If you believe you’re following a healthy eating plan and still not losing weight, maybe your mistake is related to portion size. If you’re eating celery, lettuce, broccoli, or another low-calorie vegetable, it’s not as important. If you’re eating higher-calorie foods, especially desserts or dishes with creamy sauces, it makes a huge difference. Even snack foods can trip you up. What you might believe is the right portion size may vary between a few potato chips and a family-size bag when the actual serving size is a few chips.
You may mistake portion size for serving size.
Portion size is what you put on your plate. Serving size is what you should be eating. When you eat a bowl of cereal, you decide the portion size unless you measure it out based on the recommended amount in the nutritional information. You can solve the problem by reading the labels to determine your serving size. Don’t leave it to chance.
If you’re eating in restaurants, portion size can be tricky.
You can’t read a label in most restaurants to identify the calories and the serving size. Unless you’re ordering only a salad sans the dressing, the portion size in restaurants is tricky in restaurants. You can calculate the average serving size in simple ways. A cup of rice or pasta is one cup. It’s also the size of a tennis ball. The size of a golf ball is the portion for salad dressing or peanut butter. Consider the size of four dice when measuring a piece of cheese and one die for butter.
Don’t wait until dinner to identify the right portion size.
When you aren’t sure of the correct serving size when you’re famished, pack your meals ahead in serving-size containers. It’s part of the meal planning process. You create a menu one day, shop the next, and when you have a day off work, you cook the week’s meals and pack them in serving-size containers. When it’s mealtime, you heat and eat the prepared meals. It costs less since you use many of the same ingredients for several meals and save time when you cook it all at once. It also saves any confusion when it’s time to eat.
- If you feel the serving size is too small, maybe the problem is your plate. Use smaller plates. It makes the serving size look bigger, and you’ll eat smaller portions.
- Divide your plate into four sections. The protein should be in one section and complex carbohydrates in another. Vegetables and salads should be in two sections, filling half the plate. Use only ½ teaspoon for fat.
- If you’re still unsure what a cup of food looks like, use your fist to determine it. One fist is a cup of food. A woman’s thumb is approximately the size of four dice or the serving size for cheese.
- The average American diet has grown by 300 calories daily. With a more sedentary society and consuming more calories, it’s no wonder that obesity has become an epidemic.
For more information, contact us today at Travel Trim