Advice on good kitchen scales? Sensitive & reliable for small keto amounts?

#1

[To Admin: is it ok for folks to name the brands they like and dont like?]

Hi there!

I bought electric kitchen scales on Amazon especially for keto and I have to send them back sadly.

Now I have spent WAY too many hours of my life reading gazillions of online reviews for many many kitchen scales. And I’m dizzy! Also, I’m still not confident I have found scales that are good for measuring small amounts. For decent macro monitoring, we need scales that are sensitive and reliable.

And then I thought 'Hang on, I know a thousand or so people who may have looked for scales for the very same thing!" :smile:

Could you share the brand and model of a scale youve found very good? Especially if they are available inthe UK.

Here were the problems I had with mine:

  • the on and off buttons were very fiddly and took several attempts every time. They were flat, and supposedly touch sensitive. I tried many different pressures,and durations when pressing. But they just seemed temperamental. Since they automatically turned off quite quickly it was frustrating fiddling with the on button several times per recipe. For the next few weeks I was also planning on measuring everything so I get a better mental idea of the volumes of foods. Say I want to make sure I eat 1/2 to 1 lb of mixed keto-friendly veggies a day, i will be measuring out small amounts throughout the day. Every day.
  • The measurement would go up and down in front of my eyes, when nothing on the scale was changing
  • I would set to zero, put something on the scale to measure it, take it off, and the ‘zero’ more often than not was no longer zero.
  • It wouldn’t recognise when i had added more to the bowl quite often

They cost about £10. They also could have just been broken.

But here’s the thing. When doing more research to pick new scales to replace them, it seems kitchen scales are generally only accurate rounded up to 1g and 1 oz. There must be some scales that are (even inadvertantly) better at these smaller amounts, compared to others. What if I need to measure 1.5oz cream cheese? I just have to accept that even if the scale says 1.5oz, it’s actually anywhere between 1 and 2oz every time? The differences really affect macros.

I don’t get it. So maybe Im missing something.

Please help! :heart:

(Mike W.) #2

The only advice about a scale I can offer is to loosen the reigns a little. If you’re concerned about a few grams or half oz here and there do you see that as sustainable? I’d lose my damn mind. That’s the beauty of Keto is listening to your body and not feeling restricted. Also my daily “requirements” change everyday so I try and just give my body what it wants. It’s usually bacon.

(Brian) #3

Is it always necessary to measure by weight?

You used an example of cream cheese. If I needed 1.5 oz, here’s what I’d do.

I’d get a new pack, which is 8 oz and comes in a block. I’d open it carefully so it was still a single block. I’d take a knife and mark it halfway across. That would be 4 oz. I’d then mark it again at a quarter of the way across. That would be 2 oz. That 2 oz segment, I’d divide in half and mark that. Right in between those last two marks should be 1.5 oz. Cut there. Done.

I do something similar with butter sometimes.

I know it doesn’t always work that way, especially with things that are not containerized in such a way that makes dividing them easy. But those things that are…

Or… buy a better scale. Go by how many decimal places it’s accurate to and buy according to that. If you’re really that sensitive, you may need to look at a pharmaceutical type scale.

Good luck!

#4

@MiKetoAF @Bellyman Thanks you guys!

(Mary Kubasak) #5

maybe look at “postal scale” rather than “kitchen scale”?

#6

Thanks!

#7

Hey there,

Here’s an update on what worked out best. Searching for pharmaceutical and for postal scales was better than the general kitchen scale ranges, which boasted the heavy weights they could measure but didn’t do much for smaller amounts.

In the end it was… a set of jewellery scales that looked the most practical and sensitive to .01g etc. Who would have guessed - well certainly not me anyway!

They have the tare function, and a ‘hold’ function if you need to go and do something else or get a call or something and dont want the scale to turn off. And it lets you choose the duration of the auto switch-off as well.
All for under £10, and very high ratings on Amazon (some using it for food as well as weighing out all their diamonds!) Fingers crossed it works great.

Thanks for your responses guys :heart:

And good luck to anyone else who is looking for reliable scales for smaller amounts. It turns out to be pocket jewellery scales we are after! :laughing:

KCKO

(Consensus is Politics) #8

Just watch out if you get one of the returned ones. That white powder on it might not be flour or corn starch. :speak_no_evil:

#9

Indeed!