Everything you need to know about Portion Control!
Most of us find ourselves stuck in a situation of guilt where we have had around 2–3 slices of cake when we decided and promised ourselves not to go for more than a few bites. Do we ever think about the quantity of food that we serve ourselves? Do we serve more or less than required?
The right amount of portion depends upon an individual’s nutrient needs and calorie requirements.
Portion and serving size are often confused with each other. The serving size is often mentioned at the back of a nutrition label but the portion is the amount of food you actually eat. For example, if the serving size on the back of a 100g packet of 10 biscuits is 30g, you should ideally be eating 3 biscuits as a single serving. But if you eat the entire packet, then 10 biscuits is your portion size and not 3 biscuits.
Portion control is not only for people who are trying to lose weight but abiding by a controlled portion is the backbone of good nutrition, keeps our diet balanced and nutritious, helps us make healthier food choices and add variety to our diets at the same time. It improves our relationship with food by keeping away feelings of guilt, uncomfort, overeating and loss of control resulting in disordered eating patterns.
(For a quick list of key takeaway, check towards the end of the article)
Here are the top 10 tips & tricks to keep your portions a healthy size:
- Veggies first
While serving yourself a meal, fill half your plate with a good serving of vegetables and divide the other half into two- a quarter for protein and the other quarter for carbohydrates. This will make portion control easier and will also control the amount of carbohydrates that you are taking on your plate.
2. Pay attention to your cutlery
Believe it or not, our bowls, plates and serving spoons matter a lot when it comes to the amount of food that we eat. We should be mindful about choosing the right kind of cutlery before serving ourselves. For example, eating from a bigger plate will increase the quantity of the portions we take but it would be a good idea if we eat a salad or a serving of fruits in a bigger plate. Choosing a smaller bowl and a teaspoon for a scoop of ice-cream or oil would be a smarter choice.
3. Keep yourself hydrated
Drinking water before every meal maintains the hydration in your body, helps you stay full and also makes sure that you do not overeat.
4. Serve as much as you can eat
Many of us tend to throw away the food that we are unable to finish, instead we should serve the quantity which you feel you can finish easily and take another helping, if required. Incase of any leftovers, we can pack and store it for the next day!
5. Restaurants can be tricky
While eating out, restaurants usually serve larger servings. One can ask for a half portion or a kids meal, share the meal with someone, order a starter instead of a main meal and ask for the dressing on the side while ordering for a salad.
6. Use your hands as a portion guide
One can use our hands instead of any measuring tool to determine the portion of food we need to eat. According to an article in Healthline¹,
- Protein-rich foods like pulse and legumes, paneer, chicken and fish should be 1-palm sized serving for women and 2-palm sized serving for men.
- Carbohydrate-rich foods like whole grains & starchy vegetables should be 1-cupped hand serving for women and 2-cupped hand size serving for men.
- Fat containing foods like nuts and oils should be 1-thumb size serving for women and 2-thumb size serving for men.
- Vegetable and salad serving should be 1-fist size serving for women and 2-fist size serving for men.
7. Store in but do not eat out of containers
Food in containers when we order food online are usually meant for a serving of 2–3 people. We must always take out the food on a plate so that we are actually able to see how much we are eating. Eating from a box makes us less aware of the portion sizes and encourages overeating.
8. Writing down what we eat
Not many of us will remember what we ate the previous day and certainly not the little treats like cookies, chocolates and chips we grab in between. A food diary helps us track and retrospect where we are going wrong and makes us more aware of the quantity and type of food we are eating throughout the day.
9. Mindful eating²- till you feel satisfied but not too full
Enjoying our food helps us be in control of how much we are eating. We miss our body’s hunger and fullness signs when we eat in a hurry.
10. Don’t eat with gadgets
Most of our binge-eating happens over our favourite Netflix show or sport or while working late at night. Gadgets distract us and we forget about the quantity of food we keep on eating. Keeping away our gadgets while eating and enjoying the company of family and friends will help us in becoming more mindful and avoid overeating.
Small and consistent efforts to change our habits one at a time help us in improving our health gradually. It is important to remember that you do not have to starve yourself to nail portion control. Portion control is about fueling the body in the right way and distributing your meals into small and frequent ones instead of eating it all at once and remembering that we are not eating less and we will be eating in the next 2–3 hours again.
In-a-nutshell:
- Portion control helps us make healthier food choices and adds variety to our diet to make it more balanced and nutritious.
- It builds a healthy relationship between food and our body.
- Small tricks like serving yourself vegetables first, choosing the cutlery we eat in wisely, drinking water before any meal, writing down what we ate throughout the day, keeping gadgets away while eating food and eating more mindfully etc make portion control easily applicable in our daily routine.
- In order to achieve portion control, you do not have to starve yourself but remember to eat small & frequent meals to fuel the body in the right manner.
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