plate size

5 Ways Your Plates, Glasses, Forks And Spoons Can Save You Calories

September 9, 2013 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

If you’re full, stop eating and clear your plate right away. If it hangs around in front of you, you’ll keep picking at it until there’s nothing left. An exception – a study has found that looking at the “carnage” – the leftover bones on your plate from barbecued ribs or even the number of empty beer bottles in front of you – can serve as an “environmental cue” to stop eating.
Drink from a tall, thin glass instead of a short, wide one. You’ll drink 25%-30% less. People who were given short wide glasses poured 76% more into them than people who were given tall slender glasses — and they believed that they had poured less! Even experienced bartenders poured more into a short, wide glass than they did into a taller, thinner one.
3. Use a (smaller) fork and knife instead of your fingers, a teaspoon rather that a tablespoon. It takes longer, requires more effort, and provides a smaller “shovel” for getting food into your mouth. Chopsticks slow you down even more. Chew your food instead of wolfing it down. If you have to work at eating your food – cutting with a knife for instance – you’ll eat more mindfully than if you pick food up with your fingers and pop it into your mouth.
Use a smaller plate. We eat an average of 92% of what we serve ourselves. We pile more food onto larger plates, so a larger plate means we eat more food. A two inch difference in plate diameter—decreasing the plate size to ten inches from 12 inches—would mean a serving that has 22% fewer calories. It’s a smaller serving but not small enough to leave you still hungry and heading back for seconds.
Get those serving dishes off of the table. If most of your meals are family style with bowls and platters of food brought to the table for everyone to help themselves, keep the serving dishes off of the table and onto the counter if you want to save some calories. When serving dishes are left on the table men eat 29% more and women 10% more than when serving dishes stay on the counter. It’s harder to mindlessly shove food into your mouth if you have to get up to get it. Sticking out your fork and shoveling more onto your plate while your butt remains firmly planted in your chair makes it far too easy to munch without much thought about the quantity of food that’s going into your mouth.

Want more tips — especially if you eat in dining halls of any kind? Get my new book, now available on Amazon — 30 Ways to Survive Dining Hall and Dorm Room Food: Tips to Avoid the Freshman 15.

Late Night – Open Freezer Door – Spoon In Hand Scenario

August 9, 2011 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

So who hasn’t found themselves standing in the frozen fog shoving around frozen containers of frozen leftovers from last Thanksgiving looking for the container of Haagen-Dazs or Ben and Jerry’s or whatever brand you’ve got lurking in there.

If you’re a goner and there’s no stopping the oncoming ice cream assault, here’s a way to modify it – somewhat!

The Size Of the Container

The size of the container – or plate – or bowl – can often determine how much you ultimately eat. If you stand there with spoon in hand and just attack the container, in the blink of an eye it’s possible to polish off an entire pint or the better portion of a quart.

If there’s no turning back from the ice cream, at least try to make a deal with yourself and scoop some into a bowl – and make it a smaller dessert bowl not a monster size cereal or soup bowl. Then you’ve practiced portion control and had your ice cream, too. You actually might not hate yourself so much in the morning.

Dinner Plates: Size Matters!

December 1, 2010 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Plates: Bigger Isn’t Better

The size of our dinner plates might be contributing to our country’s obesity problem.

Since 1960, the surface area of our average dinner plate has increased 36%. Today, the average dinner plate measures 11 to 12 inches across, but a few decades ago they were 7 to 9 inches. By comparison, a European plate averages 9 inches and some of our restaurants use plates that are about 13 inches across.

Supersized Eating

Just as serving sizes in restaurants have been supersized and package sizes in the market have grown, so have the plate, bowl, and glass sizes we use in our homes — by 36% in some cases.

Our ideas about portion sizes and how much we need to eat and drink to feel full have grown along with the size of our dishware.

Six ounces of cooked rice with a little chili looks like a good portion on an 8 inch plate. The same amount on a 12 inch plate would look paltry and probably cause the typical person to add more rice to the plate — which ends up increasing the portion size and calories.

What To Do

The fact of the matter is that we eat most of what’s on our plate regardless of the size of the plate.

But, when you switch to a smaller plate you eat a smaller serving. According to research done at Cornell, when you switch from a 12 inch plate to a 10 inch plate you eat 22% less.

So, you can control your portion sizes by downsizing the size of your plate. You can switch from a dinner plate to a salad plate or search vintage stores for older plates that are smaller in size.

Go Small – But Not Too Small

It sounds too good to be true, but using smaller dishes can also help you feel full even when you’re eating less. Amazingly, studies show that people are more satisfied with less food when they are served on 8 inch salad plates instead of on 12 inch dinner plates.

Use smaller plates and bowls. It’ll keep the portions smaller and you feeling fuller.

But — be careful not to go too small with your plate. With too little food you might end up going back for seconds. A plate 2 inches smaller than the one you normally use is probably about right.