When it comes to portion sizes, is it something that you try to be cautious about? Not just you, but when you’re feeding your kids and/or your pets too? When it comes to weight loss, when the exante diet, it’s always about calories in versus calories out. It’s not only about what you eat but the size of the food too. Portion size matters greatly; not only is it about the amount of calories, but it’s also about what’s going to fill you up too.
With that said, how can you become more conscious about portion sizes? While you could measure things (which can be time-consuming), here are some other ways that you can become more conscious.
Consider the Visual Cues
Whether it’s weight loss or muscle gain, it’s really going to be about visual cues. When a person is uncertain about how much they’re eating, visual cues help. For example, a person may use the amount of soup remaining in their bowl as a point of reference to determine whether they’ve consumed enough. This is particularly helpful if the food is not easy to measure, such as a casserole or a sandwich.
There’s that whole “your eyes are bigger than your stomach,” and sure, this happens, but what matters is giving yourself a visual cue to put less food on your plate or anyone’s plate. Because you need to remember large visual cues lead to people overeating, but less food can indeed help with getting someone to eat less. Something like a portion size plate can help, as this is going to help lead you to eventually knowing what the right amount of food is for a person (or yourself).
Eat in the Light
It sounds a little odd, but eating in the dark or darker areas can make it more challenging to be aware of how much is on your plate and how much you’re consuming.
Avoid Distractions
While it’s great eating while the TV or computer is on, such as streaming a show, this technically leads to mindless eating. So, it’s not just about the portion sizes, but it’s also about eating less, as in not getting up and getting any more helpings. So, if you can just sit at the table, especially if it’s a family dinner, and just eat together without any distractions like shows or phones, that’ll be best. Talking amongst each other is still great, however, mostly due to less eating and more talking. It helps you eat slower, which makes you more full. This can actually be a great way to help you watch how much you eat and your portion sizes altogether.
It Never Hurts to Measure
While visual cues are the most important, something else to keep in mind is the fact that measuring is going to help the most. It’s going to be accurate, and technically, this is going to be the best way to improve your visual cues. It’s not even just measuring cups, but if you’re doing something like calorie counting, then a kitchen scale or any other method of measuring is going to guarantee you that you’re actually 100% accurate right down to the caloric consumption.
