Consuming smaller portions of foods at each meal is one of the easiest ways to cut back on calories and loose weight. Not knowing how much food you eat could result in eating hundreds of extra calories every day. Knowing what is a proper portion size could be challenging with the challenges of super-sizing, over sized portions, all-you-can-eat-buffets, 32 oz sodas, jumbo candy bars, and other snack foods all contributing to excess calories your body cannot do anything with except store as fat.
It can be difficult to know what the proper amounts of food to eat looks like. Here are suggested servings sizes and some tips to get you started in reducing your serving sizes.
3 oz. meat: size of a deck of cards is the recommended portion for a meal
Medium potato: size of a computer mouse
2 Tbs.: size of a ping pong ball
Average bagel: size of a hockey puck(even bagels are super sized now)
A 1/2 cup serving of potatoes, rice or pasta looks like a tennis ball.
A kitchen scale may help to identify how much something should look like.
Try the following ideas to eat smaller portions when dining out.
A small soda is about 150 fewer calories than the large one.
Choose a regular hamburger at a fast food restaurant instead of the larger burger, and save about 150 calories.
Small fries instead of the super-sized will save you save about 300 calories.
Start thinking about how you can cut down serving sizes to cut out calories.
At home
Be careful with your plate size. If you have a smaller size plate you will generally eat less.
When snacking, place a few chips or crackers in a bowl to help prevent overeating. Don’t eat from the bag.
Buy single portions of snack foods so you’re don’t eat the whole bag or box.
Be careful with butter, sour cream, mayonnaise, and cream cheese. Use half the amount you usually do and save lots of calories.