Controlling portion sizes of your meals is the real struggle behind the portion control lifestyle. For proper control and measure, we should first know about the correct portion size for each meal that can help us lose weight. Every person requires varying food portions. It depends on their sizes as per their weight, build, age, and health conditions.
The key to success with portion control is to keep a balance of the recommended portion sizes whenever you are eating. We should adopt this practice everywhere, eating at home, at a restaurant, someone’s home, or wherever. The simple measures to measure and control portion sizes can be taken wherever a person is.
Tips to control portion sizes
Use smaller dinnerware
Quarter plates and teaspoons are for sweets and food that is eaten less. So why not use them for normal eating? A quarter plate looks more filled than a large plate when we put in our food. Therefore, the multiple dishes or items added to your quarter plate will always be lesser in quantity to avoid things overflowing. Using a teaspoon makes us take more bites of food with less quantity in each bite as compared to eating with a tablespoon.
Portion control is a mindful way of eating. A filled-up quarter plate and many spoons of food surely satisfy your food cravings. We can eat in lesser quantity and it helps stick to correct food portions.
Read Nutrition Labels
Reading nutrition labels while cooking or preparing a meal help us stay within defined limits. Food ingredients have the concentration of each food group and calories listed in its nutrition facts table on the backside of its packing.
We can calculate the food portions per serving and divide it by the entire quantity being used to prepare the meal. The percentage calculated will be the amount of food we will consume. The quantity can be altered as per our portion size and body demands.
Measure food quantity
The weight or quantity of each food ingredient helps us eat in adequate portions. A bread made of 2-3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour will have 1 portion of carbohydrates. So, if we knead a pizza dough with 10 tablespoons of flour. It will create 4 equal servings each with 1 portion of carbohydrates.
We can weigh food items like a piece of dough to calculate portion size. For example, a 40g dough has 1 portion of carbs in it. Similar measures can be used to calculate your protein and fat intake. Use the correct portion sizes as a reference for a detailed list of portion sizes for specific food quantities. We can calculate the food quantity accordingly.
More salads and veggies
The greener it is, the healthier it gets. Vegetables are from the portion-free food groups. A dense portion of green leafy vegetables with your main course food makes us consume other groups in lesser quantities.
Salads and veggies add color and flavor to our meals. They are the best way to balance the nutrient intake.
Eat slowly
Chewing each bite we eat helps the enzyme work well for food digestion and consumes more time for eating each bite. Slow eating gives us a feeling of satiety and fullness after a few bites and reduces the desire to eat more.
Drink more water
Drinking plenty of water before and during a meal fills our stomach with the zero-calorie drink. This limits the space for food molecules. Water consumption has numerous benefits for the body and skin. It makes us stay full and hydrated, suppressing our appetite and making us eat less. Practicing this over time helps us stick to specified smaller food portions.
Eat at proper times
Consuming meals three times a day at proper intervals is very important for our digestive system. Long gaps in meals make us starve and raise our appetite, making us eat more. This creates eating disorders and may not allow us to eat within correct portion control sizes.
A proper meal with all specified food portions and sizes at correct times and gaps is very essential to control our portion sizes. It makes the body follow and get used to the proper rhythm of eating healthily.
Add and count all portions
Every meal should include all specified food portions. Few carbs, proteins, and fat and filled with veggies. Seasonal fruit and some nuts can be taken as a snack. It can add an extra meal to fill our stomachs and avoid excess intake of other food portions.