Coming to Terms with Eating Smaller Portions?

You do not need to limit your carbs to lose weight. Eating food with a lower GI can help with the hunger, but the weight loss is done with the total calories.

If you like to eat bigger portions, you can try cutting down (or cutting completely) snacks and save your calories for meal only. Low calories vegetables are also great if you like big portions. You can fill a good part of your plate with that.

Okay, firstly, cutting carbs is not important to weight loss. Cutting calories is. You can still have carbs, but you need to watch portion sizes.

To ensure that you're not eating too little, don't set too lofty a goal for yourself. Choose to lose 1 pound a week instead of two.

To ensure that you're on the path to success, buy a kitchen scale and weigh all solid foods. Choose accurate data base entries and log them into your diary here. You can verify your choices through the USDA web site or through nutritiondata.self.com. Meausure out all liquids you consume and log those.

To be happier and sated with less food, SLOW DOWN. Concentrate on taking smaller bites. Chew each bite thoroughly, emptying your mouth completely before taking the next bite. The longer it takes you to eat, it will give your body a chance to recognize natural satiety signals, and you will be satisfied with less food.

Good luck!

You don't need to give up anything. You're still going to eat and love food, just not to the point of excess. All things in moderation.

I still eat EVERYTHING I ate previous to losing weight. I just eat less of it and keep it within my calorie goal. And yes, move more.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

I still celebrate occasions and such with food...nobody got fat because they celebrated an occasion...people get fat when people eat like everyday is an occasion.

^^^ this!

Plan and then plan some more. Today in the middle of the day I had a 10 oz frozen custard peanut butter sundae. I went mall walking for an hour after work and I ate low calorie high nutrition breakfast and lunch. My husband's making homemade pizza with very low sodium, super thin crust, a little bit of cheese and TONS of vegetables on top. I'll even have a beer. A beer. Not the 3-4 beers I might want.

As far as "grandma's muffins"-I've learned to immediately freeze extra portions of such food gifts. The don't go to waste and I'm not tempted by them sitting on the counter with my brain saying "Don't let them go stale".

rabbitjb wrote: »

Where you used to have a bigger piece of meat or more chips, put vegetables

Where you used to have a full slice of cake, cut it in half and add some berries

Change up the proportions of the food you eat and you don't need to cut volume that much if you don't want to

Was coming here to say just this. It's called 'volume eating', where you swap some of the fat/carb food for non-starchy vegetables or fruit. This has lots of benefits - the water and fibre fill you up, you get all those vitamins, and it has fewer calories.

In my case it also seems to have had the effect of making it unpleasant to eat large portions of fatty carby food. I ate too much a couple of times - amounts that were normal for me before - and felt SO awful afterwards that it's pretty much put me off doing it again. This has taken about three months.

Make sure you're also getting enough fat, and plenty of protein - you'll need smaller portions of those to fill you up.

It can get easier. As a person who used to eat a pint of ice cream (AFTER an entire deep pan pizza), I tried an experiment last night. Instead of weighing out my ice cream, I weighed the whole tub. Then I ate from the tub with a spoon, the old fashioned way, and stopped when I'd had enough. (I know! Seemed hard to imagine just a few months ago!) Weighed the tub again, and it turned out I'd had two scoops worth. Which is a normal portion, right?

Believe me, I was wondering exactly the same as you just a few weeks ago, and posted a question about switching from volume eating to smaller portions. But the adjustment seems to be coming mostly on its own.

You don't have to waste food to eat less. I cook all our meals and lunch is usually leftovers. Learning how to freeze dough or cookies muffins etc helps too. I love always having leftovers because it means I cook less and my grocery bill goes down. What's not to like?

I'm just over 6 weeks in and it DOES get easier. When going out or doing something out of the ordinary, I budget my calories to have whatever treat I want.

One thing, though, last night I was going out to dinner with my DH and some friends. I did budget my calories through the day for this large meal that before I could eat with no problem. But last night, I was stuffed. STUFFED, on the portion of food that would have been no big deal six weeks ago. I kept eating because I wanted it and I had budgeted for it. And I felt like crap all night, even though I didn't go over my calories for the day.

So even though I've got the calorie counting down very well, I still have lessons to learn about my relationship with food and about listening to my body. I need to recognize when I'm comfortably full and to STOP EATING. A little really does go a long way.

I just realised, looking through my diary, that what also might have helped me is that I graze. I tend to eat small meals, but lots of snacks.

This is a tactic to stop me over eating, and, because I feel like I'm always eating, I don't feel like I'm dieting, so I tend not to fall off the wagon. But maybe grazing on small amounts of food has shrunk my stomach?

If I eat a decent sized meal (like tonight's half a thin crust pizza, salad, big bowl of strawberries topped with quark) I can definitely tell when I'm full now, whereas before I had no idea what that felt like.

I eat EVERYTHING but I eat much less. At home I eat my meals on a salad plate instead of filling a dinner plate or cup, instead of a bowl. I weigh EVERTHING including the 4 Skittles I snuck last night. Then log, log, log. I try to drink a whole cup/tumbler of water before I eat. If I am out eating I order the "Senior" menu (I KNOW I'm old!), or request a half order or choose a Kid Menu. Of course, this is all within my calories goal and I never go in for "seconds" at home or at the buffet. It took a while to condition my head but these little things have helped. Good luck!

I am trying to learn to eat like a naturally thin person. If you talk to people who don't have to watch their weight you will notice that they eat for fuel the majority of the time and they stop when they feel satisfied. When they do have a yummy treat its usually enough to get the taste and nothing more.

My husband is naturally slim. He eats really slowly and he always leaves something on his plate, sometimes just a mouthful or two. It is a totally alien concept to me that you can feel full and just stop eating! It's a skill I am trying to learn. He does eat sweet treats (lots of ice cream etc) but he will only have 1 scoop per serving whereas a portion to me is 3 scoops! If he had his way he would eat nothing but meat. He doesn't particularly like pasta, rice, bread or potatoes and only eats veg because I make him! A good snack for him is cold meat. By copying some of his habits I am learning to listen to my body and stop eating when I've had enough. If I leave some then there's always something left if I get hungry later.

I also remind myself that once the food is bought it makes no difference whether I eat it or it goes in the bin - the money has been spent so it's not a waste of money to throw out leftovers. I would of spent the same amount of money whether I ate it or threw it away. (of course I try to re-use it)

Just keep it simple ,don't develop unhealthy obsession with food and you will do fine. When I was eating in smaller portions more often I developed such obsession, but continued anyway the vicious cycle thinking that 'I was getting too soft, lack of motivation' and all sort of things. Eating in smaller portions > overeating > getting frustrated > starting all over again. After awhile I found the 'LeanGains' protocol of eating developed by Martin Berkhan. After 2 years of unhealthy relationship with food ... Learn from my mistakes and don't get caught in the obsessive circle