Living The Lifestyle Thursday 6/20/24

imastar2

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Wildcard
Wednesday-misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard

Today's Topic: Portion Control. Do you practice it? or do you not need to? Does your tracking basically do it for you?

Flintwinch

Absolutely! Without portion control I'm up the creek without a paddle.

Al_Howard

I use my kitchen scale all the time. I double track MFP and WW. Now if I can ever control the "snackage".Got until next Wednesday morning to keep from paying for next month. I know it's "short money", but between TOL's guff and my pride.....

steve0mania

For me, portion control is much more important than tracking. The portion is what actually goes into my mouth...tracking is just the data associated with that intake.

I've maintained for years through "intuitive eating," which in its practical sense, is simply managing portions at each meal and avoiding extra snacks, etc. I still weigh my protein and potato at dinner, and I measure out my cereal and milk in the morning to limit "portion creep."

crewahl

Interesting question, Derrick.

I would agree completely with Steve's first paragraph that the amount and type of food you consume is what will drive your weight. We probably all ended up here because of some version of overeating. Tracking is simply the act of recording that information, and to me it’s important largely because it means being accountable for the choices you made.

But I diverge from Steve on the second paragraph (no surprise) in that tracking, for me, also means recognizing that a boundary exists for how much and what type of food I can safely consume and still manage my weight. I’ve joking said in the past that the only thing I do intuitively is reach for seconds, and that’s still mostly true. Tracking, and living largely within a defined range of intake, is like the guardrails along the road. I can drive what I want and how I want, and the guardrails are there to keep me from going into a dangerous situation where I could hurt myself. Similarly, I can eat what I choose and the amount I choose, and my defined range of input is there to help keep me from harming my target weight.

I do use portion control as part of staying within boundaries. The handful of cereal, weighing my PopChips, using the mini Kind bars instead of the large ones, slicing cheese into weight-friendly increment to when I bring it home, portioning a large steak when eating out so that it’s two meals - these are all ways that I use portions. I think that for me, at least, portions and tracking are intertwined like the chicken and the egg. Portions are how I stay within my defined range of intake, and tracking is a guardrail that keeps me within those more reasonable portions. If I didn’t track I would be less accountable for portions, and if I didn’t portion things I wouldn’t accurately know what I was tracking.

Wow, that got long-winded! That’s what happens when you’ve got a question that provokes some real thought about what we do and why we do it.

88olds

Portion control is how I maintain. Here in the yellow zone I don’t track. But when I’m at home pretty much everything goes on the food scale. If I’m incorporating a new food I crunch the calories and decide on what seems like a reasonable portion.

I still remember starting WW, getting a food scale & crunching the numbers. It was immediately apparent that my idea of a reasonable portion in those days was completely out of whack.

Al_Howard

88olds wrote: »

I still remember starting WW, getting a food scale & crunching the numbers. It was immediately apparent that my idea of a reasonable portion in those days was completely out of whack.

Yup! I think most of us said, WHAT???

crewahl

Al_Howard wrote: »

88olds wrote: »

I still remember starting WW, getting a food scale & crunching the numbers. It was immediately apparent that my idea of a reasonable portion in those days was completely out of whack.

Yup! I think most of us said, WHAT???

I think my reaction was “I spill more than that when I eat!”

misterhub

I do monitor portion size. My problem usually is not portion size. It's too many portion sizes.