Buying a smaller plate / kids plate for smaller portions!

jadejo788
jadejo788 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Going to buy a smaller plate or kids plate and put my dinner on this to make it a smaller portion! Do you think I should eat what I normally eat though? X and is this a good idea will it help a lot? X ;)

Replies

  • Habiteer
    Habiteer Posts: 190 Member
    edited October 2016
    I heard it helps - it might especially help if you're stuck in the "breakfast, lunch, dinner" mentality where you think you have to eat at least 3 balanced meals a day. Psychologically, if you just finish everything on your plate you may feel fuller with little regard to whether it was a large plate or a small plate.

    You would still benefit from planning what you eat though... so I don't know what you normally eat, but if you stack 3 whoppers on a small kiddie plate then you aren't doing yourself any good :D

    edit: Probably the best alternative is to just calculate your TDEE and track everything you eat. I see best results that way, so plate size would be a secondary bonus perhaps...
  • jo_nz
    jo_nz Posts: 548 Member
    It can help with serving a smaller portion so you don't fill a big plate and then overeat to finish the food.
    Eating off a large plate is okay if you still serve appropriate portions (or a measured/weighed serving). Although personally I have strict maximum sizes when buying plates - some don't fit in standard dishwashers!
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    It's been shown to help. Using smaller bowls for my rice helped a lot. Our daily use plates are already the 8 inch kind so I don't see the point of going smaller. I have noticed if you go too small it has the opposite effect. If I use the 1 cup rice bowls I feel like I haven't eaten enough. 1 cup of rice looks more plentiful in a 2 cup bowl because it spreads around and fluffs, and looks tiny in a 3 cup bowl. No harm in experimenting. Try kid sized paper or plastic plates first to see if it makes a difference to you before committing to buy any quality plates.
  • KateTii
    KateTii Posts: 886 Member
    The smaller plate idea doesn't work for me unfortunately. I like high-calorie food and all a little plate ends up doing for me is adding less (bulky) vegetables and more calorie-dense other stuff. All you can eat buffets have tiny plates but I can easily fill them with way too much.

    Basically, a small or portioned plate can help, but only so much. I prefer learning what a portion looks like calorie-wise so it doesn't matter what plate it's on :)
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    For me it's a much better option to use the normal plates and fill half of them with veggies.
  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
    It helped me. :) Hubby treated me to beautiful pieces of hand thrown pottery.
  • _sacar
    _sacar Posts: 80 Member
    I kinda like doing that. I don't buy kids' plates, but most stores have "snack" size plates for a full dinner service, and I have a handful of those that I find myself using a lot.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    Our dinner plates are huge! We normally eat dinner off the salad plates (still 9" diameter)--portions seem larger because there is less white space around the food. I still make a point of having half (or more) of my plate as veggies, quarter (or less) starch, quarter protein...
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    I have smaller plates. I don't use it to determine portion size (use a food scale) but it is nicer looking not to put small portions on a big plate. It looks less sad.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Will the plates be blue? I heard that eating on blue plates helps too.. I just heard that, not saying it works..
  • CoachJen71
    CoachJen71 Posts: 1,200 Member
    edited October 2016
    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    Will the plates be blue? I heard that eating on blue plates helps too.. I just heard that, not saying it works..

    Mine are, just because I think they are pretty. I also have some lavender and earth tone pieces. Hubby just found some garnet ones he loves.

  • RhapsodyWinters
    RhapsodyWinters Posts: 128 Member
    I just use my small salad plates (You know how you buy like a 40 count of dishes, you have the big plate, then you have the smaller plate. I believe that smaller plate is called a salad plate) for dinner. It does help, psychologically. Normal portions on a small plate make it seem like you're not losing out. If you have those normal portions on a big plate, then..well it seems like you have so little food to eat.
  • Clawsal
    Clawsal Posts: 255 Member
    I actually use a bigger plate now!
    1. Salad and greens and veggies take a lot of space.
    2. I don't do seconds, so my whole meal has to fit in my plate!
  • LynnBBQ72
    LynnBBQ72 Posts: 151 Member
    I'm 44 years old. My child is 28 and does not live with me, and hasn't for many years. But I have a rather nice collection of Disney, Winnie the Pooh, Pokey Little Puppy, and various cartoon character dinner plates. They are child sized, maybe 8 or 9 inches, and all acquired in the last couple of years. That is what I use for my meals at home, and it totally works for me. I absolutely eat smaller portions because of the plate size.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    You might consider replacing cereal bowls (I did).

    I do use dinner plates, but the biggest serving (of anything) is always veggies.....like @Clawsal
  • AlabasterVerve
    AlabasterVerve Posts: 3,171 Member
    If I served food family style I think smaller dinner plates would be a good idea.

    That's not how I eat though. The ingredients are weighed and the servings determined before the meal is even cooked so the plate size doesn't determine how much I eat. I pick an appropriate size dish for whatever I'm serving.

    In the last few years since measuring what I eat I have bought large serving bowls we use for vegetable heavy meals that make huge portions and I've also bought tiny monkey dishes so small 1 or 2 ounce portions of some foods don't look ridiculous.
  • Karen_can_do_this
    Karen_can_do_this Posts: 1,150 Member
    I have started eating off an entree plate. It's 18cm. It's definitely helping me with smaller portion size.
  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    I use a side plate - the ones you put your dinner roll on if you're being fancy. It helps me to be satisfied with a smaller portion. My eyes are bigger than my stomach.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I use a lunch plate rather than a dinner plate for most meals. A plate with a wide rim & pattern will fill up & look better than a plain plate with narrow rim. But the key is to put less food on the plate to begin with.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    My husband thought I was a little goofy when I wanted to register for the salad plates and rice bowls instead of the dinner plates and cereal bowls. We wound up registering for both, but use the salad plates almost exclusively and I mostly use the rice bowls for cereal, yogurt, etc. (he still uses cereal bowls for those). And I size down even smaller for ice cream; I use a small ramekin.

    Plates, wine glasses, etc. have gotten bigger and bigger over the decades and there's really no need. And if we need more space for salad or similar, we just have a bowl of salad on the side.

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