How to use a food scale for macros: the five-container Sunday

Set up once

Set the scale to grams and leave it there — ounces to a decimal are a translation you don't need. If the scale has an app, set the auto-off as long as it allows (the Etekcity Luminary's is adjustable to 300 seconds in VeSync; the ESN00's scale auto-off is 120 seconds, which is short for a five-container session). Put the scale where the bowl won't shadow the display, or use one with a pull-out display. Decide raw or cooked for each food and don't revisit it — the raw-or-cooked page explains why mixing them is the error that matters.

The method, one container

1. Empty container on the platform. Press tare. The display reads 0.
2. Add the protein until the display reads your target (say 170 g cooked chicken). Log it against the cooked entry.
3. Press tare. Display reads 0 with the chicken still on.
4. Add the carb to target (say 180 g cooked rice). Log against the cooked entry. Tare.
5. Add the vegetable to target. Log. Tare.
6. Sauce or oil, if any, to target. Log at the added weight. This is the one you never estimate.
7. Lid on. Lift. Next.

Five containers in a row

Line up five open containers. Do all five proteins first, then all five carbs, then all five vegetables — one pot open at a time, one entry in the app repeated five times. Taring between each addition means you never subtract anything; the display always shows only the thing you just added. If the scale sleeps, put the container back on, tare, and continue — the earlier components are already logged.

Divided trays make this faster still: the compartments are the targets, and the embossed cup marks on Bentgo Prep trays let you fill by line on the nights the scale feels like homework. The trays are ranked on best 3-compartment containers.

The batch-weigh alternative

For anything you cook in one pot — rice, chili, shredded chicken — skip the per-container weigh-in. Weigh the raw ingredients into the pot as you go (tare the pot, add, tare, add), so the whole batch is logged as one recipe. Cook it. Weigh the finished batch. Divide the cooked weight by five, and each container is one fifth of the recipe. A 22 lb scale is the difference between taring a rice cooker's inner pan with rice in it and the scale reading error; a 5 kg scale runs out with a big pot.

The three mistakes

• Estimating the oil. A tablespoon of olive oil is about 120 calories and a "tablespoon" poured from the bottle is anything from one to two. Weigh it — it's the highest-calorie thing per gram on the plate.
• Reading through a shadow. A big bowl over a small display leads to tilting the bowl, which changes the reading. Pull-out display, wide platform, or a smaller bowl.
• Raw entry, cooked weight. The one that throws the whole week off by a quarter. Pick one and use the matching entry every time.

The gear this leads to