As most of you know, weight loss and then weight maintenance can be very challenging to do on your own. While there is no “magic bullet” for weight loss, there are some great tools out there to help you out. I want to share my two favorite with you here, Shop Well and  Eat Smart Kitchen scales.

ShopWell

This is one of my favorite websites to direct clients to- a free website that helps you create custom grocery lists based on your preferences.

How it works: The ShopWell scoring system rates foods from 0-100 based on how well they match your health needs. When you set up a profile, you put in what types of food work for you — Heart Healthy;  Gluten Free; Athletic Training, ect. Then they show what  foods are right for you. This is a great site not only for zoning in on specific brands that fit with your health needs but a great resource for people with food allergies and sensitivities.

You can print off your grocery lists from the site or go paperless and use their App. Either way, I  love this site and hope it helps make grocery shopping a little easier.

And for the record- I don’t work for ShopWell or get anything from them for writing this post, I just really like the site and want to share it with you!

Eat Smart Precision PRO Kitchen Scale

The kitchen scale is one of my favorite tools for both baking and portion control. A kitchen scale is a great way to ensure you measure accurately so your item comes out like it’s supposed to. Whenever I bake, I measure my flour instead of scooping it into a measuring cup. Since too much/too little flour can really make or break a item like cake, measuring is a fool-proof way of producing delicious baked goods. Plus, it couldn’t be simpler! Place a bowl on the scale, tare it, add the flour and you are good to go.

The other great purpose of a food scale is accurate portion and calorie control. I love the Eat Smart Precision Pro Scale because it’s digital and allows you to measure in grams, kilograms, oz, and lbs. For items that are hard to measure a correct portion of, like pasta, the kitchen scale is a easy and convenient way to make sure the amount you want to eat is the amount you prepare.

The Eat Smart scales come with a calorie factor cookbook which is a very simple way to count calories. Weigh the amount of food you want to eat, multiply the weight by the conversion factor and you have the exact amount of calories of that item. So simple! While I don’t encourage calorie counting every day, unless there is a very specific timeline for weight loss/gain, it’s a great tracker and awareness tool. If you start to notice weight creeping back on, taking a look at portion sizes is usually the first place I start. The scale can help you see what an average day looks like and make choices from there.

There are lots of scales out there and if you think a kitchen scale is a tool you would use on a daily basis to analyze all of your foods, then check out a more advanced model like the Eat Smart Nutrition Pro Scale. This scale not only has all of the weigh features like the model above but it also breakdowns the amount of fat, protein, carbs, sodium, fiber, and nutrients. I recommend this one to clients with diabetes where carbohydrate counting is essential.

What tools do you use? What are your favorite weight loss apps?