Eat Out Eat Well

portion control

No Seconds: Here’s A Useful Tip

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Do you skimp on putting food onto your plate thinking that it will keep your calorie count down?

What happens?  You eat the skimpy portion – decide you’re still hungry – and then go back for more.

If the serving dishes are right in front of you there’s potential for making caloric matters much worse.

Get Those Serving Dishes Off The Table

If you want to make it a little easier for yourself to save on calories, one thing you can do is to get those serving dishes off of the table.  According to an article in the May 2011 Nutrition Action Healthletter, when serving dishes are left on the table men eat 29% more and women 10% more than when those serving dishes stay on the counter.

Why?

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 refill your plate without much thought about the quantity of food that’s going into your mouth.

According to the article, men chow down on more servings than women because they tend to eat fast  — impatiently gobbling food while they wait for everyone else in the family to finish. As a result, they end up eating seconds and thirds while other people are still on firsts.  Women usually eat more slowly so they’re not as likely to get to the seconds and thirds.

Pay Attention To What Goes Onto Your Plate

To help avoid the temptation of going back for seconds:

  • figure out a reasonable portion of food that is within reason but not so skimpy that you’re no where near satisfied when you’re finished
  • fill your plate with that portion from stove or from serving dishes on the counter
  • eat and enjoy knowing that you’ve selected a healthy meal that’s satisfying but neither too skimpy nor too large.

This article is part of the 30 day series of blog posts called: 30 Easy Tips for Looser Pants and Excellent Energy.

9 Easy Ways To Eat Less

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As the holiday season goes into full swing, here’s some helpful tips:

  1. Fill your plate once, whether it’s from a buffet or just from the stove top.  That’s it.  No seconds – and double-decking isn’t such a great idea, either.
  2. Use the smallest plates, bowls, and glasses you can to help you feel full even when you’re eating less. The smaller the plate the less food that can go on it. You probably won’t even know the difference because your eyes and brain are registering full plate. According to the CDC, a study looked at how adults reacted to four different portion sizes of macaroni and cheese given to them on different days. The larger the portion, the more people ate, eating 30% more when they were given the largest portion compared to the smallest one, yet they ranked their hunger and fullness similarly after both meals.  Only 45% noticed that there were differences in the size of the portions they were served.  The same optical illusion applies to glasses.  Choose taller ones instead of shorter fat ones to help cut down on liquid calories.
  3. Keep the serving bowls off of the table.  Put food on your plate and then sit down to eat it.  Serve reasonable portions on individual plates instead of helping yourself out of bowls on the table. According to an article in the May 2011 Nutrition Action Healthletter, when serving dishes are left on the table men eat 29% more and women 10% more than if those serving dishes stay on the counter.
  4. Leftovers lead to overeating so make only what you need. If you do cook enough for multiple meals pack up the extras and put them away immediately. Avoid eating the little bits of leftovers in the pots – those calories really add up – as do all of those tastes while you’re cooking and preparing.  Do enough nibbling and tasting and you come close to eating two meals.
  5. Distractions equal mindless eating. Excess calories and the size of the package your food comes in influence how much you eat. The larger the package, the more you tend to eat from it.  If you have a bag of chips in your lap as you watch TV or surf the net you don’t even realize how much you’re eating – and, in many cases, don’t gauge whether you’re full of not – so you keep eating.  If you do watch TV or work at the computer while you’re eating, don’t eat straight from the package.  Divide up the contents of one large package into several smaller portions. Put it in a bowl or on a plate.
  6. Don’t eat off of your kid’s plate, your spouse’s plate, or your friend’s plate.  The calories from someone else’s plate still count – and are oh so easy to forget about.
  7. Hide the stuff that tempts you.  Out of sight, out of mind is really true. We all tend to eat more when it’s right in front of us.  Food we like triggers cravings and eating.  So, keep the veggies in the front of the fridge and the rice pudding in the back.  Get rid of the candy dish and the stash of pop tarts in your desk drawer. If you buy jumbo size packages, put the excess somewhere inconvenient so you’ll have to work to get at it.
  8. Don’t feel obliged to eat out of courtesy – even if you don’t want the food or you’re full – just because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  Get over it – the calories are going into your mouth, not theirs.  If someone really hounds you about trying something you can always claim an allergy or that you’re eating heart healthy (claiming an upset stomach might buy you an early exit or other guests avoiding you like the plague).
  9. Pick your dining companions carefully. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine seems to indicate that if you’re struggling with your weight, there is a good chance that your friends and family are, too. You also tend to mimic your table companions.  If they eat fast, you eat fast – if they eat a lot, you eat a lot. In his book, Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink, PhD cites a study that shows how strong the tendency is to increase the amount you eat when you eat with others.  Compared to eating alone, you eat on average:
  • 35% more if you eat with one other person
  • 75% more with four at the table
  • 96% more with a group of seven or more.

 

Let A Baseball Be Your Guide

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It’s awfully hard to gauge how much food you’re putting on your plate – and even more difficult to figure out how much you’re popping into your mouth when you eat directly from a multi-serving bag of food.

Portion size is critical to managing your weight.  One helpful idea is to use commonplace objects as visual guides to “guesstimate” portion sizes.

One Cup Is About The Size Of A Baseball

The suggested serving size for many food items, particularly produce, is a cup. (The suggested portion size for many denser items, like pasta, rice, or ice cream is a half a cup, so two servings – which is what, at least, most of us eat, would equal a cup.)

 A Baseball, Not A Softball

A cup is about the size of a baseball – a baseball, not a softball.  So a cup of cooked greens, a cup of yogurt, a cup of beans, or a cup of cantaloupe should all look like the size of a baseball – but with obviously different calorie counts due to the food’s individual differences in food density and energy (calories).

Here are a few more of the CDC’s examples of one-cup servings:

  • 1 small apple
  • 1 medium grapefruit
  • 1 large orange
  • 1 medium pear
  • 8 large strawberries
  • 1 large bell pepper
  • 1 medium potato
  • 2 large stalks of celery
  • 12 baby carrots or 2 medium carrots
  • 1 large ear of corn

 

Late Night – Open Freezer Door – Spoon In Hand Scenario

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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.