Digital Nutrition Scale (Silver)

This item shipped so fast. Thanks!Now about the product, so far, I love it. It is so accurate I can't believe I've been using my old crappy analog scale.I discovered that measuring cups are a little bit off. I've been using a plastic measuring cup to measure spaghetti sauce and I never went over the rim but I filled it to its level (when dieting every speckle of sauce counts, ha) and learned that it was MORE than a cup. In order to get a "real" cup of spaghetti sauce I would have to fill 1/4 inch below the cups rim. It may not sound like much but over 7 days that could equal to a easy couple hundred extra calories that you could have saved or used on a healthy snack.I'm also glad I have something to measure my feta cheese for my salads. Because I bought Athenos feta cheese crumbles and followed the 1/4 cup serving to a T of what the packaging displayed. I can't remember how many servings the package said it served but I do know at the time (when I had package on hand) I was either shortened in the amount of servings the package promised or my 1/4 measuring cup was wrong.Either way, with this new addition to my kitchen I will have NO MORE second guessing of how many calories were in my dinner or having to use a rule to measure how big of a chunk of pepperoni is one serving, ha! My husband shook his head when I asked him for his measuring tape to measure a stick of pepperoni (I do low carb).I also love the "Tare" system. When I ordered this scale I didn't fully read all of the reviews so I ordered without knowing if it Tared the weight of the container your food is in AND IT DOES!!Luckily I had an afternoon free and got so giddy about my new "toy" that I prepackaged 3 nights worth of dinners already. Good news is...I now have some spare time those three days to read a nice book or another hobby instead of obsessing over "did I add the calories right?" I'm very pleased in this food scale.Since this is my first day using it I will update if I discover any qwerks OR more positive aspects.

WORKS JUST GREAT FOR DIABETIC CARB COUNTING!!Keep in mind that my Type 2 Diabetic husband refuses to learn to input a new phone contact into his dated flip phone! Because he is such a delight .. and takes such good care of me in so many ways .. I agree to this little quirk of his! But YES .. you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!After yet again another kind scolding from his diabetic food counselor I knew he had finally "gotten religion" so I researched "Best diabetic food scale". Up popped this scale .. seemed primarily for dieting .. BUT the reviews had enough info on carb counting that I researched it further. AND WOW!! Upon receipt of the product .. it is working just GREAT! My "Old Dog" with a fair amount of help and coaching is actually working his program!To help him ward off daily frustration in using the scale for the normal/usual food code items I set up a yellow pad with the below headings and told him that if he just kept a record of his weekly food intake .. I would type it up for easy/quick food code reference for him. I would then laminate it .. he could keep it beside his scale and then would only have to check the food codes for the occasional items.He was delighted at that idea and was happy to co operate in keeping a one week record of food intake!My instruction to him:**FIRST WEEK KEEP A RECORD OF PERSONAL FOOD ITEMS CONSUMED .. TO CREATE A QUICK FOOD CODE REFERENCE GUIDE TO KEEP BESIDE FOOD SCALE:Headings: FOOD NAME .. FOOD CODE .. # CARBS .. QUANTITY CONSUMEDTHEN TYPE THE RECORD AND LAMINATE FOR PROTECTION:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004TS60/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1#Ask** WILL TRY TO REMEMBER TO UPDATE AFTER A PERIOD OF USAGE TO LET YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT LASTED AND HOW WELL! WE HAVE ONLY USED IT ONE DAY!

(An UPDATE at the END of the review)I've had this scale for 4 months and I have lost 35lbs. I was really clueless about portion size until I got this scale. In the beginning, I used it all the time, keeping a cumulative daily total. Since I was trying to keep at 60%-20%-20% balance of carbs, fat, protein it was invaluable because I could see what I needed to get to the end of the day and stay within my diet. Believe it or not, that often meant at the end of the day I had leeway to have a (small) treat, which has kept me sane.Now that I've had it for a while, I don't run daily totals, but I still use it all the time for accurate portion sizes. The manual gives instructions clearly and it is short -- but do be prepared to spend about 10 to 15 minutes learning to use the scale. Once you get it, it is easy.I've entered in about 25 entries for food items that are not programmed in already. Entering them is easy. The code book is plastic so it won't get ruined by water. The scale is excellent for weighing mail, too.The auto-shut off will save batteries and still gives you plenty of time to dig around in the fridge and chop something up.Here are the reasons I did not give it 5 stars: The display could use more contrast as it is a bit dim. Every time you push a button, there is a loud beep noise. It can't be turned off. The book with the list of food codes is not in any sensible order and it has too many codes most adults don't need, like candy bars and processed foods. A condiment section would have been helpful instead of having to find mayo in one place, mustard in another, and I have yet to find ketchup.I would totally overlook most of the above to give this product 5 stars, except for that infernal beeping.I could not have had the success I've had without this scale! I never pay expedited shipping for anything, but I did for this and I am glad!~<UPDATE, March 2011:>~Hey, thanks for the interesting feedback on my review. You all raise good points, both supporting my commentary and differing with it. I had not considered how this scale would be used by diabetics and diabetic children. That makes perfect sense and I am glad you made us aware of that. I was thinking mainly of nutritional info already being on the wrappers, as well as the sheer volume of processed/packaged foods pre-programmed versus numerous missing items in vegetables, fruit, and fish. It sounds like they have reorganized the booklet and I hope that any commentary here helps them make good decisions about what to include.With the ability to program in your own items, the holes are an inconvenience but not something that should keep anyone from buying the scale. If you eat lots of pre-packaged foods, it won't be an inconvenience at all!Long-term scale performance: completely awesome! Have not had to replace the batteries and I use it on average once daily. AND, I've lost 50 lbs and kept 40 lbs off and am now in the process of getting my total loss down again, to 57 lbs. I'm a third of the way there and doing great, for the win. I don't keep running totals on the scale anymore, but I use it in combination with nutritional information from the web to weigh out the calories to my liking without having to program in the items.Oh! Am I allowed to plug the blog, 100 Calories Of, which I started based on my use of the scale? It is [..] and it shows pictures of 100 calories of different foods I've weighed on the scale. It all started when I posted a picture of 9.5 cashews to facebook and captioned "100 Calories of Cashews." People went nuts (ha ha) for the info so I kept going. I take requests!Wishing you all a great day and good health.