We Tried It: EatSmart Nutrition Scale

The most important thing when dieting is what you put in your body, and accuracy becomes crucial when you're counting calories. Overestimating will leave you wondering why the scale isn't budging, but how can you be sure you're actually getting the number calories you think you are?

I've been road-testing the EatSmart Nutrition Scale, a scale that not only weighs food, but also gives you the calorie count of every item. The device was originally developed for medical purposes, specifically to be used for diabetics or people at obesity clinics around the country. The scale can easily be adjusted to account for a plate or bowl so you only weigh the food.

To use the scale, place the food item on top and then enter the code of that particular item. The scale will not only calculate the calories, but the carbohydrates, protein, total fat, saturated fat, fiber, sodium, potassium, magnesium, cholesterol, calcium and vitamin K. While you might not really care about how much calcium or vitamin K you're getting, for people with specific medical issues, such as heart disease, the scale's calculation of sodium and cholesterol may be important.

The scale has over 1,000 foods in its nutrition database, but you can also plug your own nutritional information into the scale for foods you eat regularly that aren't included. You can also set the scale up to add foods. Say you're making a sandwich -- you can weigh the bread, then add the deli meat and even a pickle on the side. The scale will add up the food as you go and give you total calories and nutritional content. Very handy.

I also tested the scale's accuracy against nutritional information on packaging. My organic slice of American cheese should have been 64 calories but the scale registered 75. An all beef hot dog was 150 calories on the package, but read as 161 on the scale. I also noticed that sometimes the gram weight was off slightly from the serving size (my slice of cheese weighed one gram more than the serving size on the package). Whenever I needed to input the information into the scale, such as with my cereal, the calorie count was very accurate. My bowl of cereal and milk was off by only four calories from the package information.

Keep in mind that nutrition labels are also allowed by the FDA to be off by as much as 20 percent.

As for accuracy, I spoke with William Geronimo, Vice President of EatSmart Products. "We're taking all this data from USDA," he said. "The scale should be accurate to one gram, so the difference you're seeing from the packaging is probably slightly different ingredients. That will give you slightly different outcomes. When you take it directly off a label it's pretty accurate. It's just difference in the makeup of the food over the USDA information."

This scale costs $74.95 if you buy direct, but you can also get it for $69.95 through Amazon.com.

The Pros
EatSmart is an accurate scale that helps you stay on a diet. If you have a medical issue, it can be very handy to keep track of particular nutrients such as cholesterol or saturated fat.

The Cons
There is definitely a bit of a learning curve as you get used to the scale. Quite a bit of flipping through the booklet as you figure out where your food item is so you can enter the proper code. It took me a few times to get used to adding food to the scale to get the "meal" information. I was a little disappointed to see staples like milk and cereal weren't in the database.

The Takeaway
If you struggle with portion sizes, this is a way to remove any doubt. Measuring your food is a great tactic in the battle against the bulge.

Check out this article for more information about the importance of calorie counting.