Portion Sizes

hoal0604
hoal0604 Posts: 7
in Food and Nutrition
How do you know whats a good portion size for things? I'm trying to track what I eat, but I never know what's too much and what's too little

Replies

  • junipearl
    junipearl Posts: 326 Member
    Plan out your days or at least your meals ahead of time.

    I know that each of my meals should be around 300-400 cals, so I log all of the ingredients and then adjust as necessary.

    For example, we had salmon last night. The filets were HUGE (10 oz each). Atlantic salmon is about 290cals per 5 oz - so I cut my filet in half and saved the other half for lunch today! =)
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    A 'portion size' is going to very based on how many calories you have / want to use. If you don't have a food scale it would be a good investment.
  • jilliew
    jilliew Posts: 255 Member
    I'm in Canada so maybe the standards differ here, but this is what I use (furthermore, I can't remember where I actually got this info - maybe from the friendly folks at Herbalife back in my Herbalife days...)

    Fruit or veggies - 1 cup (unless it's an apple or banana or something, then one fruit)
    Chicken - 3 oz
    Fish - oz

    Edit: that doesn't mean you should ONLY eat 1 cup of veggies or 3 oz of chicken. It's just a guide so you can better plan out your meal. My dinner for instance usually consists of 2-4 servings of veggies, 2 servings of meat, and maybe a serving of grain.

    For everything else I use the serving size printed on the package. Apparently it's better to weigh rather than measure (I am working on getting a digital scale to put this theory into action myself).
  • florymonde
    florymonde Posts: 261 Member
    Plan on some quality time with your measuring cups, spoons and kitchen scale!

    After measuring a few times, most people can start to eyeball serving sizes, but it doesn't hurt to go back to the measured servings now and again to make sure you're not drifting toward large portion sizes.
  • baxgilter
    baxgilter Posts: 246 Member
    Scale, measuring cups and spoons, look at the nutrition information on everything you eat and measure out accordingly. Ive done this for over a year. Some things I can eyeball now, others I always need a scale.
  • Brittany3914
    Brittany3914 Posts: 258 Member
    Definitely what others have said: use measuring spoons/cups/scales at first. After a while, you'll get a hang of it. I don't have a scale, but when I buy chicken from the meat counter, for example, the ounces is usually listed, so I'll know if I'm eating 5 ounces or half a pound. I think meat and pasta are the hardest things to calculate.
  • EmmalineHarris
    EmmalineHarris Posts: 22
    WebMD used to have a really good visual tutorial about portion sizes--and I think they still do. If the package of food tells what a serving size is I go by that, but for things like meat I eyeball it because I don't have a food scale, which is where the tutorial comes in handy. For instance, a lot of recommendations for meat portions are similar in size to a deck of cards...
  • quirkytizzy
    quirkytizzy Posts: 4,052 Member
    I found this online and it's really helpful! (How to use your hands to eyeball serving sizes)

    http://fatfightertv.com/2009/07/portion-sizes-guide-hand/

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