Think the scale is your enemy in your weight loss battle? Not when it's a digital kitchen scale!
One of the biggest mistakes that people who are trying to lose weight make is that their portion sizes are off. Even if you're eating a healthy food, if you eat too much of it, you're throwing off your daily calorie count without even realizing it and sabotaging your diet.
It's really easy to overeat foods like cereal, nuts, pasta and more if you're not careful, and it can make all the difference when you're on your body weight scale.
If a food item is not individually pre-packaged, the only way to be sure you're getting the right portion is to measure it. I've used measuring cups and spoons, as well as an inexpensive manual diet scale with the little cup on it that looks like an old-fashioned postage scale. But I've always wanted a digital kitchen scale so I could accurately and easily measure out my food portions.
Besides loving my new digital kitchen scale, it's also been a real eye opener. I thought I was doing pretty well with using my measuring cups to measure my Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal, but then when I used my new Escali digital kitchen scale to weigh out a portion, I found out that I was off by almost a third!
When I thought I was eating an accurate portion of my Oatmeal Squares using a standard measuring cup, I was actually 16 grams over the correct-size 56 gram portion. That might sound like I'm splitting hairs, but a portion is 210 calories, 5 grams of fiber, 6 grams of protein. Sixteen grams is a 28% larger portion, so it means I'm eating 59 extra calories with each serving. I eat this cereal almost daily, and on days where I teach multiple group fitness classes like my Zumba, I often eat two portions because it's a great, nutritious grab and go snack that feels light in my stomach when I'm in front of a class.
So if you figure I eat 10 portions per week, by being over by 59 calories, that's 590 extra calories I didn't know I was eating until I started using my new best buddy digital kitchen scale. If I didn't burn it off, that's almost 9 pounds worth of calories extra a year over a small 16 gram mistake in weight!
Imagine now that this was happening with multiple foods you were measuring--like servings of pasta or nuts. You could easily gain weight by not measuring your food portions accurately. And when you're working so hard otherwise to lose weight, why would you want to let it get sabotaged by faulty measuring, when it's so easy to get it right?
Now you see why a scale can really be your best weight loss friend?
P.S. Get a get a FREE excerpt from my newest book Weight Loss Secrets Revealed for the Happiest and Healthiest You! from my Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™ series CLICK HERE
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--Melanie Jordan
Certified Health and Wellness Coach, Weight Loss and Weight Management Expert
Your Healthy Life Made Easy!™
Melanie Jordan is a Wellcoaches and ACE Certified Health and Wellness Coach and an ACE Group Fitness Certified and licensed Zumba and Zumba Gold Instructor and Turbo Kick Instructor.
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