How to Use Portion Control to Lose Weight

Most people enjoy eating – which is why – along with the lack of exercise – the rate of obesity is climbing in this country. One factor that contributes to the rise in weight is our country’s distorted perception of what constitutes a healthy serving of food. In a world of “biggie this” and “biggie that” is it any wonder that most people can’t recognize a healthy food portion serving? Did you know that the size of a muffin has more than doubled in size since the 1950’s and a standard serving of French fries has almost tripled? No wonder the needle on the scale keeps moving upwards and pants keep getting tighter. If you’re ready to return to eating healthy servings of food again, here are some tips that make a difference if you do them consistently.

Learn to eyeball a healthy food portion serving.

There’s no need to use a food scale and weigh everything you eat. It’s not practical and you won’t be able to do it when you go out to eat anyway. Instead, keep these general rules in mind. A serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, a serving of vegetables is a little larger than your fist, a serving of cheese is about the size of your thumb, and a serving of nuts is what you can place in the palm of your cupped hand without dropping any. This will allow you to eyeball portion sizes quickly and easily. Don’t be surprised when you find out you’ve been eating two or three food portion servings when you thought you were eating only one.

Don’t be fooled by labels.

Labels on cans, bags and, boxes can be tricky. Calorie counts may seem reasonable on a candy bar wrapper until you look more closely and discover there are 2.5 servings in the whole bar. Tricky! Always determine how many servings are in a snack before eating the whole thing.

Get healthy servings by repackaging.

One-hundred calorie snack packs have become immensely popular because they limit food portion servings, but they can also be expensive. Why not save money by making your own pre-portioned snack packs? This gives you more options in terms of snack choices too. A word of warning – never eat directly out of the bag or box. Chances are you’ll eat several servings before you’re even aware of it.

Add more flavor to your food.

When you cut back to healthy serving sizes, it’ll feel like you’re not getting enough to eat at first. One way to increase the enjoyment of smaller food portion servings is to make them more filling and flavorful by adding calorie-free herbs and spices. Experiment and discover unique flavor combinations that don’t add additional calories. You’ll be more satisfied with smaller portions this way.

Don’t go back for seconds.

Once you’ve placed an appropriate amount of food on your plate, resist the urge to go back for seconds. Slow down your eating pace so you can make what you have last longer. Avoid all-you-can-eat-buffets. There’s a reason why most people who go to them are overweight.

Can you imagine how much weight you’d lose over time if you simply ate half of every restaurant meal instead of the whole thing? You’d also have another meal for the next day if you got it to go. Give these food portion serving tips a try and pretty soon it’ll all be second nature – and your jeans will start to feel looser too!