If you’ve been eating healthy and exercising frequently but still struggle to lose weight, the portion sizes of your favorite foods may be to blame.
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American portion sizes are larger than ever! In fact, a study done by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) estimates that American restaurants have more than doubled portion sizes over the last twenty years. The increased serving sizes means that even eating the same meals at the same restaurants today would lead to 1,595 more calories than twenty years ago!
What’s a healthy portion of your favorite food?
Pasta—Pasta is commonly over-served both at restaurants and at home. Instead of a heaping portion of your favorite pasta, limit it to one cup, or about the size of two full hands. Going from a three cup serving to a one cup serving eliminates more than four hundred calories from your plate.
Rice—Rice is easy to overeat because it’s used as a filler at Asian restaurants; but too much of that tiny food creates a huge calorie bomb with few nutrients. Instead of the standard serving of two cups, keep your rice servings to one-half of a cup, or about the size of one hand, and save 308 calories!
Salad dressing—If your salad is more dressing than lettuce, you’re not alone. Restaurant salads can often contain more calories than a cheeseburger. To avoid your healthy intentions from sinking your goals, remember that the serving size of salad dressing is only two tablespoons, or about the size of two fingers.
What can you do to maintain portion control?
Eat at home to avoid the super-sized restaurant portions. When you eat at home, you have total control over portion sizes. To limit the temptation for seconds and thirds, serve portions on individual plates and separate snacks into smaller containers to avoid binging on a bag of snacks in front of the television.
If you do eat at a restaurant, ask the staff to package half of the entrée for you to take home. If the food’s not presented to you on the plate you are served, you are less likely to feel compelled to eat even after you are satisfied.
Check the label. You may be surprised to discover how many servings are in your favorite snack bag. Calories and nutrients listed on a label are per serving. Whether you’re counting calories or nutrients, be sure to measure the serving size before you indulge, or multiply the numbers by the number of servings you actually eat. Snack food, frozen food, and packaged foods can be misleading and contain multiple servings in a small box or bag. For example, a 20-ounce soft drink can easily be consumed during one meal, but may actually be 2.5 servings according to the label.
Measure. Use mixing cups, tablespoons, or measured snack bags to help you learn to identify a correct portion. You don’t have to eliminate all the foods you love, you just have to learn to recognize a healthy portion!
