NoExcusesGym

 That plate pilled high with food looks back at you, tempting you to put your weight-loss plans on hold for just this evening. Or maybe it’s the buffet at your favorite restaurant singing a siren song.

Have no fear! Use these tremendous tricks from nutritionists to control your portions when you eat at home or dine out:

•  Get over the old maxim that you have to “clean your plate.�

•  Start off with portions 10 to 25 percent smaller than usual. You’ll probably feel satisfied with less than you think your growling tummy needs.

•  Use smaller plates, especially if you’re at a buffet or about to graze at a party. Recent research shows that, when larger portions are put in front of us, we automatically eat more than we ordinarily would.

•  Cut back on the amount of food you fix if you find there are always leftovers.

•  Put leftovers immediately in the refrigerator or freezer for lunches and other meals later in the week. They’re just too tempting to leave on the table.

•  Keep serving bowls off the table. You may think twice about getting seconds if the bowls are so far away and you have to get up from your comfy seat.

•  Wait just a few minutes before deciding to go back for seconds, if you’re still hungry. The stomach needs about 20 minutes after you eat to signal the brain to say you’re no longer hungry.

•  Eat more slowly, focusing on really tasting your food.

•  Become familiar with “serving sizes� of your favorite foods and learn how to measure them.

•  Avoid all-you-can-eat buffets, even if they have small plates.

•  Ask for a to-go bag when you do dine out, and put half of your food in it immediately. upon being served to take home for a future meal.

•  Ask yourself  “Do I really need that much” and “Do I really need that many?”

•  Eat a salad before your main course, but don’t load it down with calorie-laden salad dressing, croutons or other diet killers.

•  Buy snack foods in portion-controlled packages - and only eat one package at a time.

•  Watch out for “portion distortion.”

‘Distorting’ what’s on the plate

So just what is this “portion distortion?” Dietitians say portion distortion occurs when you perceive large portion sizes as appropriate amounts to eat at a single time. The best thing to do to avoid portion distortion is to know the serving sizes of everything from grain products to fruits and vegetables, they suggest.

Portion sizes of virtually all foods and beverages served at restaurants and packaged for single-serve have dramatically increased over the past 20 years, said Jaime Schwartz, a registered dietitian  who studied portion distortion while a graduate student at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J. 

In many cases, the amount of a particular food you put on the plate is far above the nutritional label’s “serving size,â€? she said, in an article last year in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

source: nubella

(by Marcela Vanharova)