Food Scale: The Benefits, Which One to Choose + How to Use It
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Let’s chat about food scales…
I know food scales seem daunting, I know there is a lot hesitation around using them, I know that within some circles they have a bad rap. That’s why in this episode, I want to explain WHY I LOVE using a food scale, how it helps me reach my goals and feel great in my body, how to select the right food scale, and how to actually use a foods scale.
The benefits of food scales:
They help with portion control
You can weigh ingredients that are hard to measure
They are consistently accurate
They are easy to use
It encourages you to stop mindlessly eating
It helps you build the body you want.
It makes macro counting SO MUCH EASIER.
Okay, so before you can start weighing your food, you’re going to need a food scale. Which one should you get?
Determine what type of food scale you want to use. Some people prefer to purchase a digital scale because it offers exact measurements without guesswork; other options include spring and weight scales.
When choosing, focus on selecting a scale that has numbers you can easily read, is within your budget, has a bowl or cup for holding food and is easy to maintain.
My favorite food scales:
OXO Good Grips 11-Pound Stainless Steel Food Scale with Pull-Out Display.
The OXO Good Grips 5-lb Food Scale with Pull-Out Display
Links mentioned in this episode:
OXO Good Grips 11-Pound Stainless Steel Food Scale with Pull-Out Display
The OXO Good Grips 5-lb Food Scale with Pull-Out Display
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it and let’s go.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Embrace Your podcast. I'm really pumped about today's episode. I really try to do episodes, especially when it comes to nourishing your body with what it needs. Kind of like the questions that I wish I would have known and also frequently asked questions, and one that comes up a lot, especially when people first start really getting into precisely nourishing their body with what it needs through utilizing the 12 macro counting food scales oftentimes come up simply because I'm a big believer in food scales. I talk about it in our program. I talk about the benefits of food scales and why and how to use it. And so I thought, you know, I was kind of looking back at my episodes and I was like, I've never really done one specifically on the food scale in general.
And so if you're confused about a food scale or if you've heard of maybe using the food scale, and it just seems really daunting to you, I know that there's a lot of hesitation around the food scale, and I think oftentimes it's because people don't truly understand how to use it and they kind of just associate it with like weighing yourself. When in reality, I personally I've talked about this on the podcast a lot. I personally do not weigh myself. There are so many other ways to monitor your progress without using the actual scale, but when it comes to a food scale, there are a lot of benefits to it, and I don't believe that it has to be something that's super daunting or something that gets a bad rap.
And so in today's episode, I just want to explain why I love using the food scale and how it can help you and how it's helped me reach my goals in feeling great in your body and kind of allowing yourself to get more comfortable with the food scale. Because I'm telling you, not only is it super accurate when it comes to properly nourishing your body and like getting the proper amount of food and the proper serving size and whatnot, it really opened my eyes to that. And I feel like and I've talked about this before in the pod is the more that you are educated around a specific topic, I personally have found them more just encouragement and also more empowered. I feel around that specific topic.
So whether it's nourishing your body with food, whether it's working out, whether it's finances or it's a career thing or it's relationships, whatever it is, I have found just the more that you've learned about something, the more you're educated around it, the more empowered you are and the less fear or doubt or insecurity can come from it. And so I thought that I would just talk and dedicate an entire episode all about the food scale. And so that is what we are talking about today. I'm also going to be giving you my recommendation on the exact food scale that I use and one that many women inside my online community use, as well as kind of just some tips and overall like basics when it comes to using it. So that is what today's episode is all about.
Before I dive in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Busy Mom. She gave a five star review and said, “Love this podcast. I began listening to this podcast after saving lots of Julie's workouts on Pinterest. I love it. So informative. I became a believer in macro counting about a year ago when I noticed my body transform from tracking my macros. I realize I've always worked out, but the results were apparent after I understood macros and began prioritizing protein. I'm sharing with my friends this information is too good to be keeping it to myself. Icing on the cake. Your Jesus follower.”
I love this so much for so many reasons. First of all, I love that so many of you guys are coming from Pinterest. I've talked about this in a couple of previous episodes, but I'm like reignited and re-found my love for Pinterest and just really trying to get out the proper information on Pinterest. I know for a decade of my life I misuse Pinterest and I don't think about it. It's just like anything, right? The actual platform itself, there's nothing wrong with it. It's how you use the platform and that goes with everything. Like, that's why I preach moderation through and through. There is nothing wrong with sweets and treats and all those things. Those things are amazing in moderation. And so I'm really excited that you found me on Pinterest. If you are on Pinterest and want to follow me, I'm just Julie A Ledbetter. You can just type that in and your it will pop up under profiles.
Secondly, I'm so grateful that you mention this. I think it's so important that we talk about the importance of properly nourishing your body, because oftentimes the workout part for people is typically the easiest, and yet they can feel so frustrated and they can do so much when it comes to working out and they're staying consistent with that, but they're not seeing results. And so they think, Oh, well, it's the workouts that are not working and they're not realizing and putting two and two together that the nutritional aspect of your journey is such a critical puzzle piece to you actually seeing results and when you can truly learn how to prioritize your nutrition and especially your protein. I mean, if there is one macronutrient, I don't care if you track all three, if there is one macronutrient that you pay the most attention to you, hat is protein. And second to that is drinking enough water, right? Those two things alone, if you just focus on that, prioritizing protein and drinking enough water, that in and of itself you will start to see massive results. .
But then when you really dial in your nutrition and go a level deeper, that's ultimately when you're going to reap the biggest results from the hard work that you're putting in. So all that to say, thank you so much for this review. I'm so grateful that this is helping you and I'm so thankful that you're sharing it with your friends. I just couldn't be more grateful. I love when you're able to find something that is not only helping you, but then you're able to send it to a sister, a coworker, a friend. That is ultimately the goal of this podcast. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Let's dive into first why I personally am a huge fan of food scales and why I love them. Number one is portion control. So a food scale really teaches you a lot about portions. It can show you what four ounces of protein looks like or what one half cup of pasta really looks like. Because let's face it, how often have you ever wondered like, what is one serving of pasta? Like you see it on the box and you say, okay, one serving is X, Y and Z, whatever measurement that they, you know, put up. So whether it's spaghetti or pasta or whatever kind of cereal or granola or oatmeal, all of those things I often times or previous to really using a food scale, I would very rarely pull out the measuring cup.
And even with the measuring cup, which I'll talk about later in this podcast, it's not as accurate as a food scale. And so it's really cool to be able to see what actual portion sizes are. And I think that just that education alone will really open up your eyes to realize like, Dang, I've been eating a lot more of X, Y and Z food and I didn't even realize it. Or on the flip side, I've been so fearful of food and I was thinking that a serving size was this, when in reality it's actually double that. And so, you know, both ends of the spectrum, having the food scale really does open up your eye to portion control.
Number two, weighing ingredients that are hard to measure. And also it can be super messy. So let's be real. When you scoop out a tablespoon of peanut butter, it's nine times out of ten. Definitely more than one tablespoon plus one cup of a certain food can really vary in nutrients depending on how much you pack into that one cup. Like, I mean, I can tell you oftentimes you're like doing a heaping cup or a heaping tablespoon and that alone is a lot of extra additional food that you might not have even realized, not to mention things that and foods that are very messy. So for example, like honey, right, you're wanting to weigh out honey or you're wanting to measure honey. It can feel it's really sticky, it's hard, it's time consuming. To clean up like that is why having a food scale will really save you so much time, not only from you cleaning the dishes, but it will also allow you to get the most accurate portion of each food.
Number three that kind of leads me into what I was just talking about is consistently accurate. So when your food is going to give you a way more accurate result, then measuring cups, whether that's tablespoons or cups, there is a lot of degree for error when it comes to measuring cups. And doing that multiple times a day could lead you to overeating, you know, anywhere from 3 to 500 calories, which might not sound like a lot. But if you think of that over the course of a week or over the course of a month, that's likely where you might be running into issues and you are stalling in your results and you're just not realizing the small little things that you're doing on a daily basis.
Add up number four. They're super easy to use. And I know many of you think that weighing your food might be complicated. It's daunting, but I'm telling you, it can personally make your life so much easier. Most of the kitchen scales are digital and could not be easier to use. So choosing your measurement preference, whether that's ounces or grams, pounds, kilograms, and then just literally put the bowl on the scale, hit the tare button, which is the zero button to remove the weight of the bowl, and then you're ready to start measuring. I'll explain this in further depth later on in this podcast, but I promise you it is so much easier and so much faster when it comes to really putting a meal together, especially if you want to get precise with your macronutrients when you're putting a meal or a snack together.
Number five, it can really help stop mindless eating. So one reason why I'm not a believer in intuitive eating is okay. I believe that you can properly, intuitively eat if you have first been educated and you have practiced and learned how to properly nourish your body. So I don't want to say I'm not a believer in intuitive eating, but I do believe that the people that have found the most success in intuitive eating are the ones that at least know and have a good idea of portions when it comes to food. Because if you're not educated at all, I feel like trying to go into something into like using your intuition is a lot harder when you don't know anything about portion control, when you don't know anything about what an average day looks like in terms of how much food that is, whether that's you overeating or you coming from, you know, a history of under eating.
I believe that just having the knowledge and education can really, really help you a lot. And mindless eating is really what's going to stop us from feeling our best and reaching our goals. So instead of reaching for the bag of chips or pretzels or gummy snacks or whatever. Measuring a proper portion size that you can eat for your snack from a bowl, you're going to feel so much better because not only are you going to have zero food guilt, really knowing that you're properly fear like fueling your body, but you're also able to save so much money. And this is something that I think is not talked about often enough, but when you are not properly fueling your body, you can spend so much additional money. And this comes from the lack of you planning out your meals and snacks, not going like ham and planning out every single meal and snack to a T.
I know that overwhelms many people and that's just not realistic for many people. With that being said, if you do only go to the grocery store once a week or once every two weeks, having a plan and having food that you are able to get. Like, for example, instead of getting the pre-portioned pretzels, those like mini bags are obviously because of convenience, they tend to be a higher cost. Whereas if you were to get like the bigger bag of a pretzel and measure out all of the servings, so like if it says 15 servings at the moment that you take the big pretzel bag home from the grocery store, you then just immediately pre-portioned them into Ziploc bags by using a food scale that's going to save you so much money. And it's also going to allow you to not just sit on the couch with that entire pretzel bag and you, you know, binging Netflix or binging Hulu and not even realizing that you just ate the entire pretzel bag. Whereas if you had the Ziploc bag that was pre-portioned, you're able to save money and you're able to save a lot of additional food that you likely didn't need because you were just mindless eating.
Number six It helps you build the body that you want. So when you're being more mindful of how much you're eating at each meal, it's inevitable that you're going to see better results not only in physical results, but also in your mental state, like your energy levels. All of those things are so many aspects that come to you optimally fueling your body. And this is because the results that we see really do rely mostly on what we eat and not not as much as how much we exercise. Of course, moving your body and honoring your body with movement is a key puzzle piece, like I was mentioning earlier. But let's be honest, you're not going to see the results that you're looking for if you're not feeling your body properly and let's be real. It's really hard to eyeball an accurate portion size, especially if you have no experience with that whatsoever and you're just previously going into what you think a portion sizes.
And I'm telling you the number one piece of feedback that I get when people first start honoring their body through nutrition and just fueling your body optimally is they say, I did not even realize that I was eating X amount of whatever it is. And most of the time they're saying, I didn't even realize I was eating this many carbs like and I was not eating, you know, nearly as much protein as I needed to. And when they're able to make those small tweaks, that's when they start to see the results. Because I've talked about this before, but protein is the most satiating of the three macronutrients. And when you are properly fueling your body with enough protein, which is why I mentioned this earlier, that if there's one thing that I would encourage you to focus on is your protein goal, you will see that you're not as hungry throughout the day. And then the second aspect, like I talked about earlier, is when you're really making sure that you're drinking enough water, that often times your body confuses hunger with just thirst. And so if you're drinking enough water and you're eating enough protein, you will see, not like hope to see. You will see that you will not be nearly as hungry throughout the day. And overall, like I mentioned before, the food scale can help you build the body that you want because it is eliminating any unwanted or unnecessary calories from getting onto your plate or in your stomach just from mindless eating.
And number seven, it can make macro counting so much easier. So instead of having to get out a thousand measuring cups and tablespoons, when you're cooking or creating a recipe, you can literally just toss things into a bowl and quickly have the meal done so much faster, like tossed tear, toss, tear, toss, tear, and voila, you're done. And I'm going to talk about this in a second. Just how to kind of use the food scale, because this is something this one hack alone has literally saved me so much time when it comes to. Putting together foods.
Okay, so before you can start weighing your food, you're going to need to get a food scale. So which one do you start with? Well, you've got to determine what type of food scale you want to use. Some prefer to purchase a digital scale because it offers the exact measurements without guesswork, whereas others include spring and weight scales, which I personally steer away from. I have just found that having a digital scale is so much easier. When it comes to choosing, the one thing that I recommend is that you find a scale that has numbers really easy to read. And that's again why I love the digital scale. And it also is obviously within your budget and has a bowl or cup for holding food or has the ability to have a pull out display so that you can put a big bowl on there and still see the numbers. So the one that I recommend, I have two, in fact, that I'm going to recommend.
The first one is called the Oxo, Good Grips, 11 pounds stainless steel food scale with the pull out display. Both of these I will link in the show notes below. They're also on my Amazon storefront so you can click any link in my Instagram bio and whether that's on @movementwithjulie or @juliealedbetter accounts and you'll see my Amazon storefront and then under there you'll see kitchen things. I have an entire just subcategory and I have both of these on there. So totally up to you. There's also tons of other ones. These are just the ones that I have found most success with. I personally have the one that is $54. So it's an it's an Oxo, 11 pounds stainless steel and it's 54 bucks. I've had it for over four years and I've only had to change the batteries one time. It's a it's an investment. And, you know, tons of bakers, if you watch any sort of baking show, you'll see that bakers love food scales. They're just so much easier.
So that one, the 11 pounds stainless steel with the plot display, there's also a 5 pounds food scale with a polar display. And that one, although it only has a 5 pounds max, which the higher the pound max is, just the more flexibility you'll have when it comes to creating recipes. I still see if you're making like a big pasta dish or some sort of big dish, having only a 5 pounds max limit can have some limitations because you're not able to measure everything when it comes to a bigger scale. So again, totally up to you just know this is an investment into your kitchen where and I will link both of those in the show notes. Again, they're also on the Amazon storefront, the 5 pounds Oxo Good grips with the pull out display is only 32 bucks.
And then there's also ones, like I mentioned on Amazon that are cheaper. I mean, I've seen them as cheap as nine bucks. Just know that if you don't have the pull out display when you go to put a bowl on, like I'm just thinking like a big bowl on the food scale, you won't be able to see the number as much like it can cover the number, which is why I love to have the pull out display. So again, I will link those in the show notes below. But now that you know the benefits of what the food scale has to give you as well as which one to purchase, let's talk about how the heck to actually use it. So I just kind of want to give you like a scenario number one, get out a mixing bowl so you can also use a plate if you like. You can also use a bowl depending on what meal you're making. Let's say you're making oatmeal, obviously be a smaller bowl. If you're making a sandwich, it will be a plate. If you're making a salad, it could be a big mixing bowl, whatever it is. Number two, place your mixing bowl on the food scale. Keep in mind you're not going to be weighing everything individually are going to continue to add things to this bowl. So you're going to zero out once the the mixing bowl is on the food scale or the bowl or the plate, whatever it is, you fill in the blank, then you're going to use the tare, the zero button. And this is what is on most digital food scales. Tare just basically means that you're setting your food scale to zero regardless what is on the scale.
So let's say, for example, your bowl might weigh 100 grams in the food scale. We don't care about that. That's why you want to zero it out. So that way once you start adding food, you get the accurate weight of whatever the food is that you are adding. So number four, now that your food scale is set to zero, you're going to add your first ingredient to the mixing bowl. So let's say you're putting together a big chicken salad. You're going to add once the bowl is on there, you've zeroed out, you're going to add your lettuce, then you're going to click the tare to zero it out again. Then you'll add your second ingredient and then you're going to zero it out, and then you'll add your third ingredient and zero it out and so on and so forth. You're going to repeat this process until you've added every ingredient, and this is literally going to save you so much time and it's going to save you doing any sort of math in your head.
The only thing that I would recommend is if you're putting together a recipe, you're going to want to like make sure that you know how many grams of a certain ingredient it is. And that's a whole another episode. And honestly, I think I want to do some sort of tutorial. I'm sure there is a tutorial on YouTube already if you're using my macros plus when it comes to tracking your macros typing in. How to create a recipe on my macros. Plus you'll see how to do that. But that will save you so much time when it comes to you just logging whatever serving size of the recipe is that you create. So essentially going back to kind of the chicken salad example, it would be like this, it would be lettuce in the bowl, it would be bowl on the scale, zeroed out lettuce in the bowl, zero it out, then switch two ounces, add your chicken, then zero it out, then switch to grams, add the sliced avocado, zero it out, then add tomatoes in grams, then zero it out, then add x, y and z, zero it out and then weigh your salad dressing in grams.
Typically I do my side salad dressing in grams. I'm just thinking of like the Bolthouse Ranch dressings that I used, you know, the serving sizes in grams, like 15 grams, 30 grams and so, so on and so far. So you're going to be likely switching back and forth between ounces and grams. Sometimes people weigh their chicken in grams, like I believe this is going off the top of my head, but I believe around four ounces of chicken is about 100 grams of chicken. So again, this might sound overwhelming, but I'm telling you, when you actually do it, it is so easy to do. And I'll just give another example. So I put together my oatmeal, right? So I put the ball on the food scale, zero it out. I do my quick oats, I do 42 grams a quick oats, zero it out that I do about 70 grams of frozen blueberries, zero it out add water. I don't weigh that obviously. Then I stick it in the microwave, then I take it out. Then I put that finish bowl on the food scale again, zero it out, and then I add my almond butter in grams by the boom, by the bam. Sounds like it's complicated. I'm telling you, it is. It saves so much time. And I don't have any dishes other than my bowl that I'm eating my oatmeal out of. I don't have a tablespoon. I don't have any other measuring cups or things that I have to do when it comes to cleaning up. So it just saves so, so, so, so, so much time. So that is essentially how you would use it are basics. And I want to do another episode with just like food scale hacks of things that I wish I would have known. So keep your eyes peeled for that episode. That will be a future episode.
But let me recap the benefits of food scales. Number one is that they can help with portion control. Number two is that they can weigh ingredients that are hard to measure or messy to measure. Number three, they are consistently accurate. Number four, they're easy to use. Number five, they really do encourage you to stop mindlessly eating and they can also help save you a lot of money. Number six, it helps you build the body that you want. And number seven, it can truly make nourishing your body through utilizing the tool of macro counting so much easier. My two favorite food scales that I mentioned again the Oxo Good Grips 11 pounds stainless steel food scale with the pull out display or the OXO Good Grips, 5 pounds food scale with the pull out display. Both of those I will link in the show notes there. Also on my Amazon storefronts under kitchen things subcategory.
The last thing that I talked about in this episode is how to use the food scale. So getting out your mixing bowl, placing your mixing bowl on the scale, zero out the scale by using the tare. Add your first ingredient to the mixing bowl zero at out again, add your second ingredient zero out again. Change the type of measurement if you need to from ounces, two grams or vice versa, and then repeat the process until you've added every ingredient super, super simple. If you are feeling inspired and you want to start learning how to properly feel your body, I do have an online course for that. It's called Macro Counting Made Simple. I'm a huge believer in utilizing the tool of macro accounting. Whether you use that tool for six months, a year, a few years, and then transition into intuitive eating, or you prefer to utilize the tool of macro counting for a decade or the rest of your life.
It's totally up to you. Tons of people have found success through just dialing in their nutrition so that they can not only reap the benefits physically, but more importantly, the mental benefits, the clarity, the energy, all the benefits that come to you when you are intentional about nourishing your body with the nutrition.
Again, I hope that this episode helps you. I try to put out episodes that I wish I would have learned, and I was intimidated with food skills for so long, especially after I got into my macro counting journey. I specifically remember emailing my coach, being like, I can't do the food scale. And I remember him emailing me back, being like, Julie, you got to learn. Like, it's just like anything. You've got to learn how to utilize it. And the more you are around it, the more that you learn from it, the more you practice it, the less intimidating it gets.
So if you have a friend or a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot. And post it up on your Instagram story or whatever social media platform you prefer. I love you so stinking much. I hope that this is helpful and I will talk to you in the next episode.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, @juliealedbetter. Yes. It's with an a in the middle for that daily post workout, real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing. Be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.