Do I Need a Food Scale to Lose Weight?

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You do not need a food scale forever. But if you are trying to lose weight and the scale on the floor will not move, a food scale on the counter for a few weeks is usually what shows you why.

A lot of women push back on this at first. Weighing food sounds like something only bodybuilders do. Then they weigh their usual spoonful of peanut butter and find out it is two or three tablespoons.

Why can't I just eyeball my portions?

Because our eyes are bad at guessing, and they are worst at guessing the foods with the most calories.

Here is the picture I give my clients. One tablespoon of olive oil is about 120 calories. Most of us pour two or three tablespoons into the pan without thinking. That is 240 to 360 calories you never counted, before you have even added the food.

The same thing happens with:

• Peanut butter and almond butter
• Nuts and trail mix
• Rice and pasta
• Granola
• Salad dressing

None of these foods are bad. They are just easy to over-pour. A few extra spoonfuls a day can add up to a few hundred calories, and that can be the whole difference between losing weight and staying the same.

What does a food scale actually do?

It turns a guess into a real number.

A cup of chopped chicken is a guess, because it depends on how big you chopped it and how hard you packed the cup. 120 grams of chicken is 120 grams, every time. When you log a real number in your tracking app, the calories you see are the calories you ate.

That matters because everything else depends on it. If your app says you ate 1,600 calories a day for three weeks and you did not lose, you need to know whether you really ate 1,600. Without a scale, you can't know. With a scale, you can.

Do I have to weigh my food forever?

No. This is the part I want every woman to hear.

The way I coach it, there are three stages:

1. Weeks 1 and 2: no counting. You use your hand to size portions. A palm of protein, a fist of vegetables, a cupped hand of carbs, a thumb of fat. This builds the habit without the stress.
2. From week 3: you weigh your food and log it in an app. This is when you actually lose, because now you know your real numbers.
3. Once you reach your goal: you go back to your hand. By then you have weighed enough food that your eye knows what 30 grams of almonds looks like.

I tell clients to count to lose and use their hand to maintain. The scale is a teacher. Once it has taught your eye, you can put it in the cupboard.

What kind of food scale should I buy?

You need two things, and almost every cheap scale has both:

• Grams. Grams are more exact than ounces, and most tracking apps work best in grams.
• A tare button. Tare means "zero it out." You put your bowl on the scale, press tare, and the scale reads 0. Now when you add food, it only weighs the food, not the bowl.

A cheap scale does this job just as well as an expensive one. This is the kitchen scale I recommend. It is small, it reads in grams, and the tare button is right on the front.

How do I use a food scale without it taking forever?

Weighing feels slow for about a week. After that it takes seconds. These habits help:

• Weigh straight into your plate or bowl. Put the plate on the scale, press tare, add the chicken, write down the number. Press tare again, add the rice, write it down.
• Weigh the oil, not the cooked food. Put the pan on the scale before you pour. This catches the calories most people miss.
• Weigh foods the same way every time. Raw chicken and cooked chicken weigh different amounts, because cooking pushes water out. Pick raw or cooked and stick with it, and choose the matching entry in your app.
• Save meals you eat often. Most apps let you save a meal. Weigh your usual breakfast once, save it, and log it with one tap after that.

What if weighing food makes me anxious?

That is a real concern and I take it seriously. If you have a history of disordered eating, counting and weighing may not be right for you, and that is okay. Talk to your doctor or a therapist first.

For most women, it helps to think of it as an experiment with an end date. You are not weighing your food for life. You are collecting a few weeks of honest information so you can stop guessing.

What to do this week

1. Get a kitchen scale that reads in grams and has a tare button.
2. Get your starting numbers from my free macro calculator.
3. Pick one free tracking app, like MyFitnessPal, MacroFactor, or Cronometer, and stay with it.
4. Weigh only your cooking oil and nut butters for the first three days. That alone surprises most women.
5. After three days, start weighing everything else too.

Everything I recommend for getting started, including the scale, is on my resources page.

Quick questions

Can I use measuring cups instead of a scale?

Cups are better than nothing, but they are not exact. A cup of rice can be packed tight or scooped loose, and that can change the calories a lot. A scale gives you the same answer every time.

Should I weigh food raw or cooked?

Either works. Raw is the most exact, because cooking changes the weight. Whichever you choose, do it the same way every time and pick the matching entry in your app.

How long should I weigh my food?

Most of my clients weigh for as long as they are actively losing weight. Once they reach their goal, they go back to hand portions to maintain.

I share quick tips like this every week on Instagram at @lumorawomenofficial.

I am a health coach, not a doctor. This is education, not medical advice. Talk to your own doctor about anything specific to you.