Choose To Exercise Your Portion Control Muscle

You’re exercising.  You’re eating healthier, with more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables than you ever did.

But why aren’t those numbers on the scale going down lower?  The next thing you may have to exercise is portion control.

Here are a few portion control guidelines that we learned from various weight loss programs. 

Use your smaller plates and bowls. Instead of a 10″ dinner plate, use a smaller luncheon plate.  Most of your meal should be from the vegetable food group.  Divide the plate in half.  One half of the plate should be salad and/or vegetables.  Divide the other half of the plate into two portions one for meat, beans or fish, and one for whole grains such as brown rice or whole wheat pasta.

We are living in a super-size world, with each and every restaurant serving larger portions than ever.   We are conditioned to eat larger and larger portions.  When you go out to eat, have the waitress box up half of your meal to take home for the next day or to bring it to work for lunch.  If you do that first thing before you even start to eat,  you won’t have to worry about overeating, or eating more than you planned to.

Invest in a lot of small plastic containers.  When you get home from grocery shopping, immediately divide up all of your food into single serving sizes and store it away in the plastic containers.  This is particularly good if you like to get treats for yourself and it’s less costly than the “100 Calorie” snacks that you can purchase.  When you are rushed and hungry later in the week, you won’t be tempted to overeat if you can just grab a container that contains the perfect portion size.

A portion is actually how much you choose to eat for yourself.  Our portion sizes should be close to the recommended serving size that is recommended by nutritionists and posted on the nutrition labels.  

Here are some of the recommended serving sizes and how we can visually estimate the portion size,  rather than actually measuring it.

Grains:
Try to get 6 – 11 servings a day, choosing whole grains when you can.
1 ounce of bread(a small slice, or 1/2 small bagel, 1/2 bun) = an index card
1/2 cup cooked oats, rice, pasta or dry cereal = a billiard ball

Fruits and Veggies: 
Go for 5 to 9 servings daily, Choose fresh fruit over frozen or canned.
1/2 cup raw, canned or frozen fruit= a billiard ball
1/4 cup dried fruit = a golf ball
1 cup raw vegetables = a baseball
1/2 cup cooked vegetables = a billiard ball

Meat and Beans: 
Get 2-3 servings a day, choosing lean meats and plant proteins if possible
3 ounces cooked meat, poultry or fish= a deck of cards
1/2 cup cooked beans, split peas, legumes = a billiard ball
2 Tbsp. nuts, seed or nut butters = a ping pong ball

Dairy:
Try to get 2 – 3 servings a day of low fat or fat free dairy products.
1 cup of milk, soy milk or yogurt = a baseball
1 ounce of cheese = 2 dice

Fats/Oils: 
Choose heart healthy fats like olive oil, canola or peanut oil and eat small portions. 
1 tsp butter or margarine or oil = tip of your thumb

A quick and easy weight loss tip is to cut down on fats.  Avoid fried food, gravy, cream sauces, high fat salad dressing, mayonaisse, sour cream, bacon, butter, margarine made with hydrogenated oil and any milk or dairy food that isn’t low fat or fat-free.  We do need to eat some fat, and the heart healthy fats will actually help lower your bad cholesterol as well.

Here are 25 helpful weight loss tips and more related web sites:   

Cut out and laminate a serving size portion card

Interactive Menu Planner

Calculate your BMI (Body Mass Index)

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