How To Control Portion Sizes

It is not always what you eat, but how much you eat – It is the size of your servings that really counts!

Most of us tend to underestimate the amount of food we eat and tend to overestimate the recommended portion sizes for many foods.  Almost everyone underestimates the amount of calories they consume, and people who weigh more do so to a greater degree.

Portion:  A portion is how much food you choose to eat at one time (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack), whether in a restaurant, from a package, or in your own kitchen. Portions can be bigger or smaller than the recommended food servings.  There is no standard portion size and no single right or wrong portion size.

Serving:  A serving size is the amount of food listed (and recommended) on a product’s Nutrition Facts (panel of packaged food) or the amount of food recommended in the Food Guide Pyramid and the Dietary Guidelines* for Americans.  Sometimes, the portion size and serving size match; sometimes they do not.  A serving is a standard amount used to help give advice about how much to eat, or to identify how many calories and nutrients are in a food.

*The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nutrition Facts tells you how many calories and how much fat, carbohydrate, sodium, and other nutrients are available in one serving of food.  Most packaged foods contain more than a single serving.

Check out how to read food labels – Food Labels 101.

In this world of super-sizing everything, it is hard to avoid the huge portions of food tempting us at all-you-can-eat buffets, extra-large hamburgers, jumbo lattes in coffee chains, and the extra-large “single servings” of snack foods such as chips and candy bars.  Even bagels have become super-sized, which gives what should be a reasonably healthful breakfast item a high calorie count.  More people now eat away from home, giving them less control over the amount of food on their plates.  Check out How To Eat Out On A Diet or How To Survive Without Blowing Your Diet!

How To Control Portion Sizes:

Eating smaller portions of food is one of the easiest ways to cut back on calories, but it can also be one of the most challenging, with the current trend of super-sizing.  How do you know a reasonable portion of food when you see it?  Visualize the objects mentioned below when eating out, planning a meal, or grabbing a snack.

Use you hand as a guide – Generally, a serving size is what can fit into the palm of an individual’s hand.

Food Pyramid Guide:

How many servings do you need each day to maintain your weight?

Information from Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion
United States Department of Agriculture

*  Older children and teens ages 9 to 18 years and adults over age 50 need 3 servings daily, others need 2 servings daily.

**  This includes lactose-free and lactose-reduced milk products.  Soy-based beverages with added calcium are an option for those who prefer a non-dairy source of calcium.

How many servings do you need to lose weight?

To reduce your calories and lose weight, reduce the size of the recommended daily portion servings.

Any diet that does not rely on foods from the above Food Pyramid is nutritionally unbalanced. The Dietary Guidelines describe a healthy diet as one that:

Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk products;

Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts; and

Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.

Pay less attention to specific caloric intake than to portion size and nutritional completeness.

Each of these food groups provide some, but not all, of the nutrients you need.  No one food group is more important than another- for good health you need them all.  Go easy on fats, oils, and sweets, the foods higher in fat, sugar and calories.