carb counting scales

[leggott]

Hi. I am interested in buying a pair of scales which calculate the nutritional value of foods and wondered if anyone has any experience of using them and whether they are worth buying. I already carb count and just use the packet info or refer to my little book, but wondered whether these would make it easier - thanks. Leggott.

 

[hanadr]

I just use an accurate digital kitchen scale and mental arithmetic.
Hana

 

[Synonym]

Today I bought 'Nutrition Scales' from Lidl at a cost £8.99 incl batteries. Can be used as straightforward scales but apparently it will calculate all kinds of things from fat to protein and carbs which sounds promising.

Certainly a better price than my first set of digital sacales which were 5 times the price! :shock:

 

[noblehead]

Interested to know how accurate these scales are, I don't know a great deal about them, I just use normal digital scales that weigh. Are they quite reliable then, and near enough as accurate as weighing and counting yourself?

Nigel

 

[kegstore]

I read a comparison report somewhere on this type of device, the results were not that great on accuracy in terms of calculating content of carb, protein, fat etc. Apart from one that is - Rosemary Conley Nutri-Scales - which came out of it fairly well. Unfortunately these are no longer made, they were given out by Roche as part of their insulin pump package at one point, which is how I got mine. You could try offering an inducement to a Roche pump user, but good luck as I know I wouldn't be without mine!

A good pair of digital kitchen scales and a Collins Gem is probably the most accurate and up to date, which is an important consideration too.

 

[noblehead]

A good pair of digital kitchen scales and a Collins Gem is probably the most accurate and up to date, which is an important consideration too.

I'll not argue there, nothing beats a good set of scales and the ability to work it out for yourself.

Nigel

 

[Synonym]

Interested to know how accurate these scales are, I don't know a great deal about them, I just use normal digital scales that weigh. Are they quite reliable then, and near enough as accurate as weighing and counting yourself?

I will let you know! There is quite a thick instruction booklet to get to grips with and there are loads of codes and stuff in there! :shock:

I only bought this set because the old one has stopped working and it was excellent so this one needs to be good. :roll:

 

[leggott]

Hi - thanks everyone. I too would be interested in those new scales Synonym. I do already use the little carb book, but I wanted something i could give to my kids so they could take it to friends houses for tea, just to make it easy for someone else to weigh & work out the approx carb values. It would be good if you could programme foods in as well if they weren't already on the scales - but this is probably asking too much! Leggott

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Hi, I bought a set of Salter 1400 Nutri-Weigh & Go scales off ebay when I was tweaking my diet and found them quite useful. And from £13 delivered from an ebay seller great value too

Basically you turn them on place a plate on them and zero it, then you press FOOD and scroll through the database of 1400 food items and stuffs and select the first part of your meal, say potato, it will then give you the weight of the portion along with the:

Calories
Protein
Carbohydrates
Total Sugars
Total Fat
Saturated Fat
Fibre
Sodium
Cholesterol
Net Carbs
% of Calories from Fat
Glycemic Index (GI)

I personally found the net carbs and GI the most useful but it was interesting to see what other stuff was in my food, like salt etc. Quite an eye opener.

Then you can re-zero the scales leaving the potato on it and then place the next ingredient, say peas and do the calculation again. Then re-zero and add the next ingredient until you have your full plate and have added up all the nutritional values that you may require.

I now find it too fiddly and time consuming to use every day but when I needed to adjust my portions and know exactly what carbs etc I was eating I found them brilliant and fairly intuitive to use even by an idiot like me

 

[Wendyanne]

Rosemary Conley do these scales but am not too sure whether they are any good or not.I was going to order a set but when I was reading the blurb,at one point it said that it gave the values of 1,000 food items and then somewhere else it said it gave the values of only 500 foods so I was a bit confused with it so haven't ordered a set yet :roll:

Those scales of yours look a good investment Sid, Thanks for that

 

[SophiaW]

I have a set of the scales Sid posted a picture of. I don't use them and found them to be more cumbersome than a simple set of scales that weigh the food and calculating the carb value manually on a notepad. But that's just me, I'm sure others who use the scales might find them useful. The downside I found with those particular scales is that you cannot put a dinner plate onto the scale to weigh food as it's too large and rests onto the edges of the scale. As a result I was getting inacurate weights before I realised what was happening.

 

[frenchkittie]

Interested to know how accurate these scales are, I don't know a great deal about them, I just use normal digital scales that weigh. Are they quite reliable then, and near enough as accurate as weighing and counting yourself?

I will let you know! There is quite a thick instruction booklet to get to grips with and there are loads of codes and stuff in there! :shock:

I only bought this set because the old one has stopped working and it was excellent so this one needs to be good. :roll:

I have a set of these scales, also bought from Lidl. I found that the listings for the codes, in food group order rather than alphabetical, were a real pain, so I put together an alphabetical list of codes which is much easier and more intuitive to use.

If you'd like a copy of the list, PM me your email address and I'll attach the file.

 

[noblehead]

I have a set of the scales Sid posted a picture of. I don't use them and found them to be more cumbersome than a simple set of scales that weigh the food and calculating the carb value manually on a notepad. But that's just me, I'm sure others who use the scales might find them useful. The downside I found with those particular scales is that you cannot put a dinner plate onto the scale to weigh food as it's too large and rests onto the edges of the scale. As a result I was getting inacurate weights before I realised what was happening.

I would imagine that using a dinner plate on these scales might present that problem. Maybe you should weigh individual items on a smaller plate first and then transfer, a bit fiddly I know, but even the digital scales I use you have to do it this way.

Those scales do look the business that Sid has posted. Good value at £13 too.

Nigel

 

[SophiaW]

Yes, it is a bit fiddly weighing on a smaller plate and then transferring to the dinner plate. I have a scale that takes a small size dinner plate without any problems, I find that quite easy to use plus work out the carb values by noting it down in a note pad. I've typed up a list of common foods that Jess eats, like fresh veg and fruit, different carbs like potatoes, rice etc, and I've laminated the list. It's quick and easy to look down the alphabetical list and work out the carb value depending on the weight of the portion. The other advantages to this is that I have a written record of what was eaten etc so if I ever want to look back I can and as I've worked out the values of the foods she eats on a regular basis it's programmed in my mind now so if we eat out I know in my head how much common vegetables, carb foods and fruits are in carbohydrate values. I guess it's all about using the tools that work for you, we'll probably all like different tools to do the same job