Portion Principles

We all know the feeling...you leave a restaurant after a huge meal, and all you want to do is change from your tight jeans and get into your most comfortable pair of sweat pants as you wallow in self pity about how much you just overate.

As a personal trainer and nutrition consultant, I get a lot of questions regarding portion sizes from my clients. How much should I be eating to feel satisfied and full, without crossing over that thin line of overeating?

Unfortunately the answer is a bit complicated, with multiple factors playing into the battle. Luckily, I have solutions to ALL of them...

Problem #1: Plate size - The average dinner plate is 2-3 times larger than it was at the turn of the century. This means that even though you might only fill half of your plate at each meal, you are still likely to overeat.

Solution: Use smaller plates for meals - studies show that people who eat off smaller dinner plates versus larger ones eat less overall, even when finishing their whole plate. Not sure what size is appropriate? Think of the size of a salad or appetizer plate, and fill it only ONCE!

Problem #2: Eating three meals a day - Believe it or not, most people still abide by the three meals a day habit. This is a huge pitfall in the battle against overeating, so DON'T DO IT! If you only allow yourself three meals a day, you are likely to overeat at ALL of them!

Solution: Eat 5-6 small meals throughout the day (approximately 300-350 calories each). This is the best way to avoid overeating at your "main meals" because your body never gets to a starving point. In fact, if your body is continuously processing food, it becomes even more efficient at burning calories...so go ahead and CHEW on that for a while!

Problem #3: We drink our calories - In today's society, we have not only decided to eat ourselves sick, but we have fooled ourselves into thinking that our morning venti mocha frappuccino doesn't count towards our daily food intake. Hate to break it to you ladies, but calories are calories, whether they go down in food or liquid form. In fact, did you know that the average American is consuming up to 500 more calories per day just in their drinks. If that's not eye-opening, I don't know what is!

Solution: Switch your sugary coffee drinks or sodas to lower calorie options such as vitamin water zero, sparkling water with lemon or lime, or try one of the many crystal lite flavors (peach tea is my personal fav). If you are a coffee lover like me, use skim milk and some truvia all natural sweetener in your coffee instead of highly caloric creamers. And for crying out loud, stop ordering the fatty mocha fraps each morning (the average starbucks venti drink ranges from 300 to over 1,000 calories per drink) Yikes!

To sum it all up, whether you are eating on monster size plates or drinking your calories in your morning cup of java, you always need to be aware of your portion sizes. As a helpful and quick reference to use anytime you are unsure of how much you should be eating, make a fist with your hand and eat at most two of those fists at each meal, and one of those fists for each of your snacks throughout the day.

For some additional "food for thought" and other useful tricks that I have learned over the years to help avoid overeating at meals, try one of these methods:

1. Drink a full glass of water 10-15 minutes before any meal.

2. Put your fork down and/or take a sip of water after each bite of food (this will help slow down the entire eating process).

3. When you start to feel full, put your napkin over your entire plate and push it away from you. Or if you are at a restaurant, ask the waiter to box up half your meal before you even start eating.

4. ALWAYS wait 20 minutes before going back for seconds or ordering dessert. It takes the average person's stomach 20 minutes to register that it is full, and unfortunately most people eat the majority of their meals in less than 20 minutes. So give your body a chance to let you know if it is full before stuffing it with more food than it can handle!