Using your hands and fists as a guide can help determine correct food portion sizes. Vegetables are two fists, meat is one palm, cereals and breads are one fist, and fruit is half a fist. A healthy serving of butter is equal to the size of a dice. Leaving space on your plate and using smaller plates can also help reduce portion sizes. Pay attention to what and how much you eat when dining out. Consider looking at a food health website like MyPlate for additional guidance.
Nutritionists and doctors often tell us that we must reduce our food portion sizes to lose or maintain weight. This can be challenging, as many of us don’t know exactly what the serving sizes of healthy foods are. Most of us don’t have a scale handy to weigh and measure everything we eat, and portion sizes can vary depending on what we eat.
One way to tell if you are eating the correct portions of food is to use your hands and fists as a guide for measuring. His stomach is about the size of his two fists put together, although this can vary, so he probably shouldn’t eat more than two fists of food at any one meal. In general, the portions of vegetables are two fists, the portions of meat are one palm, the portions of cereals and breads are one fist, and the portions of fruit are half a fist. Light dairy and peanut butter are about the size of a palm.
Another way to gauge correct serving sizes of food is to think about how close the size of the food is to other objects. For example, a serving of chicken or beef should be about the size of a deck of cards, and fish can be the size of your checkbook. Again, you can almost always eat more green vegetables than anything else, so consider two fists when considering your vegetable intake.
One measurement that can help when determining serving sizes for foods like butter or mayonnaise is to consider a standard-size dice. In general, a healthy serving of butter should be equal to the size of a dice. If you like cheese you have three or four dice.
If you’re preparing food at home and don’t want to measure and weigh everything, there are things you can do to reduce your portion sizes. First, don’t think of your plate as an object that needs to be completely covered by food. Leave some space on the plate. Second, invest in slightly smaller plates. By having a smaller plate and leaving some space, you are likely to eat smaller portions. Of course, this fact can be mitigated if you have a second and third aid.
When you go out, pay attention to what and how much you are eating. If the food seems well over the serving size, take some home in a container. Also, some people confuse food serving sizes with the serving sizes of packaged foods. Serving sizes can be regulated by many things and are not necessarily a full serving or much more than one serving.
Of course, if you keep thinking about the fist method, you will be able to determine how many things you can eat. Remember, though, that you don’t have to keep eating if you haven’t eaten a full serving. This is just a general guide to healthy eating.
If you still need additional guidance, consider looking at a food health website like MyPlate, run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA has some great tips for determining food portion sizes and eating healthy.
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