Accurately Measuring Frozen Yogurt

Are you a fan of frozen yogurt?  Most people are–  It’s a delicious treat that can be a relatively low calorie dessert, especially when compared to other desserts like ice cream, cake, etc.  Have you tried to track your frozen yogurt in your nutrient tracker?  Probably, but here’s a very important note about measuring your froyo. . .  In most cases, the Calories are reported per fluid ounce (fl. oz.),which is a volume measurement; however, the weight on the scale is just that–  it’s a weight measurement.

Weight measurements are much more accurate than volumetric; especially when you consider how many times you’ve brought a measuring cup to get frozen yogurt. . .  So how do we get our weight measurement converted into a volume measurement to accurately track our frozen yogurt?  Let’s start by figuring out the weight of the frozen yogurt alone–  You will do this by weighing the empty cup, weighing the final product, and then subtracting the values.

Froyo measuring

If the scale measures in ounces, you can skip this next step; however, if the scale measures in terms pounds (e.g. 0.50 lbs.), you will need to multiply the measurement on the scale by 16 to determine how many ounces you have.

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Now that you have the accurate amount of ounces measured of froyo, we can use the density of froyo to convert from weight to volume.  I got this information from the head of nutrition at Menchies, and is a general measurement–  there may be slight variations between flavors, but it’s still enough to give us a pretty accurate measurement.  Take your weight measurement and divide it by the density (0.802) to give you your accurate volumetric measurement for your froyo.

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These steps need to be repeated if you have different flavors, though if you do a swirl, that makes it easy since half of the volume will be one flavor, and the other half will be the other.  If you get toppings, be sure to subtract those totals from your froyo measurement, and don’t forget to track your toppings as well!

It’s worth noting that some places have started reporting their nutrition in terms of weight, which negates the need for most of this article; however, looking at the nutrition facts for Yogurtland and Menchies, you can see it’s still reported as volume. (In the case of Menchies, they report it “per 1/2 cup,” which is the equivalent of 4 fl. oz.)

The first time you calculate this, it will take a little thought, but after doing it once, it becomes very routine and is simply done on your phone’s calculator.