Portions Visualized

NEW! Excerpted from The EatingWell Diet book.

A reality check.

As a society, we’re eating more calories than ever, and a leading culprit is how often we eat prepared foods away from home. And, whether they come from a restaurant, takeout or vending machine, the portions we’re being served are often larger than life. According to one study, most marketplace food portions can be two to eight times larger than standard portion sizes. While the USDA considers a “medium” bagel to be about 2 ounces, the behemoths you find at a bagel store today can weigh in at 5 ounces—equivalent to 5 slices of bread! A jumbo baked potato at a restaurant might equal 6 to 8 slices of bread. Pretty hefty for what most people consider a side dish.

With the advent of megasized meals, jumbo muffins and extra-big drink cups, many of us have lost touch with what proper portions look like. We’ve gotten so used to seeing these oversized helpings that we think they’re normal—and that anything else looks skimpy. The problem just deepens as restaurant portion sizes creep into the plate-filling habits of home cooks.

Part of learning how to eat better, then, is to retrain your brain to recognize—and embrace—more realistic portion sizes.

If you’re reaching for seconds every time you sit down to dinner, you’re not likely to lose much weight. Likewise, if you clean your plate at restaurants, you’re almost guaranteed to be overeating.
Think Small

So we’re being served larger helpings; everyone around us seems to be eating larger amounts. How does a mindful eater avoid following the crowd and downing three or four portions at a time? Here are some tried-and-true techniques from successful weight “losers”:

Use smaller serving pieces: A 7-inch plate, about the size of a “salad” plate or children’s-size plate is ideal for your main meal. Choose a 1-cup dessert or cereal bowl instead of a soup bowl, a 6-ounce wineglass rather than a goblet. By the way, research shows you’ll think you have more to drink when you pour it into a tall, thin glass rather than a short, wide one (save those big glasses for calorie-free water and sparkling water).

Train your eye: In your own kitchen, have a little session in which you measure out an accurate portion of the foods you eat regularly—say, cereal, soup, pasta, pretzels—into one type of bowl, so you’ll imprint a visual memory of how they look and just how they fill the bowl. Use that bowl every time you eat that food. (Extra credit: Use a permanent marker to write the amount of food the bowl holds on the bottom of the bowl. Then you’ll always know what you’re getting.)

Ask for an extra salad plate: In a restaurant, get a smaller side plate or hold on to the bread plate, if it’s large enough, and transfer the proper-size portions of your food onto it when you’re served your entree. Ask the waiter to take away and wrap up the rest.

Buy single-serving packages: Do this for all tempting foods—snack-size cookie or chip bags, pudding cups, fun-size candy bars. Or divide a larger package into single portions and put them in individual small plastic bags.

Read labels: Make sure you’re eating a single portion of packaged foods. If your bag of pretzels has 2 servings, take out half and put the rest away for tomorrow’s snack.

Cook up calorie-rich foods in pre-portioned sizes: Divide casseroles into ramekins, bake mini cupcakes rather than cakes, make meatloaf in muffin cups.
Measuring With Your Eyes

Use the list below to help you visualize the correct portion sizes of the foods you eat most often. Make an effort to measure out portions you serve yourself and you’ll soon be able to “eyeball” them accurately.

1 teaspoon = About the size of your fingertip (tip to middle joint); fits into the screwcap of a water bottle
1 tablespoon = About the size of your thumb tip (tip to middle joint)
1⁄2 cup = A fruit or vegetable that fits into the palm of your hand—about the size of a tennis ball
1⁄4 cup = A golf ball
1 ounce nuts = Fits into the cupped palm of a child’s hand
1 cup cereal = About the size of a woman’s fist or a baseball
1 medium bagel = A hockey puck
1 ounce cheese = About the size of 2 dominoes or 4 dice
3 ounces meat = About the size of a deck of cards or a cassette audiotape
1 medium potato = About the size of a computer mouse

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