When beginning a weight loss journey, there are a few tools that are necessary to help you be successful with your journey. One very important tool is a food scale. A food scale is a great tool to use in order to see the amounts and serving sizes of the foods you’re eating. Read on to see why a food scale is such an important part of your journey.
Why use a food scale?
A food scale helps keep you honest and not guessing the amounts of foods you’re having. Weighing your food allows you to learn portion control and keeps you from eating more than you planned. Most people who measure their food are more successful at losing weight and keeping it off than those who do not. By weighing your food, you have a visual guide of what you should be eating, which helps you make better choices regarding portion sizes when you’re eating out or at a social gathering. When you are aware of the amount of food that you eat, you may find that you are eating too much or too little of certain foods. This awareness will help you to create small changes in your diet that will lead to big results over time. Without knowing where you start with your portions, you will not know what to change.
Staying consistent and creating a habit
Using a food scale should be thought of as a long-term habit. It takes time to get used to weighing everything before eating it and planning your portion sizes ahead of time for each meal. Start by picking one meal you can commit to. Begin to weigh your food for that specific meal and try doing it for a few days or up to one week. If you feel comfortable with it and find that you are doing well, try to do it for another meal. Once you begin to weigh your food prior to eating each meal, it will become easier and you will see the benefits of taking those extra few minutes to do so.
How to pick the best food scale
There are many different food scales out there. They range from small plastic ones to metal scales with weights and measures to expensive, programmable digital scales that can give you the full nutritional information for each serving size. The food scale that you want to get is the one that is within your budget, easy to navigate, fits easily in your kitchen or pantry to store, and has numbers that are easy for you to read.
