Question about portion sizes

so, when you folks are talking portion sizes, are talking volume or weight? 1 oz spinach has a lot more volume than 1 oz broccoli.

Pauline

Early out, when you are still eating, volume is most important. Putting too much volume into a healing stomach is obviously dangerous.

After that, weight is the only thing that matters. Weigh and track your food to keep a close eye on calories. Using volume to track calories is not much better than eyeballing -- which is to say, not much at all.

For liquid, I used volume. Now it's weight for solids. But I eat dense protein primarily. An ounce of spinach takes up far less space after chewing.

Like Grim said, early on volume is king. Don't push your new stomach, or you could really hurt yourself. Now everything is weight. That's the only way to know how much calories, carbs, protein you're getting is by using the actual serving size weight. I don't go by just 1/2 cup or a cup of this and that, since the nutrition label will usually offer grams beside that measurement. Always go by weight. Though, for some foods I've become an expert at knowing how much is right, but it's a food I've been eating since the beginning, so by a year now I would hope I could tell!

I go almost exclusively by weight, as most things that we eat are fairly close to water density, where 1 oz mass (weight) = 1 oz volume (or 1 cc or ml = 1 g for the metric folks) so it doesn't make a significant difference - go with whatever is most convenient for you. Early on, most things that we eat are sloppy/mushy things that have a high water content; later we can get into less dense things like spinach (what is a cup of spinach - how finely chopped or packed?) which when chewed and swallowed is, again, pretty close to water density by the time it hits the stomach.

For me, throwing things into a bowl on a scale using the tare function is a lot easier than always washing a bunch of measuring cups and spoons, particularly as recipes and meals get more normal and complex.

If you are new post op, you need to step away from the broccoli for a while. You're going to want your veggies overcooked and soft at first, and I would go by weight on cooked veggies.

Just after surgery, like people say, volume is important.

Weight is the way to go for nutrition tracking, cooking, or baking because it can be significantly more accurate.

If you want a good example, weigh a cup of packed flour vs cup of sifted flour, or substitute fine granulated table salt in a recipe that calls for course kosher or sea salt by volume (don't do this).