Portion Size Awareness

                          

Portion control is essential to successfully manage weight. 
This is true for weight-loss and for maintaining weight-loss.

It is valuable to learn what a portion really looks like. 

Portion control is a basic principle of almost all weight-loss plans,

and yet, it is one of the hardest skills for people to master.

Most restaurant plate servings  contain between 2 to 4 portions,

and finishing the entire plate can go far beyond the limits 

of what the body can use on that day.  

 Visualizing what one normal portion looks like can be helpful. 

Here are some examples:

Meat = the size of  a deck of cards or a cassette audiotape

Fish = the size of a checkbook

Peanut butter=- the size of a walnut

Dressing = the size of a shot glass

Butter = the size of a postage stamp

Cereal = the size of a woman's fist, or a baseball

Rice or pasta = one-half a baseball

Potato = the size of a computer mouse

Bread = the size of 1 CD

Hard Cheese = the size of 2 dominoes or 4 dice

Mixed nuts = fits into the cupped palm of a child's hand, or the size of a golf ball

Generally, a single serving consists of:

1 cup (8 ounces) of milk

1 ounce of cheese

½ cup of vegetables

1 small piece, or `½ cup to 1 cup of fresh fruit

½ cup to 1 cup of cooked rice or pasta

3 ounces of lean meat, fish, chicken.

 We need to retain our brains to think small.

When we measure with our eyes, remember:

1 teaspoon = the size of a fingertip (top to middle joint); fits into the screw cap of a water bottle.

1 tablespoon = the size of a thumb tip (tip to middle joint)

¼ cup = the size of a golf ball

½ cup = a fruit or vegetable that fits into the palm of your hand - about the size of a tennis ball.

1 cup (dry) = the size of a woman's fist or a baseball. 

 Some common Myths and Misconceptions are:

"It's low in fat so I can eat more." 

This is a common mistake, but it isn't true - just because a package says "low fat"

doesn't mean that food is low in calories. Portion control is important for all foods,

even those claiming to be low in fat or calories.  

"Liquids don't count". 

Yes they do - and here it is easy to misjudge the intake of a food portion. 

Some liquids contain a lot of calories.  A simple coffee latte contains about 212 calories,

and the skinny option contains about 167 calories. 

Anything that goes into your body, liquid or solid, will impact your weight.