return to homepage

Practice Food Portion Control To Lose Weight Effectively

Distortion of Portions

portion-control Food portion control using limited serving sizes is a way to lose weight effectively, as over the years, our perception of what a serving size should be has been increasing.Everywhere we go, we are served huge serving sizes and therefore we have a distorted idea of how much we can eat and stay within our daily calorie target. As we tend to finish all the food that is put in front of us, the bigger the portion, the more we eat. So, it is critical that we learn how to cut down on serving sizes and get into the habit of controlling portions in order to lose weight and keep it off.

Serving Sizes

There are many ways to cut down on super-size servings and practice portion control. The first thing is to train yourself to identify what a serving size should look like. An easy guide to follow is to use your hand as point of reference. For example, when deciding how much protein to have in your meal, such as a piece of steak or chicken, use the size of your palm. The amount of meat should be no bigger than palm size, and the thickness of the meat should be the same as the thickness of your hand. With carbohydrates, such as rice or pasta, this should be the size of your closed fist.

Portion Control Plates

Limit the quantities of food you serve by using smaller dinner plates and bowls and cups. For example if you want to eat pasta, limit yourself to one serving in a cereal bowl. Avoid eating foods directly out of a container, such as ice cream for example, as it is much harder to control your portions. If you use a side plate to serve yourself dinner, you will automatically have a smaller portion, and therefore less calories.

Control Proportions

plate portions
When having dinner, fill up half your plate with salads or vegetables first, then divide the remaining half into protein and carbohydrate. An ideal dinner plate should look like this example.

Eat slowly and enjoy the meal. Your brain only registers that you are full about twenty minutes after you have eaten, so often enough, if you wait for a while, you will feel full.

You can also control portions very effectively by only having half the serving. For example, if you go to a restaurant, ask to pack half the meal away, and eat only the other half. Or, if you want to eat a sandwich, eat half of it.

Package Sizes

When buying food, go for smaller package serves. For example, if you eat potato crisps out of a small packet instead of a large one, you will eat less. In the same way, when eating out, try a kids meal size instead of an adult serving.

To Top of Page

Return to Lose Weight from Portion Control

Return to Healthy Eating

Now Available 30 Meal Plan Pack
Do you want to live healthier and longer?




Practice Portion Control

  • Eat half the serving, pack away the rest.
  • Use a smaller plate at dinner.
  • Divvy up food into smaller packages.
  • Buy food in smaller packet sizes.
  • Skip second servings.
  • Eyeball portions sizes and gauge how much you should have.
  • Order smaller portions when eating out.




Return to top

Copyright© 2008-2009.