i have always (6 years) counted my carbs. Until i joined this site I didnt know about weighing food. Is it more acurate to weigh or count? I also understand that when you weigh your food you are still counting carbs, but i am referring to i guess, the old way of doing things.....
I can't help you to much, I am a counter too. I usually weigh my meats and counts my carbs. I am interested in the respones to this also.
We have a nice scale that tells you the carbs based on the weight and the food.
I don't know how you can count your carbs without weighing them some times. Things that fit easily in a measuring cup I understand but
this scale is really helpful for getting accurate carb counts.
Weight is a more accurate method to measure the amount served for most foods. Like fruit - what is a 'small' apple? THat is when I find the scale comes in most handy. Our scale also acts as a calculator and I enter the serving size and the carbs and it calculates it for what I put on the scale. I know, I could do this either in my head or with a regular calculator, but it is kind of neat. It is nice for foods like potato chips that also don't fit easily into a measuring cup and don't have a standard 'size'. So you can really see what does 1 oz look like - I always try to actually look at the pile of food to mentally help in my 'out and about' carb counting SWAGs.
For other foods - I find it just as easy and accurate to measure with a measuring cup. And since I have had a lot of practice with that, I am pretty good at looking at a plate of food that hasn't been measured and saying 'that is a cup of pasta' and a half cup of veggies.
If you feel like you often have meals where you are high afterwards and can't figure out why, it would be a good idea to get a scale to measure your food and see if you really are as accurate as you thought in estimating the serving size to count your carbs.
I have never tried weighing my food, I just measure stuff. But I have been doing this a long time (18 yrs), so I have a pretty good sense of size portions. But if I go too long without measuring stuff, my size portions slowly get bigger. When I remeasure 1/2 cup of something, I am always shocked by how little that is and have to spend a couple weeks measuring stuff again to get my "internal scale" recalibrated. I calculate things like fruit based my hand size, which is a "medium" apple. I think I am too lazy to both weigh and measure stuff, lol.
JDVsMom, what kind of scale are you using and were can I buy one?
This is the one we use. It is excellemt.
http://www.amazon.com/EatSmart-Digital-Nutrition-Scale-Professional/dp/B0013IDHTO
I bought a Taylor digital nutrition scale at a Super Target two months ago. It gives you a list of different food items and you enter the code and it can tell you the weight and carbs of the food. I thought it would be helpful to get a more accurate carb count. I like to buy a loaf of french bread often and make a sandwich, so it is nice to know when I rip off a huge chunk of bread what the carb count in it is.
I have never weighed. I count carbs, and I measure things like rice and pasta with a measuring cup, but I've never used a scale. I've been carb counting for 17.5 years.
I use the EatSmart scale and got it on Amazon (I didn't test Terry's link, it could be the same one.)
I have seen other T1 moms refer to to a Salter scale, but the newest model did not have as good reviews as the earlier 1400 model, which is no longer available and the new model was more expensive than the one I got.
There are lots of digital scales on Amazon. And really you don't even have to go digital - you can always use a calculator. :)
My biggest complaint about the EatSmart scale is that it has 999 foods listed in its memory. Fruit - awesome - everything I could ever think of. (Though I wonder am I supposed to be peeling grapfruits and oranges before or after I weigh?) But it does not have basic baking ingredients like SUGAR. HELLO!?!?! (I have written the mfg with that complaint.) Esp since it does include a bunch of spices that have VERY few carbs and are used in such small amounts normally that it really would not make a difference to even bother counting them. So Scale good, food list crummy. That said, I can input the nutritional info for sugar and it calculates the carbs for the amount I have. Just a few extra button presses.
I've been diabetic for 23 years. Only within the past two years have I started to weigh certain foods (ie. fruit, rice, pasta, ice cream, chips) instead of measuring or guessing. Its definitely more accurate, but I don't think its completely necessary. I use a digital kitchen scale and the internet to figure out the carbs.
I actually bought a Taylor digital food scale this weekend because foods like rice, pasta, and things that have serving size listed in grams always confused me.
Never done this before so we'll see if I actually follow through with doing the extra work of weighing or just stick with guessing.