7 Easy Tips for Portion Control

Managing portion sizes is essential for achieving weight loss and improving your overall health. Use these 7 Easy Tips for Portion Control at your next meal.

It is very easy to do; eat more than the recommended amount of something or not even know what the recommended amount is to begin with. Our society has conditioned us to eat more based on the serving sizes restaurants serve and the pressure to feel stuffed at the end of every meal in order to be satisfied. The truth is, you can eat more reasonable portion sizes very easily and still feel satisfied. It just takes some getting used to. Managing portion control is one step in the right direction for good weight loss and overall health! If you aren't sure where to begin, here are 7 Easy Tips for Portion Control.

7 Easy Tips for Portion Control

Change your plate size. Instead of using a normal dinner plate for every meal, use those small plates you have in your cupboard. You can fill one of these up and trick yourself into thinking it's more.

Split meals when you dine out. If you dine out a lot, this can make it hard to have smaller portions since many of the sizes served in restaurants is way larger than it should be for one person. Save yourself money and get a better portion size for you and your dining partner by splitting a meal. If you eat alone a lot, ask for a to-go box right away and put half of it in there for another meal later.

Slow things down. Chew your food slower. You will find that this often leads t you feeling satisfied off smaller portions because it can take as long as 7-8 minutes for your first bite to even reach your stomach. This means that by the time you are starting to feel full, you still have way more food to get to your stomach if you rush it leading to that awful feeling of being over-full. This can not only train you to be satisfied off smaller portions, but can help with post-meal indigestion and gas because you are not swallowing as much air.

Fill up on salads. Salads by themselves are fine to fill up on as they have so many nutrients and it's virtually impossible to go overboard on them. Use salads to fill in the gap when you worry you won't be full on smaller portions of starches and other foods.

Eat frequently during the day. Eating smaller meals throughout the day naturally helps you get used to eating smaller portions because you are likely to still feel somewhat full from the previous meal.

Use measuring cups and scales. Until you get better at ‘eye-balling' portion sizes, use measuring cups and scales to measure out portion sizes so you can train yourself.

Read labels on food packaging. You may be surprised that a portion size for something is smaller than you have been previously eating. Make it a habit to read labels so you can make sure you are getting the right amount.

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