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Control Your Portion Sizes With Dish Sizes
By Thomas | January 8, 2008
Most diets including the popular Medifast diet (Medifast Official Site) that I’ve read about emphasize portion size. They tell you again and again to eat smaller portions. Take that big steak and cut it in half.
There’s nothing groundbreaking here. Eating less food means you put fewer calories in your body. Having fewer calories in your body means that you have less to burn through before you start to lose weight. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone.
Not everyone likes to measure food though. I’m one of those. I’m not a calorie counter. For me, being so precise about my diet takes the fun out of it. I want to eat smaller portions, but I don’t want to have to think about it. So here’s what I do: I use smaller dishes.
The plate on the left is the one I used to use before my diet. Do you know how many chicken wings you can fit onto that sucker? More than 20 (the wide base makes for easy stacking). The plate on the right is one of my new “diet plates”. After I put some rice down, and some spinach, there’s only room for about 4 chicken wings. I limit what I eat to what I can fit on my dish (plus a bowl of soup).
Same thing with these cups. I used to fill and refill that big Texas cup at every meal. Since I switched to the smaller mug, I find that I drink much less. And I don’t even have to think about it. My portion sizes are less just because!
When you have a big plate and you are hungry, the tendency is put more food on it than you really need to eat. Throw those big plates out. Switch to a smaller plate and your portion sizes will magically shrink.
Topics: Weight Loss Challenge 2008 |
January 8th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Using smaller plates is a good strategy to limit portions. What are you drinking out of those cups? Big cups are great if you are drinking water, not so great if you are drinking bacon drippings. I always have a huge cup or jug with me full of water.