Sometimes it can feel like you’re fighting a never-ending battle with your weight. You’re eating healthy and you’re exercising but the scale just isn’t budging. Well, here’s the thing, sometimes you can be eating the “right” things but you’re still simply eating too much.

This is what I call portion distortion.

A portion is the amount of food that you choose to eat for a meal or snack. It might be big or it might be small – but you’re the one making the decision. A serving is actually a measured amount of food or drink (i.e. 3 oz of salmon, one slice of bread, 1 cup of milk).

Being able to understand what an appropriate portion is can be a key factor contributing to your weight loss efforts. Where we get messed up is sometimes we’re eating something as a single “portion” (we’re gobbling it down in one sitting) when really it’s 3 serving sizes. For instance this little 3oz bag of chips can easily disappear in 5 minutes flat (consumed as one portion) but is actually 3 serving sizes…see the problem?

It doesn’t help that since the early ‘90’s the size of a dinner plate has increased from 10 to 12 inches (and along with that bowl and cup sizes have also increased). That’s trouble because typically when we see a plate we like to fill it with food…and then we tend to eat all of that food, even if we’re no longer hungry.

Weight maintenance and weight loss is really a simple equation: energy in (calories) has got to be equal to or less than energy out (calories). In other words, we need to burn more calories than we consume in order to tip the weight loss equation in our favor and get rid of fat.

So even if you’re eating brown rice or quinoa (a healthy food) but you’re having 3X more than you need those excess calories are going to turn to fat. It’s not just French fries and potato chips and chocolate bars that cause that – too much of a good thing can make us gain weight too!

Tips for avoiding portion distortion:

1. Use a smaller plate than you normally would at home, a salad plate instead of a dinner plate works well.
2. Check out what the serving size is before you gobble a bag of something down in one sitting
3. If you don’t know what ½ cup of ice cream (or anything else for that matter) looks like, actually measure it out and see how much of a bowl it fills. This can be your guide for future portions.
4. Buy a food scale to get familiar with what 3 oz of protein really looks like
5. Don’t eat straight from a package (wayyyyy to easy to mindlessly eat it all up). Portion out those 12 chips (or whatever the serving size is on the label).
6. Same goes for chocolate, don’t leave the whole chocolate bar on the counter. Give yourself an appropriate serving size and then put the rest away (i.e. Freezer, back of cupboard where you can’t see it – out of side = out of mind)
7. Turn off the electronic distractions (smart phone, tv, computer, etc.) and choose to eat mindfully instead of mindlessly.
8. If given the choice at a restaurant order a “half-order” of something or instruct them to automatically pack up half of your meal for take out.

In general, most North Americans tend to eat too much, move too little and then have dessert…and we repeat this day after day after day. It’s no wonder obesity rates are on the rise. The first step to getting back on a healthy eating track is choosing to eat appropriate portions which is facilitated by knowing what a serving size is.

If you want to lose weight and get fit book yourself a complimentary needs assessment at Fit Metabolism today – 403-452-0900. We’re confident that we can help you lose fat and get you on the fast track to healthy living!