A simple tip to help with eating less than you need to

ninerbuff
ninerbuff Posts: 48,488 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Buy 9" plates. The majority of my meals are eaten off 9" plates. The visualization of a full plate being emptied somehow leaves me satisfied. And the old saying of "clean you plate" gets fulfilled too. And because it's smaller than the standard 13" plates out there, you're obviously going to eat less.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Replies

  • Colt1835
    Colt1835 Posts: 447 Member
    I often eat my meals on 6" plates.
  • afatpersonwholikesfood
    afatpersonwholikesfood Posts: 577 Member
    I like to use the right size container or plate for my food as well.
  • capaul42
    capaul42 Posts: 1,390 Member
    RobD520 wrote: »
    I fill plates with less calorie dense foods which accomplishes a similar objective.

    Same. Usually half my plate is either a baby spinach salad or veggies (green beans, broccoli or such).
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I think it's a great help for beginners/non-calorie counters, just like those other aids, for instance 21 day fix and the plate model, but I don't use it personally, I just weigh everything and log it and eat an appropriate amount of calories (I eat from all kinds of bowls and plates, if 8 inches it usually means I need to fill it twice to get in a proper dinner, but the 10 inches just once). Or, that's what I did when I counted calories. Now I eat the same amounts of food, weigh myself every day, and I keep a stable weight.
  • MarziPanda95
    MarziPanda95 Posts: 1,326 Member
    My friend tried to do this to help with her weight loss. She ended up just cramming the same amount of food onto a tiny plate :D
    It's a good tip for some people, but not really for me. :)
  • DeficitDuchess
    DeficitDuchess Posts: 3,099 Member
    This depends a lot upon what I am consuming. Sometimes I don't like my separate foods to touch/mix flavors, so that requires a larger plate & salad plates aren't large enough to mix the dressing, into the salad; without going over the plate. If I don't have to stir something like spaghetti sauce on my pasta & if I'm eating more than 1 item, that I don't mind touching/flavor mixing. I'll use a salad plate. If I am only consuming 1 thing, that doesn't require stirring; I'll use a cup's saucer plate. For a serving of oatmeal, I use my small wide mouthed; coffee cup. For caloric dense beverages, I'll use a shot glass & I typically use tasting forks/spoons, so that I can't stuff my face as much; so it takes me longer to eat.
  • sunnybeaches105
    sunnybeaches105 Posts: 2,831 Member
    As silly or simple as it may sound I think you're right. We've had a strange expansion of portion sizes in the US over the last 30 or so years, and the serving ware grew right along. It's not just food, the one that struck me the most is the difference between the 1960s era martini glasses and those that can be purchased today.
  • katiebean
    katiebean Posts: 110 Member
    A simple but very effective tip. We have 2 sizes of dinner plates and I've stopped using the larger, flatter ones and only use the slightly smaller ones that have a curved rim. A lot less food looks like a good generous portion on them.
  • tomteboda
    tomteboda Posts: 2,171 Member
    Yeah I'm trying to get my parents on board with this. I moved home to care for my handicapped mom, and put in a bit of weight at first, before I started counting calories. Now my mom's trying to lose weight and we've finally gotten her on board with counting as well, serving serving ware is not helping her mentally.

    I use an 8 oz child's cup, but my parents like their 16-20 oz cups. I often eat off salad plates, the folks like giant ones... The bigger the better. Where I use a small Corelle berry bowl, mom wants one that holds 4 cups. Then she gets depressed about realistic serving sizes. When worse, my dad's lousy about recording.

    Me : did ma eat while I was gone?
    Dad: I have her a bowl of pasta
    Me: how much
    Dad: not much
    Me: did you weigh it?
    Dad: the bowl wasn't full
    Me:....

    I so want the authority to ditch the large cups, bowls and plates for this reason alone.
  • bioklutz
    bioklutz Posts: 1,365 Member
    I use a small tea mug for ice cream. I typically have 2 servings and it is overflowing. It is visually pleasing :smiley:
  • ElizabethOakes2
    ElizabethOakes2 Posts: 1,038 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    Yeah. I finally broke enough of my old side-dish (or maybe cereal?) bowls to need new ones, after 20 years or so. Could not believe how hard it was to find replacement bowls that didn't make a rational serving size look like a chihuahua in the bottom of an empty Olympic swimming pool. The best ones I found (still bigger than the old ones) were labeled "dessert bowls". SMH.

    THIS! I've been looking for months for small cereal/soup bowls! Our lovely dishware set came with these bowls that are big enough to serve a entire family out of. One cup of cooked oatmeal looks like a pittance in the bottom. And we wonder why America has a hard time with overeating?
    Also, I eat most of my meals off the small salad plates. It really does make a little bit of food look like a lot more.
  • annamaple
    annamaple Posts: 12 Member
    +1

    In the same vein, I like to spread my food out so it takes up more of the surface of my plates. This comes in especially handy when I get the hot bar at the grocery store (a once in a while treat when I'm feeling lazy). If you get a lot of greens or veggies and spread them out, it doesn't seem like you have as much space for other junkier things.
  • ekat120
    ekat120 Posts: 407 Member
    I like small bowls for ice cream, granola, etc. But for plates it doesn't really work for me. A bigger plate makes me feel like I have more food. A small plate makes it feel like I'm having a snack :)

    One tip I read a while ago was that the same amount of food looks like more on a plate than in a bowl. Seems to be true. I put things I want to eat more of (e.g., salad) in bowls and things I want to eat less of (e.g., pasta) on a plate.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
    I usually eat either lunch or dinner out of a mixing bowl-ha. That's for volume eating though. I do understand this tip if you're having a steak and potatoes or a more calorie dense meal. I do this with bowls for ice cream as well.
  • melonaulait
    melonaulait Posts: 769 Member
    I often eat very high volume so I actually recently bought a bigger bowl to eat my meals out of. But during my weight loss and fitness project, I've also bought several smaller bowls to use for those more portion-controlled meals. Small bowls are especially good for snacks or if I just want a lower calorie lunch or dinner.

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