Understanding Serving Sizes is Key to Weight Loss
One of the challenges of losing weight is choosing the correct portion size and not overeating. This is true for both packaged products and home made food. Even if all you eat is A-grade foods, you can still go over your daily calorie budget and gain weight.
The serving size problem is actually two-fold:
1. ascertaining the size of a single serving
2. measuring out that size before eating.
For example, many people don’t realize that a serving of beef or chicken is 3 ounces (problem 1), let alone know how much meat is in that 3-ounce serving (problem 2). For beef or chicken, 3 ounces is about the size of a deck of cards. Pretty small, right?
Usually, people err to the larger size. This is evident with packaged foods as well. Here are some examples:
1. A serving of potato chips is just 11 chips. Who stops at just 11 chips?
2. A serving of Oreos is just 3 cookies. Ditto.
3. A serving of juice or soft drink is 8 ounces or 1 cup. Not any cup, 1 cup. Most people fill up cups that are much bigger than 1 cup.
One of the challenges of losing weight is choosing the correct portion size and not overeating. This is true for both packaged products and home made food. Even if all you eat is A-grade foods, you can still go over your daily calorie budget and gain weight.
The serving size problem is actually two-fold:
1. ascertaining the size of a single serving
2. measuring out that size before eating.
For example, many people don’t realize that a serving of beef or chicken is 3 ounces (problem 1), let alone know how much meat is in that 3-ounce serving (problem 2). For beef or chicken, 3 ounces is about the size of a deck of cards. Pretty small, right?
Usually, people err to the larger size. This is evident with packaged foods as well. Here are some examples:
1. A serving of potato chips is just 11 chips. Who stops at just 11 chips?
2. A serving of Oreos is just 3 cookies. Ditto.
3. A serving of juice or soft drink is 8 ounces or 1 cup. Not any cup, 1 cup. Most people fill up cups that are much bigger than 1 cup.