Hello,
Do you still do weights and measures using cups?

I'm looking around websites for recipes and they're talking about cups. So I go off and find out what a cup is. Turns out that a cup isn't actually a weighted measure, it's a literal cup! wtf! a cup of sugar is a different weight to a cup of butter. Does nobody use scales or any kind of weights

I'd use the word backward, but I still work in inches, feet and ounces so I can't really say much.

Wouldn't it be much easier to say 100grams (or 4oz, whatever), rather than looking down a long list of items to figure out how much I need?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measuring_cup

How do you know how much 250 mL or 1 cup or 100 pounds or 10000 kgs is unless you measure it somehow?

He's probably pouring flour onto his bathroom scale ... "It sure would be easier if they listed the weight in stones."

I see the Wikipedia picture of a cup is the type for measuring liquid. The liquid cup has the 1 cup measure below the rim so you can fill it with liquid without spilling, whereas the dry measure cup has the 1 cup gradiation exactly at the rim so you can drag a straightedge across it to clear the excess. I used to be a cook, too

A cup is a measure of volume. They are all the same size*. 1 cup of lettuce is the same volume as 1 cup of vegetables, just like 1 gram of lettuce is the same weight as 1 gram of vegetables.

Most of the measuring cups I've seen also have milli-litres marked on them, if you prefer that measurement.

I'm slightly confused here, how would you go about measuring milli-litres (a unit of volume) on a weighing scale (which, as the name implies, measures weight)?

_{* Although there are people who, like my grandmother once did, will grab a normal cup out of the cupboard and use it as a measuring cup. This produces sub-optimal results.}

Hmm... when I make rice or macaroni I usually measure quantities in cups or mugs, usually of the type you serve tea in. I had no idea there's an actual measurement of that name.
I am used to recipes calling for "tablespoons", "teaspoons", "knifepoints" or "pinches" of something or other, which I know actually correspond to well-defined amounts, but I usually just take something that looks about right. Cooking is more an art than a science anyway.

That sounds like a very tiny portion to me, but then again, the serving size of vegetables in North America seems to be half or less of what I'm used to, so that may also make a difference (serving size of meat is more than a factor of two larger).
"Cup of lettuce" sounds funny though.

EDIT

One litre of water weighs one kilogram; assuming most food items have roughly the same density as water (how good or bad this is depends on the item, obviously) or assuming you otherwise know the density (I wouldn't, but hey) you can use a scale to measure volume.
That said, most recipes I've ever used state weight (rather than volume) of things like vegetables and meat and volumes of things you can actually pour (liquids and flour, mostly).

Ah, you're following a recipe for salad? I just toss a bunch of veggies and whatever in until it looks like something I want to eat, and I eat it.

As far as "one cup of lettuce" they're prolly talking about chopped lettuce or something. Personally, I'd just throw some on.

Yes, it's for a catabolic diet. Basically you eat nothing but catabolic foods (theory is you burn more calories eating than you get from it), with some supplements of white fish or meat for the protein. No carbs whatsoever. You can't even eat more lettuce if you wanted to

It's best to stick to one week only, and most people lose in excess of 1lb a day. They say it attacks the long term stored fat as well rather than the easy stuff your body normally burns.

That's the theory and what I've read. My mate and his girlfriend tried it. They both lost about 9lb in a week and say after the first dodgy day they woke up much more refreshed and alert during the diet.

I was just referring to water type liquids. Sorry for the confusion.

btw, I'm not fat - it's for somebody else - my body is a temple

I didn't mean an ANSI approved straightedge, but rather the edge of a reasonably straight spatula or something.

Eating cucumbers will do that too. So would eating lettuce, I would have thought.

Hmm. Ok, so you lose weight quickly. How long after you quit the diet until it's back?
Losing weight is relatively easy, but the tricky part^[1] is to stay at a healthy weight. That probably requires a structural change in life style.

Eating any high cellulose vegetable should have the effect of not causing you to gain weight according to calories, because cellulose burns (in the calorimeter), but isn't digestable (unless you're a cow).

As odd as it may seem, a stick of butter is ... a stick of butter:

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