Food Serving Sizes

Here's how to determine
the correct food portion sizes for you...

Having the correct food serving sizes for you is essential in helping you lose weight quickly and easily. In this article we will cover how to determine correct food portion sizes so you can achieve your weight loss goal without hunger pain or fluctuating energy levels.

Best of all, you will be able to make these weight loss strategies a permanent part of your lifestyle.

People have become accustomed to receiving large serving sizes both at home and when they eat out. Eating until you feel full is commonplace in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, this approach to eating is not conducive to losing weight and keeping it off long term.

In saying this though, eating until you are full is actually ingrained into our subconscious and was essential for the survival of our ancestors thousands of years ago when food was scarce. Since our physiology is almost identical to our ancestors, we have a tendency to naturally do the same thing. We tend to eat until we are full so if we are ever faced with a famine we can survive for longer.

The larger meal promotes a greater insulin response and therefore greater likelihood that a large number of calories from the meal will be stored as body fat. This was particularly useful for our ancestors because fat is the ideal fuel source for the body to draw from during a famine.

However, famines don't tend occur in our society and in fact, we have an over-supply of food, which contributes to our growing obesity problem.

Accordingly, if we want to lose weight and stay in great shape, we must make a conscious effort to go against our natural tendencies to over-eat. This is where determining food serving sizes becomes necessary. Here are a number of easy-to-use strategies to help you determine the correct food portion sizes for you.

The 'palm size' technique

This technique simply involves choosing a carbohydrate food and a healthy protein food that is approximate the same size and thickness of our palm. There is no need to choose a fat food because there will tend to be an adequate amount of fat in the carbohydrate food and/ or the protein food.

For example, you might choose a baked potato (carbohydrate food) and a piece of chicken breast (protein food) or perhaps a piece of fruit (carbohydrates) and a small handful of nuts (protein). Remember of course that our goal is simply to consume a meal that can sustain us for the next 2-3 hours until our next meal.

There is no need to feel full; feeling satisfied after every meal should be the aim.

The 'appetite' technique

Thie 'appetite' technique is perfect for determining whether a meal was the correct size for you or not. It simply involves assessing how hungry you feel 2-3 hours after a meal.

If for example, you have tuna and salad for lunch one day, often within an hour you may feel hungry again. This is an example of inadequate food servings sizes.

On the other hand, one day you might go out for lunch and share a pizza for starters, then have a main meal, perhaps a steak and pasta dish, and then finish with coffee. After the meal you are likely to feel full for the rest of the day and will probably miss your mid-afternoon meal and perhaps even dinner. Unfortunately, a large proportion of the calories from this meal will be stored as body fat.

It is important to get the portion sizes correct if you goal is to get the best possible results.

The 'calorie counting' technique

It is not necessary to permanently count calories in order to lose weight and keep it off. However, it is a useful technique to use in order to determine the correct food serving sizes for you.

It is best to count calories for all of your meals for perhaps the first week. Whilst doing this, make a mental note of the approximate food portion sizes so you can ensure you select the correct amount in the future.

Calorie counting doesn't work as a long-term strategy simply because the body's metabolism adjusts to changing food intakes over time. This means, if you eat less, your metabolism slows down. By the same token, if you eat more, your metabolism speeds up. This is one reason why having a 'Treat Day' is beneficial.

The goal of any meal is to simply make you feel satisfied, not full. The meal only needs to sustain you for the next 2-3 hours until the next meal. Geting your food serving sizes correct is such an important strategy.

Therefore, if you are serious about getting the best results from your weight loss efforts, gives these strategies for determining food serving sizes a go so you can ensure you have the correct food portion sizes for you.