Cup measurements

[JenDoe]

I have finally managed to find a measuring jug with cup measurements on, so am thrilled. But I have a question about using cups for things like lettuce. Perhaps I'm just being dense but am I supposed to chop up the luttuce before measuring it, or am I suppose to squash whole leaves into the cup. I just have no idea what way is right and I'm sure it probably makes a lot of differences on induction.

Any help would be appreciated,
Jen
x

[Desertthorn]

Re: Cup measurements

Jen that is difficult. What I do is figure a med head of lettuce has about 11 carbs, Well, I like using numbers I can work with, so I figure a head of lettuce, has about 10 carbs, I divide it in half for 5 and in half again for 2.5. Its just easier for me to deal with those number.
Have you checked out fitday. It will tell you by the cup (shredded) by the head or by the leaf.

[tickletussler]

Re: Cup measurements

Hi Jen,
You may find some Atkineers will suggest that it is better to measure out your food with weighing scales. When I first started Atkins, I tried to use those cups for baking, but lettuce was so hard to fit into a cup, and as Dr A said, "loosely packed" - that puzzled me because i couldn't determine how different my "loosely packed" would be to another Atkineer's. Then I discovered the metric cup is slightly larger than the imperial cup ie 1 metric cup = 250ml vs 1 imperial cup = 225ml. I know it's not much but during Induction, it's important to stick to the correct cup sizes otherwise you could easily overeat your carbs during one day.
Since then I have used a 2-cup jug (imperial) which means that I break my lettuce up into bite sized pieces and drop them loosely into the bigger 2-cup jug. It was definitely more accurate than trying to stuff those whole lettuce leaves into 1 small cup.
At the end of the day, it may be better to weigh your food rather than measure in a cup because everyone's "cup of lettuce" could be different.
Hope this helps.

[JenDoe]

Re: Cup measurements

Thanks for the help you two -and in perfect time for lunch I will tey working it out without the cup or going on weight as you both suggested as I really don't think I was doing it right with a cup.

Thanks again
Jenx

[LindaSue]

Re: Cup measurements

According to the USDA site, 1 cup of shredded leaf lettuce weighs 36 grams and only has .5 net carb (1 carb/.5 gram fiber). I don't think I'd worry too much about overeating lettuce.