What's your average serving size?

amusedmonkey
amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
edited February 20 in Food and Nutrition
Due to my previous thread going to a weird place (made me chuckle but did not satisfy my curiosity) I'm reposting and rephrasing here!

I'm not talking about serving sizes listed on boxes. I'm talking about YOUR serving size, before the diet, before paying attention, just the customary size perceived as average in your house. How does an average vegetable or fruit look? Were there things on MFP database where the size surprised you?

An average bowl of rice was about 2 cups big for me for example.

An average head of cabbage has to be at least twice the size of your head to be considered a "head of cabbage". Looking for a recipe with cabbage the other day, what I considered average was at least 4 times bigger than the one shown in the picture and called average!

An american friend gave me a cookie, it was HUGE! What I consider an average cookie is 1.5-2 inches in diameter.
and... never mind. No cucumbers to be mentioned here!

What were some of the things that surprised you?

Replies

  • Gramps251
    Gramps251 Posts: 738 Member
    I keep my serving sizes small. About 3 to 4oz. lean protien and about 70g of green veggies. If I'm eating soups, stews.....I'll eat about a cup. I've found I don't have to worry too much about being spot on with my calories as long as I keep the portions small. I usually eat small portions throughout the day so I don't get hungery and overeat. I also put my large dinner plates on a top shelf and bought a bunch of small salad plates. If it fits on the plate, I eat it.

    Before I made these changes I was filling a large plate and eating a lot more food than I needed.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    I wasn't too far off. I knew what a serving size was, I just ate more than one serving, lol! Except pasta, yeah, I had no idea how small a serving is. Maybe rice too. But I'm French, so we never had crazy serving sizes there.
  • FitMe758
    FitMe758 Posts: 177 Member
    I *was* eating about triple the size of what a serving of anything should be. I was totally delusional about serving size and had no portion control.
  • leggup
    leggup Posts: 2,942 Member
    My serving sizes have pretty much matched up for most things. I have always been very good at cutting/pouring exactly serving size. I know exactly what 4 oz of cheese looks like. The problem that got me to where I am is that I would have 2 servings, knowing full well what I was doing, plus 2-3 glasses of wine. Serving sizes for beer also surprised me.

    I also think that serving sizes for vegetables and fruits should be changed. I could never eat just 1 serving of carrots or (sorry) cucumber. My bag of baby carrots says the serving size is 85 grams and mini cucumbers are 100 grams. I rarely eat under 120 grams of baby carrots or 180 grams of mini cucumbers.
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