topping. It always seems like an extra step to dig out the measuring cup. But measuring correctly gives consistency. I need to work on that.
June 28th, 2009 at 7:41 am
I think that once you know what a 1/4 serving looks like in a cup and then pour it into your hand, you can more easily eyeball the portion, but it is a good idea to occasionally remeasure to make sure you are on track.