Different bins will process food at different rates. There are a lot of variables. Which guideline is right depends on your bin. I would go with the 1/2 lb per pound of worms. (Most of us don't know how many worms we really have. We just guess.) You can adjust from there depending on how fast the food disappears.

It takes several months for worms to eat "half their weight in food". Since this also includes the bedding, it's easy for people to get excited and overfeed.

I would rather err on the side of caution, and feed them 1/2 cup. Check after a couple days or so and see if it's gone. Then feed again. It's better to feed lightly and increase, rather than overfeed, and then having to battle mites, too wet of a bin, stinky smell and even a sour bin.

I was leaning towards the 1/2c. myself as 1/2lb. seems like an awful lot of food.

Does anyone else have an information on how much they use relative to worm population? I bought 1lb. of worms to begin (800-1200 estimated), so I have a relative idea of my current population.