How long did it take you to get a hang of portion control?

kaned_ferret

I thought I ate fairly healthily, but when I joined MFP I realised that a lot of the time I was going waaay over on a daily calorie intake simply because of the quantities I was eating.. I had a fairly physical job, and my OH is one of those lovely skinny types that needs a ton of food to keep him alive, but he never puts on weight. So in the evenings I would make pretty large meals. I think it worked out that I was making enough food to feed 3-4 for the two of us sometimes! I started to cut mine down, basically by serving my meal as normal, then literally halving everything on my plate. It worked well, I went from being painfully stuffed after a meal, to simply full, which is a nice feeling. But I'm not one to waste food, so would have the other half of my dinner for lunch the next day. Too many calories when you count up the alcohol on top!

So my next switch was to healthier lunches, filling myself with raw carrots and a splash of low fat hummus, and getting into the swing of munching on ryvitas for a snack (love the fruit crunch ones!) I also added nuts and seeds, and dried prunes as small snacks if I felt hungry or flagging in energy. These work well for me because they fulfil the behavioural need to eat without stuffing me chocka full of calories.

But I'm still struggling to stay under my calorie goal - I eat too many of the damn ryvitas lol! My next move is to eliminate alcohol apart from weekends. I am exercising as well.

Really, I just still make myself too much food! In the long run, I know the changes I've made are good ones, but I still often find when it comes to logging, I've erred on the amount that's gone in and so I'm over, not by much, but it's frustrating! Does anyone have any hints or tips that can help me along with this? It's very hard to not make and eat food!

keywestsunset

I've always had trouble with portion control. so when I started in September I measured and counted everything I ate. I weigh spaghetti so I only make one serving or I count out a serving of chips. I still have to do that because a few times I've let myself have the bag, I've eaten way too much. I think I will always have to count to a certain degree, it might just be the type of person I am.

newmein2013

After six months I'm still learning portion control and struggling with not cooking too much at once. What I've learned is it's actually easier to cook smaller amounts. Then if there's leftovers, it's not a big deal to throw it away, or it might be just enough for the next day's lunch with a piece of fruit. I do make sure that ALL my meals are at the kitchen table. All snacks are counted prior to sitting to eat and I have a glass of water with everything that goes in my mouth. I also try to stick to the rule of making sure I have a protein and fruit/veg with every carb. Another thing i've noticed is that I'm getting more excited about finding new recipes for variety and because I don't know how they'll come out, I won't make a large amount. Good luck!

agape_45

I found that when I become hungry using 100 calorie snack packs worked very well, with lots of water. If you are going to drink you might as well face it, you are taking in needless amounts of a calorie packed drink. Tone that down and see if that helps. My biggest issue would be when I am hungry I didn't want to take the time to go cook something, after all I am hungry right now! So a calorie pack with a bottle of water allowed me to take the edge off while I was able to make something. If I finished the bottle of water before the meal was made, I was usually too full to eat all of my meal.

DO NOT EAT if you are not hungry.........Too many people eat because they are bored. If you are bored enough to eat then you are bored enough to go do something!

My best to you
Agape_45

lissrn

I am still learning...I think it is never ending!!

aSunflower

I purchased some ramekins bowls in 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup sizes. It lets me easily measure out snacks of carbs like cereal or fruit. I found I have gotten pretty good at eyeballing a cup of veggies, but I still have to weigh and measure all my other food. It is too easy for me to over eat stuff like cheese and meat. I found using plastic cutting boards on the scale helps as i can just throw them in the dishwasher.