How to Master Portion Control

When you’re trying to lose weight, certainly what you eat is of the utmost importance. But equally if not more important is how much you eat. For any diet to be effective, portion control is a critical step to master. While you may be meticulous about calorie counting, if you don’t have a grasp on what constitutes a serving—or a portion—then your efforts are for naught. In other words, your idea of a portion may contain two or more servings.

You can help match your portion size with your serving size by reading the nutritional labels on packaged foods. For foods you prepare at home, enlist the help of a calorie-counting app, which details the exact amount that constitutes a serving, and invest in an electronic kitchen scale so that you can know exactly what a serving looks like.

There are also a few non-scientific rules of thumb to follow when controlling your portion size. Try the following tips from the medical professionals at Hartford Healthcare:

Enlist visual cues. Overall nutritional guidelines recommend that each item on our plate be smaller in volume than a closed fist or tennis ball, except for vegetables, which can be unlimited. Here are a few other visual tricks to keep in mind.

• 1 domino equals a 2-oz. serving of cheese.
• A deck of cards or an open palm equals the recommended 2 – 3 ounce serving of meat, poultry or fish.
• A fist equals a serving of pasta, rice, cereal or fruit.
• The top of your thumb equals how much fat—i.e., butter mayo or salad dressing—you should have.

Try the “MyPlate” method of food portions recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: One quarter of your plate is protein; one quarter is starch and grains; half is fruit and vegetables.

Eat mindfully. It’s common to feel unsatisfied when you reduce your portion size, so take the time to really chew, smell and taste your food, and focus only on eating. This means not eating in front of the T.V. or while doing something else, a practice that usually encourages eating more. Eating more slowly also gives your brain time to realize that your stomach is full, so don’t rush while eating.

Downsize your plate. Another trick is to use smaller plates, which will appear full with your right-sized portions. This provides the visual cue that you have more than enough to eat.