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MyFitnessPal Community

THIS is what a serving of pasta looks like...

NCK96

I was so surprised I sent the pic to my husband. I measured out 2 oz. of pasta and cooked it by itself to be sure. It’s Delallo gluten free fusilli, 210 calories, 43 carbs, fyi.)

Replies

musicfan68

Yeah, hardly worth eating unless you add a lot of vegetables and meat/sauce to it.

echmain3

Weighing food was a HUGE eye opener for me.

Could believe how much I was eating before I started counting calories.

pierinifitness

When I eat pasta, I eat 4 servings and eat it plain. That’s what I did today, post 60 minutes run refueling. My sources calc the 60 minutes run at 705 calories which seems right to me.

Fuel + full = food.

Womona

That’s one serving? Cooked???

Well, that’s depressing!

lynn_glenmont

Well, if I'm having it as a side, that looks like plenty. If I'm having it as a main with tomato sauce, some veggies, and maybe 200 kcal of meat and/or cheese, I can certainly afford at least a serving and a half of pasta.

sardelsa

That might be the serving on the box but not what I eat which is usually 3x that

but then again it's less than a quarter of my calorie intake so it all works out.

NewLIFEstyle4ME

Amazing how serving sizes are. Here's something interesting in relation to portion sizes as well:

2EFF34A100000578-3343129-Out_of_control_The_Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention_CD-m-24_1449080396266.jpg

kimny72

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Well, if I'm having it as a side, that looks like plenty. If I'm having it as a main with tomato sauce, some veggies, and maybe 200 kcal of meat and/or cheese, I can certainly afford at least a serving and a half of pasta.

ITA. If I have 500 cals for dinner, I can eat 1.5 servings with some meat sauce and veggies mixed in.

As a dish on the side of a chicken cutlet or piece of fish with a pile of steamed veggies and a bit of marinara.

I happen to be someone who finds pasta filling, which I'm sure helps.

Lounmoun

That is the serving size if you plan to only eat 210 calories of pasta. You could eat more. My dinner is typically 500-600 calories so I'm not going to eat just that.
Pair it with other foods like lots of low calorie vegetables or have the pasta as a side dish to meat. Or have enough calories left to increase the amount of pasta.

rubyslipperss1

Try using a smaller bowl and plate when you eat things like this. I have the Portion Perfection bowls, plates and book. I also use a set of cutlery by Godinger that are very small. Got everything on Amazon. I generally find I can trick my mind into thinking I have more food than I actually do.

jyoti64

I have a simple rule of increasing my food intake without increasing the calories. I make sure to:
1) Sip water with every morsel I eat. That way my stomach gets filled with small portions of food. It also helps in digestion.
2) Make sure to eat one bowl salad of "watery vegetables" such as tomato & cucumber.
3) Have one bowl of lentil broth or vegetable broth.
4) I drink 300 ml water + 10 drops of lemon juice many times a day. Especially before the day's main meals. This keeps my metabolism healthy and stops me from overeating.

This way, I have a variety of taste and stomach-filling but low-calorie meals.

sugaraddict4321

What's interesting is how the same company varies serving sizes depending on the market. In the USA, a standard serving of pasta is 2 oz dry (56 grams). In western Europe, the standard serving size on the box is 85 grams - or just over 3 oz - if there's even a serving size listed. I wonder why they change up serving size depending on the market?

Often the food labels in Europe only give info per 100 grams, so you don't know what a "recommended" serving size is. However, at least that makes tracking very easy because it's all metric and if you weigh your food in grams it's easy to figure out how much you're consuming.

Here are two images of a very popular pasta brand as an example

USA:
barilla-pasta-food-label-world-of-label-with-regard-to-barilla-with-regard-to-barilla-pasta-food-label.jpg

barilla-pasta-food-label-world-of-label-with-regard-to-barilla-with-regard-to-barilla-pasta-food-label.jpg

Europe:

Also notice that in the USA they measure in milligrams of sodium, whereas in western Europe they use grams of salt. The RDA for salt in Europe is higher than in the US. A gram of salt contains about 413 mg of sodium.

smantha32

When I was a kid in the late 70's, cokes came in a 10 oz bottle. They didn't even have the 12oz cans yet.

jenilla1

I usually have plenty of calories, because I'm active, so 2 servings of pasta is what I generally do. I actually consider 4 oz. to be my serving size. If I need to cut back, I could just do one serving, or one and a half, and bulk it up with vegetables...But it doesn't bother me at all to eat 2 servings - I don't care if you call it 1, 2, or 1000 servings. I just eat the amount that fits in my goals and meets my needs.

amusedmonkey

I judge my serving by the calories it contains and by how much is typically enough to fill me up. My budget for the main meal is usually up to 800 calories on a typical day and up to 1500 calories with special planning. My usual serving of pasta that isn't bulked up by vegetables (sauce and meat included) is about 500-600 calories, which is enough food for me (about a pound of the cooked dish and 75-85 grams of dry pasta plus vegetables on the side). 500-600 calories is reasonable for a main meal if you're dieting, so the vast majority of people can afford more than a single serving of pasta anyway if they wanted to, depending on what is added to the pasta. Beyond that, it's about preference and how it affects your hunger - pasta fills me up nicely, and it's actually a calorie bargain for how filling it is.

Servings mean nothing outside of context. What do you like to eat? How many calories do you have to play with? What are you willing/unwilling to tweak? How much would feel enough? What else are you eating with it? Just focus on your overall calories and don't get stuck on servings if they're causing more stress than there needs to be.

Nerys52

I live in EU, 350 gram box of pasta mini penne . States serves 4 and a portion is 87.5 gram.Calories are given per 100 gram 353 calories. Usually we add jar of tomato pasta sauce and ground beef( 75 up to 100 gram meat for each portion) or box of mushrooms if meatless and vegetables or a salad, maybe a little grated cheese and that is a dinner.
We do not eat extra bread at the dinner table which is maybe reason portion of pasta is bigger in EU.
A box of spaghetti 500 gr states calorie value 367 per 100 gram and there a portion size is 100 gram. Same brand from Italy: Grand Italia.

yirara

NCK96 wrote: »

I was so surprised I sent the pic to my husband. I measured out 2 oz. of pasta and cooked it by itself to be sure. It’s Delallo gluten free fusilli, 210 calories, 43 carbs, fyi.)

I don't even know what 'a serving' is. Is it something that the producer decided to put on the pack to make it look low calorie or a normed amount?

tinkerbellang83

yirara wrote: »

NCK96 wrote: »

I was so surprised I sent the pic to my husband. I measured out 2 oz. of pasta and cooked it by itself to be sure. It’s Delallo gluten free fusilli, 210 calories, 43 carbs, fyi.)

I don't even know what 'a serving' is. Is it something that the producer decided to put on the pack to make it look low calorie or a normed amount?

I did a little research:

USA: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.12

The EU doesn't have any formal way of determining portion size, it's down to manufacturer. My assumption would be that manufacturers base it proportionally as part of an average 3 meal a day, 2000/2500 calorie diet. UK/Ireland majority of pasta packs I've bought regardless of brand have portion size as 75g which is approx 170g cooked at 300 cals.

yirara

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

NCK96 wrote: »

I was so surprised I sent the pic to my husband. I measured out 2 oz. of pasta and cooked it by itself to be sure. It’s Delallo gluten free fusilli, 210 calories, 43 carbs, fyi.)

I don't even know what 'a serving' is. Is it something that the producer decided to put on the pack to make it look low calorie or a normed amount?

I did a little research:

USA: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.12

The EU doesn't have any formal way of determining portion size, it's down to manufacturer.

Thanks a lot. Oh dear, 1 serving of pasta constitutes 55gr? That's not a lot, and difficult to calculate with. I usually eat 70-80, and a lot more with certain, mostly vegetarian pasta dishes.

Keto_Vampire

Never been a fan of grains for this reason - very calorie dense food.
Would opt for higher volume yet still satisfying carbs like rice & potatoes

amusedmonkey

Keto_Vampire wrote: »

Never been a fan of grains for this reason - very calorie dense food.
Would opt for higher volume yet still satisfying carbs like rice & potatoes

The difference between 100 g of cooked pasta and 100 g of cooked rice is 20-30 calories tops, less if not al dente, and it tastes great. Rice is actually higher in calories than many cooked grains. Both barley and millet are maybe 20 or 30 calories lower than rice per 100 g cooked. I enjoy all, and personally think they all have a place in my diet, interchangeably because they're so close in calorie count. Nuts on the other hand... they just make me sad.

emilysusana

As others have said, it’s true that you don’t have to stick to the serving size on the box as long as you’re logging what you eat. However, I have found that using the serving sizes listed to guide me, I’ve been able to reduce what my body considers a normal serving. That amount of pasta (with lots of veggies, some meat, and sauce or olive oil), feels like enough to me now. If I have lots of calories available, especially when training for a distance run, I’ll eat more, but in general aiming for one “standard” serving has helped me scale back portions.

When my kids ask for packaged cookies and then ask how many they can have, I usually have them check how many are in as serving and tell them to have that. I think it might help them fight the tendency in the US to overdo the portions! (I never ask them to check calories or to think about that).

tinkerbellang83

yirara wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

yirara wrote: »

NCK96 wrote: »

I was so surprised I sent the pic to my husband. I measured out 2 oz. of pasta and cooked it by itself to be sure. It’s Delallo gluten free fusilli, 210 calories, 43 carbs, fyi.)

I don't even know what 'a serving' is. Is it something that the producer decided to put on the pack to make it look low calorie or a normed amount?

I did a little research:

USA: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=101.12

The EU doesn't have any formal way of determining portion size, it's down to manufacturer.

Thanks a lot. Oh dear, 1 serving of pasta constitutes 55gr? That's not a lot, and difficult to calculate with. I usually eat 70-80, and a lot more with certain, mostly vegetarian pasta dishes.

Interesting that bread is 50g too, that's like half a sandwich for the bread here as local bread is around 30-40g per slice

Florida_Superstar

Is it any wonder that people lose weight when they "cut carbs"? Besides shedding water initially, cutting carbs can mean cutting hundreds of calories. Some people really are less tolerant or carbs, but I think many people are convinced they can't eat carbs when they really just need to be mindful of calories.

cmriverside

Hm. I long ago started eating about 2/3 of a portion of pasta when I have it, and I add 100g of zucchini to bulk up whatever dish I'm having. So it's half and half, basically.

yirara

xtrain321 wrote: »

Is it any wonder that people lose weight when they "cut carbs"? Besides shedding water initially, cutting carbs can mean cutting hundreds of calories. Some people really are less tolerant or carbs, but I think many people are convinced they can't eat carbs when they really just need to be mindful of calories.

Sorry, I don't understand what you're getting up. That people eat one serving of pasta, remain hungry and then binge on whatever they have stashed away? Carbs have 4kcal per gram; same as protein. Fat has 9kcal per gram. Carbs are not bad. Some people feel full from eating carbs, other from other macros.

Florida_Superstar

yirara wrote: »

xtrain321 wrote: »

Is it any wonder that people lose weight when they "cut carbs"? Besides shedding water initially, cutting carbs can mean cutting hundreds of calories. Some people really are less tolerant or carbs, but I think many people are convinced they can't eat carbs when they really just need to be mindful of calories.

Sorry, I don't understand what you're getting up. That people eat one serving of pasta, remain hungry and then binge on whatever they have stashed away? Carbs have 4kcal per gram; same as protein. Fat has 9kcal per gram. Carbs are not bad. Some people feel full from eating carbs, other from other macros.

Oh, sorry if I wasn't clear. Completely agree--carbs are not bad. That was actually my point, lol!

Some people who lose weight "cutting carbs" attribute it to the carbs without realizing how many calories they were actually eating.

wilson10102018

I dunno. I have 3 oz of thin spaghetti with 7 jumbo shrimp, four sauteed shallots (in 1/2 tbsp of butter), a few spoons of lump crabmeat, Better than Boullion Lobster Base and it is a heaping plateful of food. 450 calories. If I am really hungry, I might include a half jar of fire roasted red bell peppers at 10 cal per serving.

ceiswyn

Keto_Vampire wrote: »

Never been a fan of grains for this reason - very calorie dense food.
Would opt for higher volume yet still satisfying carbs like rice & potatoes

...but rice is a grain...

tgc771

I can't have regular pasta (Gluten sensitive). I am not a fan of gluten free pasta. I have started using zucchini instead of pasta in all recipes that call for pasta. I like it so much better. The Barilla gluten free pasta tasted too much like corn. Spaghetti squash is good too. Also Rice can be subbed in, but a portion of rice isn't very satisfying either, in my opinion. But that is all this is, is MY opinion.