The popular adage “You’re what you eat” also implies ‘’how much” and “how smartly” you eat as well. The food choices you make has a huge impact on your overall health and also how you feel and look. Losing the excess weight has become the biggest challenge today for many. There are many weight loss strategies people resort to but, the best results would be under a weight loss consultant online or offline.
In a hurry to lose weight people often forget how crucial portion control is, i.e how much one eats. Portion size and serving size are often understood as the same but there is a significant difference. A portion size is the amount of food you eat in one sitting and on the other hand a serving size is a standard measured amount of a particular food.
Some secrets for portion control are:
• Weighing or measuring food is not practical. The easier way would be to keep a mental image of the healthy portion sizes of various food groups. For example a deck of cards is a portion of meat or a clenched fist is the portion for grains like rice and so on.
• Having smaller plates or bowls will trick your brain into thinking you’re having more food. Thus you will feel just as satiated with smaller amounts.
• Take a plate check. Ensure the plate is half filled with fruits and vegetables, ¼th of the plate has the lean meat or plant protein and ¾th of the plate has whole grains that are rich in fiber that is good for your heart.
• Avoid eating straight from large packets or containers. You always tend to eat more. This happens more so with snacks. Always take a small pre determined portion into a bowl or a plate and avoid a second serving.
• Stay away from screens while eating and attend to your plate. Eating mindfully will help manage portion control and the chances of over eating are greatly reduced.
• Chew your food slowly. A simple way to slow down might just be following your grandmother’s manners, like sitting down to eat and not eating while you work or taking smaller bites or even chewing each bite 25 times.
• Most restaurants and fast food joints provide 2-3 serving sizes of food. So, sharing your meals will help keep portions reasonable.
One of the main culprits of unwanted weight gain is often the distorted portion size of the food we eat. Using the above guidelines can be one of the pillars of weight loss programs or weight management programs.
Arati Shah is an expert nutritionist and she runs her own weight loss centre in Mumbai, Café Nutrition. Having earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition along with a Post-Graduation in Sports Sciences and Nutrition from S.N.D.T Juhu, Mumbai. She heads the Nutrition team in Mumbai and takes personal interest in each and every client of Café Nutrition. In addition, her sports nutritionist programs are easy to follow as she works on bringing about a change with our regular food habits.