10 ways to reduce your portion size that won’t leave you hungry
Wanting to whittle your waistline but not getting anywhere? Could the trick simply be that you need to eat less?
When more and more restaurants are offering super-sized portions, and ‘sharing bags’ are an easy way to encourage us to overeat, you could say our expanding waistlines are only to be expected. But portion control is one of the fundamental ways we can keep a handle on our love handles, according to our expert nutritionist. She has 10 practical ways to help shift your belt a notch or two in the right direction without suffering hunger pangs.
How did we get here?
It’s no secret: the UK is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. The reasons for this are plentiful - the fact we’re less active and portion sizes have increased are two obvious explanations. Combine this with the fact that more of us are grabbing meals and snacks away from home, and when we do dish up for ourselves, we’re bad at estimating portions, and it all becomes clear where the extra calories are piling in from.
Add to this the modern-day dilemma of readily available food that is engineered to keep us eating, combined with our natural tendencies to prefer these fatty, sugary foods, and you’ve got a recipe for 21st century weight gain.
Counting the calorie cost
Calories are of course essential to keep us functioning but, as research progresses, we’re beginning to understand that the theory of ‘calories in and calories out’ is an over-simplification of the way our bodies use energy. There are many other factors at play including the type of foods we eat and how we prepare them – that said, calorie control by managing portions is the very best place to start. Hunger and ‘food noise’ – those pesky preoccupying thoughts that tend to intrude - are two major obstacles to success when it comes to weight loss. So including strategies to help manage them is also key to sustainable weight control.
So how big is a portion?
Here’s how your plate should look:
- Non starchy vegetables & fruit– ½ of your plate, with the majority being veggies
- Starchy carbs (potatoes, pasta, rice) – ¼ of your plate
- Protein – ¼ of your plate
Fats – use unsaturated oils for cooking
Here’s a visual guide of what each component should look like:
- Meat – the size of your palm
- Poultry and fish – the size of your hand
- Starchy carbs (rice, pasta, potatoes) – your clenched fist
- Vegetables – one of your hands cupped
- Fruit – one of your hands cupped
- Butter / oils – tip of your thumb
It’s important to judge portions by the size of your own hand (not the person doing the cooking) as this takes into account how your body size dictates your calorie need.
10 weight-loss tricks that won’t leave you hungry
1. Make it personal
Let’s not forget that the number of calories we need varies for each and every one of us. Our age, gender, build, activity levels and our general state of health and genetics all determine our calorie needs. This means we don’t all need the same portion size, so if you’re plating up for the family, remember to tailor each plate to the individual’s needs. Research suggests that we aren’t very good at judging portion size, so use the visual guide above to help you.
2. Don’t leave it to chance
Weighing out food is time consuming and – let’s be honest – pretty dull. But using a measuring spoon or scoop can make serving up carb portions, like rice and pasta, quick, easy and more accurate. You don’t always need to measure out meals but certainly doing so for a week or two will help develop your knowledge of what an appropriate portion for you looks like.
Check out our tried and tested measuring spoons.
3. Make yourself accountable
Journalling allows you to take a step back and reflect, it also increases your awareness of what you’re actually eating and drinking. In studies, those who kept a food diary tended to be more successful at achieving weight loss. It can also serve as a motivational tool allowing you to look back and see how your food choices and portion sizes have changed.
Investigate a food tracker app and discover how it may help.
4. Dine smart
The average size of the dinner plate on your table has increased from 22cm in the 1970s to a staggering 28cm today and this means the average portion size has increased too. Think about swapping your plate for a smaller alternative: most of us feel just as satisfied eating from a smaller plate, and it provides the illusion of a larger dinner.
5. Get the timing of your calories right
Don’t make the first big mistake of the day and skip breakfast or choose a sugary, carb-heavy option. Both of these approaches will leave you open to wavering blood sugar levels and a resolve that will fall at the first hurdle. Instead, aim to eat a greater proportion of your daily calorie intake first thing, as this has been associated with better weight control both in humans and in animal models. Studies suggest those who ate a greater proportion of their daily calories for breakfast reported significantly lower levels of hunger, which helped manage their food choices and cravings (‘food noise’) later in the day.
6. Eat the protein on your plate first
Get into the habit of eating the protein on your plate first – the ‘protein leverage hypothesis’ is a theory that supposes we will eat until our protein needs are met so if we don’t get enough protein - think meat, fish, dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds and beans - our bodies will seek out more and more food. The result is over-eating and weight gain. Another benefit to this way of eating is that you’ll feel fuller and more satiated.
7. Cook clever
It can be the carbs in our diets that are our downfall, as super-sized portions of pasta, rice and potatoes have become the norm. Making a few tweaks to how you prepare carbs can make a difference – one example is to increase the resistant starch in potatoes, rice or pasta.
Resistant starch, as its name suggests, is resistant to digestion, so we can’t break the starches down into energy (calories). Studies suggest that when we include foods rich in these starches, we benefit from better blood sugar levels, improved appetite control, better gut health and a more efficient digestion. You can create resistant starch in carbs, like potato, pasta and rice, by cooking them and leaving them to cool. Reheating again before you eat them may increase the resistant starch even further.
Read more about resistant starch and how much fibre you should eat per day.
8. Make your meals nutrient rich
As well as meeting your nutritional needs for vitamins, minerals and macronutrients, a diet that is nutrient dense appears to help manage the unpleasant symptoms and experiences of hunger. Feeling hungry can be a major hurdle to reaching and maintaining sufficient weight loss. One interesting study reported that despite providing fewer calories, a diet rich in nutrients helped to alleviate hunger and its associated symptoms and promoted weight loss. To achieve this, aim to include fewer processed and more whole foods in your diet.
9. Fabulous friends
There are some foods that work well for weight loss and are the dieter’s friend - one of these are eggs. Studies show that in place of a cereal for breakfast, eggs will keep you fuller for longer and help you manage your appetite later in the day. Another dieting friend are almonds. As nuts and other plant foods have fibrous cell walls that our digestive enzymes can’t always break down, it means we’re not able to access all of their contents, including some of their calories. Eating whole nuts is the ideal: if you eat them processed, for example ground, you’ll access more of their nutrients and more of their calories!
10. Choose your dining partners wisely
Sharing a meal is an important form of social connection as it helps build relationships and facilitate bonding. However, studies suggest that for many of us overeating is a social behaviour and heavily influenced by those around us. Communicate your healthy eating intentions to your partner and wider family so they can support you in reaching your goal.
Last words
When it comes to food, we sometimes forget that size matters. Even if you’re a healthy eater you can have too much of a good thing! Enormous helpings, or even just a sneaky over-indulgence, can really add up. However, the good news is there are many practical steps that can help you control portions without compromising on taste, fullness and most importantly, enjoyment.
Kerry Torrens BSc. (Hons) PgCert MBANT is a BANT Registered Nutritionist® with a post graduate diploma in Personalised Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy. She is a member of the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) and a member of the Guild of Food Writers. Over the last 15 years she has been a contributing author to a number of nutritional and cookery publications including Good Food.
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