Methods for Measuring Food Portions

i measure everything. that is partially because its the only way i can hold myself accountable. after doing it as long as i have now i am pretty good at eyeballing everything but its habit now.

ETA: i strongly recommend it in the beginning for anybody that is trying to start a diet. i think one of the most common things in a failed diet is thinking you are eating proper proportions when in reality you aren't.

I pack meals for work in tupperware. All of that is measured. I find that gives me a good baseline.

My other meals at home tend to be pretty consistent, so I could tell you essentially the amount of calories I get every day pretty accurately. I think that's good.

I track everything raw by the gram. I recommend every one do that at first then slowly use the palm and fist measurement once you realize how much that is.

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Do you actually measure out everything you eat? like weigh each piece of food you put in your mouth?

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I measure it as I prepare it.

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How do you measure home cooked foods like chicken, pork, steak, or roast in a gravy?

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Food scale. Weigh ingredients so you know what the dish/meal has. As others have said, after a while it gets easy.

For example, I eat a wrap almost everyday at work for lunch. All I did was input the ingredients into MFP once. Now when I'm eating that meal I just have to enter the custom meal.

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I mean when I plop a "scoop" of lima beans on my rice, how much is that? I know I'm not going to measure it every time.

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You measure it when you cook it. You should have an idea of how many portions it is.

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I was just wondering about how many calories I intake every day

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Logging your food is the only way to get an accurate picture. I was astounded at all the calories that can sneak in during the day. It also helps immensely to cut down on mindless eating when you are logging everything you eat.

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Even using an App would be a pain in the rear to have to input everything you eat every day.

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Yep. See above. But after a little bit of time it gets easier and eventually you will just know.

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scale sits on my kitchen counter. I weigh everything. only way to stay consistant. Plus, when you are hungry, 6oz of baked chicken sure doesnt look like alot of food so you will add more.

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This.

If I make something as a single-pot dish or a combo of items I weigh them out before hand and make a recipe on mfp, weigh the whole thing, and divide up portions based on calories/macros

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I track everything raw by the gram

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I do the same

It really is tidious to do and practically impossible if eating something home cooked from someone else. Sometimes you have to just give it your best guess.

Even when you can measure everything correctly or a meal at a restaurant will have the calories listed, there's variation.

As far as knowing about how many calories, you just eventually will have memorized the calories in everything and portion sizes.

Just weigh yourself weekly as soon as you wake up in the morning and after using the bathroom and adjust accordingly for that week if you don't see the results you want on the scale, keeping in mind water weight can fluctuate 5 or so pounds naturally