Research shows that even with the best intentions, many people overestimate their portion sizes. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or feel more energetic, here are some simple portion control tips to help you achieve your goals.
What is portion control?
Portion control is making sure you eat the right amount of food. While there are many ways to control food intake, portion control is a method of regulating one’s diet to limit excess food and calorie consumption to support one’s health goals. Portion control can benefit anyone who wants to support overall health. However, it is especially important for individuals who want to support their weight loss goals.
Paying attention to portion sizes can help ensure you don’t eat too much or too little. While it’s important to listen to your body and understand your individual nutritional needs, there are some simple portion control tips and strategies that can help you manage your food intake.
How to control portion sizes
Here are 15 tips to help you manage portion sizes to support your personal health goals.
- Use smaller plates.
There is evidence that the size of plates, bowls, spoons, and glasses can subconsciously affect the amount of food a person eats (1, 2).
Using a larger plate or bowl may result in more food being added to the dish, which may even leave visual diners dissatisfied if the dish doesn’t look filling enough. In one study, people who ate from large bowls ate 77% more pasta than those who ate from medium bowls, even though the food was not rated as tastier or otherwise noteworthy (3).
While this may seem like a simple suggestion, evidence shows it can have a significant impact on your eating behavior and interpretation of food satisfaction. The next time you’re meal prepping, use smaller plates or bowls, or ones that make your dishes look bold and full. This may not only affect the amount of food you eat, but also your satisfaction.
- Do not eat food outside the package.
Rather than eating directly from the box, bag, or wrapper, place the food on a plate or bowl before eating. Research shows that people tend to eat food in larger packages rather than smaller packages, especially when it comes to snacks.
One study found that people ate 50% more fries when they weren’t given visual cues about how big a portion should be, while in another study, people ate 50% more chips when they were served from a larger container rather than a smaller one (4, 5). ).
Whether it’s crackers and cheese or hummus and veggies, if you eat it straight from the cracker or hummus package, whether you realize it or not, you’re likely to eat more. Next time you grab a snack, don’t pour it out of its original packaging, but pour it into a small bowl to avoid overeating.
- Plan meals ahead of time.
Planning meals ahead of time can help with portion control. Not only does meal planning help you control portion sizes, but planning meals ahead of time can also help you create balanced meals and take the guesswork out of meal times.
Instead of waiting until the last minute to decide what you want to eat, or maybe even waiting until the moment you’re too hungry, plan your breakfast, lunch, and dinner before the day starts. Whether you just make a mental note or organize everything into containers in the refrigerator, a little advance meal planning can help when it comes to portion control.
- Prepare food portions.
Whether you’re making baked oatmeal, a pot of soup, or a lasagna, once cooked and cooled, store the portions in individual containers rather than leaving them in pots, pans, or baking sheets .
Similar to taking food from a package, you don’t take the food directly from the stove but portion it out onto plates before serving. While this may seem like an extra step (and it technically is), it can help prevent you from overfilling your plate or from coming back thinking you didn’t really need them. By pre-portioning meals (especially those you’ll be portioning) into containers in the refrigerator or freezer, you can easily prepare on-the-go meals and have them ready when you need them, in accurate sizes that support your health Target.
- Use hand part sizing methods.
When counting calories, weighing and measuring food is probably the most accurate way to control portion sizes; it’s not right for everyone. Fortunately, there’s an easier way to estimate portion size: the hand portion method.
This simple but extremely effective method of estimating portion sizes is an excellent portion control tool because it’s easy to use, portable, and sized to suit the individual. By using your hands as a guide, you’ll help manage portion sizes of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, especially:
1 serving of protein = 1 palm
1 serving of carbs = 1 fist
1 serving of vegetables = 1 fist
1 serving of fruit = 1 fist
1 serving of fat = 1 thumb
Of course, as with all portion control methods, there are some nuances to this approach. Generally speaking, eating a palm-sized portion of protein, a fist-sized portion of carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables, and a thumb-sized portion of fat at each meal is a good way to control portion size and maintain a balanced diet.
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- Understand calorie density.
Understanding calorie density is one of the easiest tools to add to your nutrition and weight management tool kit. In fact, the caloric density of a food determines its portion size.
Caloric density, also called energy density, refers to the number of calories a food contains relative to its weight or volume (6). The weight or volume of a food is not a direct indication of its caloric density because different macronutrients have different caloric densities;
1 gram of carbohydrate = 4 calories
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
High-fat foods, such as olive oil or avocado, have a higher caloric density and therefore have smaller recommended serving sizes, while low-fat foods, such as broccoli and berries, have larger recommended serving sizes.
By understanding and applying the concepts of calorie density and serving size, you can ensure portion control while maximizing your food and drink intake.
- Read food labels.
While reading food labels doesn’t necessarily help reduce portion sizes, it does help increase awareness and mindfulness of the food you eat. Reading food labels will help you understand the calorie content per serving size, which will help you understand the calorie content in the serving size you personally consume.
It’s important to understand that serving sizes shown on food labels are not recommended serving sizes, but rather standardized measurements used to quantify nutritional data for comparison. Serving sizes are expressed in common household units of measurement (such as cups or tablespoons), followed by the metric amount in grams, and the amount of food used to calculate calories and nutrition facts is noted on the Nutrition Facts label.
Not only can reading food labels help you make healthier food choices overall, but reading the nutritional information on the label can also help you better understand the calorie content of the portions you consume and potentially consume fewer calories overall .
- Start with protein and fiber.
When preparing a meal, make sure to add protein and fiber sources to your plate and eat those first. Not only are these healthy foods nutrient-dense, but the protein- and fiber-rich foods are also some of the most filling, helping you stay fuller for longer (7).
Protein is the most satiating macronutrient, and many studies have found that people with higher protein intake have lower appetites. Maintaining optimal daily protein intake is not only essential for overall health, but it has been shown to help you lose weight by increasing metabolism and reducing hunger. One study showed that increasing protein content to 25% of calories reduced appetite by 60% and cut cravings for evening snacks in half (8).
Additionally, high-fiber foods like fruits and vegetables are considered high-volume foods because they are less calorically dense per serving while being incredibly filling. So by loading your plate or bowl with vegetables, you can help make a meal more filling without overly adding to the calorie count.
- Use a portion control board.
In addition to using smaller utensils and hands as portion control tools, you can also use special portion control plates. A portion control plate is a plate that has different portions for specific foods. While these plates are typically used for children, they work equally well for adults and are excellent portion control tools, especially when learning.
When loading a plate with vegetables, palm-sized portions of protein, fist-sized portions of complex carbohydrates, and thumb-sized portions of healthy fats may be second nature to some, but to others, it may be A great tool for learning portion control until it becomes second nature. There are also portion control containers, perfect for portion storage or meal prep.
10.Drink a glass of water.
Drink water instead of juice, soda, alcohol or other high-calorie, portion-controlled drinks.
Not only does swapping water for sugary drinks help reduce overall calorie intake from liquids, but consuming sugary drinks with meals has also been shown to stimulate appetite (9). Additionally, research shows that drinking a glass of water before a meal can help you reduce your overall calorie intake (10, 11, 12).
- Use the Hunger Complete Scale.
When it comes to determining how much you should eat, the main goal is to learn to listen to your body because it is your best trainer. However, after years of yo-yo dieting and confusing nutritional information, you may have lost touch with your internal hunger signals. Fortunately, you have a very useful tool in your nutritional toolbox.
The Hunger Scale is an intuitive eating tool that puts us in touch with our internal signals and can help us identify the difference between real physical hunger and psychological hunger caused by emotional stress, boredom, sadness, or happiness . Rating your hunger levels on a scale of 1 to 10 before and during meals can help you become more aware of hunger cues and control portion sizes more naturally.
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- Remember, parts are not parts.
Although it may seem rude to leave food on your plate, it’s important to remember that the amount of food you’re offered isn’t necessarily the amount of food you need. In some cases it could be too little food, and in other cases it could be too much food, especially in terms of restaurant portion sizes. Restaurant portions are often much larger than what we eat in a meal, in some cases two to three times larger, which has been shown to cause us to overeat (13, 14).
When you’re out celebrating a big meal, there’s nothing wrong with eating a little more than usual. However, if you eat out or order in frequently, it’s important to consider that the amount of food the restaurant serves you may be larger than your body needs.
If a restaurant’s portions are too large, you can ask for a half portion before ordering, share your portion with others at the table, or ask for the leftovers to be packaged to take home for another meal.
- Eat slowly.
Although this part of the control tip may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. Chewing slowly is a simple but very effective way to be more mindful about meal times and ensure you are eating foods that nourish you and keep you feeling full. Not only does eating quickly increase the likelihood of overeating due to speed, but research also shows that eating slowly reduces calorie intake and increases enjoyment of food (15). - Eat without the distraction of digital devices.
You might be surprised to know that eating in front of the TV, computer, or smartphone can affect your eating habits and food intake. A review of studies found that people who watched television while eating tended to eat more than those who were not distracted by electronic devices (16). So instead of eating in front of a screen, plate your meal, sit down at the table, and take the time to savor every bite. - Consider tracking your groceries.
Research shows that not only do people who start monitoring their diets are often surprised by the number of calories they eat, but people who monitor their diets also tend to lose more weight over time (17). While counting calories is the most popular option, there are many ways to track what you eat and track the benefits of food.
In addition to portion control, tracking your food can help increase awareness of your eating habits, serve as a form of accountability, and remind you of what you’re doing well and what options exist. Tracking your diet can be as simple as keeping a written food log in a notebook or phone, or as detailed as tracking your calorie deficit or macro intake through an app.
in conclusion
Portion control is important to support overall health, ensure you are getting enough energy, manage hunger signals, support weight loss goals, and limit unnecessary weight gain. Using smaller plates, reading labels, organizing food, meal planning, drinking water, using portion techniques, eating slowly, and tracking food can all help with portion control.