Cheryl Forberg, the dietician and nutritionist for NBC’s The Biggest Loser has a great blog on the importance of measuring out food while trying to lose weight. I know for my experience it was essential; she taught us about it during our boot camp before heading home, and those of us who were diligent did lose the most weight. But enough from me! Here’s the intro to the article … if you like it, click the link at the end to get the rest!
Weight Loss Secret — It Pays to Measure
By Cheryl Forberg, RD
One of the first things The Biggest Loser contestants learn about is the importance of a food journal. Not only is it one of the key secrets to a successful weight loss plan, it’s often a very loud wake-up call. Most of us eat (and drink) much more than we think….until we start recording it.
The more detailed your food journal entries are, the more accurate your calorie count for the day will be. The first thing you need to know is — how big is a serving size? Weighing and measuring food is crucial in order to calculate an accurate number of your daily calories.
For this, you will need
- a liquid measuring cup (2-cup capacity)
- a set of dry measuring cups (1 cup, 1/2 cup, 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup sizes)
- a set of measuring spoons (1 tablespoon, 1 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon)
- food scale
- calculator
The food scale should measure pounds and ounces as well as grams. Most measurements will be in ounces but some foods are very concentrated sources of calories so the portion sizes will be smaller (nuts are a good example of this).
There will be no more eating cereal out of mixing bowls! I recommend taking a small bowl out of the cupboard the first morning you try this. Measure your serving size of cereal into the bowl with a measuring cup. Take a good look at the cereal in the bowl. Next, measure the milk and then add to the bowl. Now look at the cereal with the milk added. Now you know what it should look like and you won’t have to measure it every day.
Find the rest of the article here!
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