If you’re on a diet, the best tool to help you start a diet and learn portion control is a food scale. Why?  Many people normally eat servings that are much larger than recommended amounts.

Food Scale: How it Works

A food scale will show you that the portion you thought was four ounces may actually weigh eight ounces. That’s the kind of mistake that could derail your diet.  Meat portions should be around 4 ounces.  Once you use a scale for a while, you can pretty much eyeball food portions and know if it is about 4 ounces or not.

A food scale is only one of the measuring tools you will need; measuring cups and spoons are also essential diet implements. Food scales are best for meat, which should weigh in at 4 ounces per serving, and cheese, 1.5 ounces per serving. Cups are best for fruits and vegetables — a serving is 1/2 cup on most fruits and about a cup on most vegetables, twice a day.

Another Way to Eyeball Sizes:

–A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards

–A serving of pasta should fit in the palm of your hand, although I do not recommend pasta or rice on a low-carb diet.

Food Scale: Choosing the Best One

Food scales range from a small plastic cup on a small plastic base to old-fashioned metal scales with weights and measures to expensive, programmable digital scales that can give you the full nutritional information for each serving size. The best food scale for you:

• Has numbers you can read easily
• Has a cup or bowl large enough to hold the food you need to weigh
• Is easy to clean and store