THIS is what a serving of pasta looks like...
Options
Replies
-
I eat pasta and rice always flooded in a sea of veggies. Typically 70g of pasta or 30g of basmati rice (man here).
I'd be depressed to eat bare pasta like your pic (unless with a lot of 'invisible' butter
) .
I actually added a hearty meat marinara sauce to it.
I just looked up Olive Garden nutrional info and I'm surprised they have info about the serving size of their salads, salad dressings, and soup, but not pasta. Calories and nutrional info are there for pasta, just not the size of the portions.0 -
pierinifitness wrote: »My pasta serving just eaten - 4.5 servings sprinkled with balsamic vinegar - about 995 calories. Good fuel after an almost 19 hour fast and workout. Ate other stuff too and will eat again in about 3 hours.
Fuel + full = food
If I served this to my family in Italy--they would shoot me.15 -
Been to Italy 5 times, know good pasta and can make a decent sauce myself.
To all who commented, thanks for letting me know what you like and don’t like. Yesterday was a big exercise day for me. My “bland dish” was just one of several things I ate in a slightly less than 6 hour feeding window.
Took a late afternoon 30 minute run a couple hours later and had a nice run so my pasta dish was good fuel. My feeding day ended with macros fairly close to MFP’s default. I don’t pay attention to macros for meal planning but only as an afterthought.
Glad my photo contributed to good discussion. Let me know if you want the recipe - hahahaha15 -
Interestingly, to me "paying attention to macros for meal planning" was never necessary, because what I grew up with as my understanding of what a good meal involved: some source of protein, a lot of veg (and potatoes and peas and corn didn't count for this), and then some starchy side, with fat used as accent (butter or cheese or olive oil either for cooking or in a sauce or as dressing) = balanced meal seemed to result in reasonable macros. I know lots of people like to claim the average American diet is super carb heavy, but not really for us (or according to the actual stats).
When losing weight what made sense for me -- as Ann and I were talking about upthread -- was to cut back somewhat in the size of my starchy carb side and in the amount of added fat (although I'm more likely to choose to include a small portion of added nuts or seeds, whereas before I'd be more likely to snack on those). So those changes seemed sensible, natural ones FOR ME (not saying for others), because I intuitively knew that for me the protein and veg were the most filling part of the meal, and I thought both of them were more important for nutrition overall. (I also eliminated between meal eating, which was mostly mindless and not that enjoyable for me, although with plenty of exercise cals I often had a post dinner dessert.) With those changes, Ann found that regular pasta wasn't worth it (most of the time) for her, whereas I found that a 2 oz serving when I had it was perfect and filling. Others may find that they want larger portions and fewer cals from other things that day. I think a truly giant portion of pasta would likely throw off my nutritional goals (which is not the same as macros) on a particular day, but if that's someone's real joy, then nothing wrong with fitting that into a day. I happen to think most likely find pasta most enjoyable when it's served with those foods that also add to its nutrition. (This is also what I've seen in Italy, consistent with what snowflake says, although she's an expert on that, not me!)6 -
Interestingly, to me "paying attention to macros for meal planning" was never necessary, because what I grew up with as my understanding of what a good meal involved: some source of protein, a lot of veg (and potatoes and peas and corn didn't count for this), and then some starchy side, with fat used as accent (butter or cheese or olive oil either for cooking or in a sauce or as dressing) = balanced meal seemed to result in reasonable macros. I know lots of people like to claim the average American diet is super carb heavy, but not really for us (or according to the actual stats).
When losing weight what made sense for me -- as Ann and I were talking about upthread -- was to cut back somewhat in the size of my starchy carb side and in the amount of added fat (although I'm more likely to choose to include a small portion of added nuts or seeds, whereas before I'd be more likely to snack on those). So those changes seemed sensible, natural ones FOR ME (not saying for others), because I intuitively knew that for me the protein and veg were the most filling part of the meal, and I thought both of them were more important for nutrition overall. (I also eliminated between meal eating, which was mostly mindless and not that enjoyable for me, although with plenty of exercise cals I often had a post dinner dessert.) With those changes, Ann found that regular pasta wasn't worth it (most of the time) for her, whereas I found that a 2 oz serving when I had it was perfect and filling. Others may find that they want larger portions and fewer cals from other things that day. I think a truly giant portion of pasta would likely throw off my nutritional goals (which is not the same as macros) on a particular day, but if that's someone's real joy, then nothing wrong with fitting that into a day. I happen to think most likely find pasta most enjoyable when it's served with those foods that also add to its nutrition. (This is also what I've seen in Italy, consistent with what snowflake says, although she's an expert on that, not me!)
I agree completely with what you wrote. I think it's sad that people don't realize how versatile pasta can be. You can add anything to it--beans, mushrooms, vegetables of all types, meats, nuts, seafoods, fish, olives, and of course, my husband's all time favorite--butter and parmigiano (Reggiano), called "pasta al burro". It's endless and fun to cook. When the family sits down to a meal and they're yakking up a storm and then---SILENCE--as they're all eating their pasta.2 -
snowflake954 wrote: »pierinifitness wrote: »My pasta serving just eaten - 4.5 servings sprinkled with balsamic vinegar - about 995 calories. Good fuel after an almost 19 hour fast and workout. Ate other stuff too and will eat again in about 3 hours.
Fuel + full = food
If I served this to my family in Italy--they would shoot me.
Ciao, perche? Why? All my husbands family is in Roma- this is the base for caprese salad no? Pasta and balsamic? (Add in bufala mozz, etc)
On our boxes it says 85 grams is the recommended portions.. but who is counting?
0 -
pierinifitness wrote: »Been to Italy 5 times, know good pasta and can make a decent sauce myself.
To all who commented, thanks for letting me know what you like and don’t like. Yesterday was a big exercise day for me. My “bland dish” was just one of several things I ate in a slightly less than 6 hour feeding window.
Took a late afternoon 30 minute run a couple hours later and had a nice run so my pasta dish was good fuel. My feeding day ended with macros fairly close to MFP’s default. I don’t pay attention to macros for meal planning but only as an afterthought.
Glad my photo contributed to good discussion. Let me know if you want the recipe - hahahaha
@pierinifitness We live half the year in Italia - if you like it - buon appetito!
(In Modena, Italy- one of the best balsamic pasta dishes ever! Fettuccini & balsamic with porcini and shaved cheese. Also popular chilled with penne and mozzarella, basil and tomatoes. )
1 -
Safari_Gal wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »pierinifitness wrote: »My pasta serving just eaten - 4.5 servings sprinkled with balsamic vinegar - about 995 calories. Good fuel after an almost 19 hour fast and workout. Ate other stuff too and will eat again in about 3 hours.
Fuel + full = food
If I served this to my family in Italy--they would shoot me.
Ciao, perche? Why? All my husbands family is in Roma- this is the base for caprese salad no? Pasta and balsamic? (Add in bufala mozz, etc)
On our boxes it says 85 grams is the recommended portions.. but who is counting?
He's just eating pasta and balsamic vinegar. You're right, it can be a base, and then you add something else. I've never met an Italian that would eat the pasta in his photo. If you know someone, please let me know.4 -
snowflake954 wrote: »Safari_Gal wrote: »snowflake954 wrote: »pierinifitness wrote: »My pasta serving just eaten - 4.5 servings sprinkled with balsamic vinegar - about 995 calories. Good fuel after an almost 19 hour fast and workout. Ate other stuff too and will eat again in about 3 hours.
Fuel + full = food
If I served this to my family in Italy--they would shoot me.
Ciao, perche? Why? All my husbands family is in Roma- this is the base for caprese salad no? Pasta and balsamic? (Add in bufala mozz, etc)
On our boxes it says 85 grams is the recommended portions.. but who is counting?
He's just eating pasta and balsamic vinegar. You're right, it can be a base, and then you add something else. I've never met an Italian that would eat the pasta in his photo. If you know someone, please let me know.
When I was a child my mum would sometimes cook spiral pasta with warmed up ketchup and a bit of salt. Nothing else. Glad she's not Italian
4 -
The same calories of potatoes or sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes are not actually potatoes) have more volume than pasta, but personally I find that if I add vegetables and protein and fat to both (as of course I do) that there's no difference in a 400-600 cal meal including those foods (or rice or many other starches). I realize this maybe is different for others, but the pasta meal with 2 oz for me is just as satisfying and filling, so (for me) I keep it in my dinner rotation and happily have it if I feel like pasta. One does not have to pick between potatoes (or other tubers, like sweet potatoes) and pasta (or rice or many other starchy sides). They can ALL be included in a healthy diet, and IMO more variety is helpful, at least as an option. I think that's what I'm responding to here. (Also, although I decreased my amount of pasta, I think my old amounts must not have been that out of whack, as the photos that keep getting used to show tiny amounts seem fine to me. My issue with pasta at home was never eating huge amounts because I wasn't full, but accidentally making too much and thinking it was more than I wanted but heck, it was there, tasty, and wouldn't save well. Potatoes, unlike pasta, surprised me with how low cal they were, but I still just don't want potatoes (or potatoes/sweet potatoes) all the time, so I'm glad there's more variety, like past, available, and it makes (for me, again) a fast and satisfying meal with lots of veg easy to include.)
Growing up in the US in the '70s and '80s (I'm old), we'd sometimes have spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad or some other veg on the side, and I think the amount of pasta was pretty similar to the oh! so small! photos shown. And they were filling. (We didn't call it pasta yet in my non Italian house back then, and I include way more veg/variety of veg in my actual sauce/toppings now. Back then it was just tomato, onion, peppers, maybe mushrooms, if memory serves, and then more veg on the side.)3 -
Yeah, I found it depressing to when I looked a what a serving of carbs was and wondered how I wouldn’t be starving hungry lol the time! But that’s because my natural tendency is to eat carbs, and not much else!
When you start your meals focused on veggies and then add protein and carbs to that it all works out. I find when I eat focused on large volumes of veggies this portion size is fine, and actually I’ll often cut the portion in half so I can have lots more veggies instead. But that’s not to say I don’t fall off the wagon and eat giant bowls of pasta, even though I know I don’t need to to be full. So many of the food choices we make are not about meeting nutritional needs.3 -
This thread reminds me of the first time I weighed out what a serving of cereal actually is. I remember looking at the pitiful amount in my bowl and thinking, "Nah, this *can't* be right!" Double-checked and yup, it was right!
The size of the bowl didn't help dispel the reality any, so from that day on, I've put my cereal in a mug, instead. Looks waaaaaay more generous.9 -
mnbvcxzlkjhgfdsa12 wrote: »Yeah, I found it depressing to when I looked a what a serving of carbs was and wondered how I wouldn’t be starving hungry lol the time! But that’s because my natural tendency is to eat carbs, and not much else!
Argh! First of all, if that's true, it's unusual. The SAD is supposedly about 50% carbs, 20% protein, and 30% fat (or a bit less protein, more fat), which is consistent with most healthy diets. Hard to imagine American diets without much fat or protein -- meat has protein and junk food has tons of fat. Like I said, plain pasta, rice, oats seems boring to me.When you start your meals focused on veggies and then add protein and carbs to that it all works out.
Yes! I am so in favor of starting a meal based on veg (what I grew up with!). Btw, veg are carbs!I find when I eat focused on large volumes of veggies this portion size is fine, and actually I’ll often cut the portion in half so I can have lots more veggies instead. But that’s not to say I don’t fall off the wagon and eat giant bowls of pasta, even though I know I don’t need to to be full. So many of the food choices we make are not about meeting nutritional needs.
Why eat giant bowls of pasta? I get falling off plan, but I guess plain pasta (no fat, no protein) just doesn't seem appealing to me, so people claiming they are eating huge amounts of cals in plain pasta seems confusing.
More importantly, it might be a personal issue (I have many of my own), but it doesn't seem to be the main issue with the SAD.1 -
As far as eating plain bowls of pasta is concerned, I was never a fan until AFTER I started restricting carbs due to diabetes. Then I found that restricting them made me able to smell them from a mile away! Bread, pasta, sugary foods, I can smell it. It’s not so bad now that I’ve had a couple of years to get used to it (and also my ability to tolerance higher numbers of carbs has improved with weight loss) but there was a time when I could smell if my husband ate a piece of bread in the kitchen with the doors shut! And a bite of plain pasta tasted SO GOOD to me. I had never been a big bread fan at all and craving bread so badly caught me completely off guard. Tastes definitely change based on diet.
So, if you can’t see the appeal, it’s possible the other person isn’t tasting or experiencing things in the same way as you are.7 -
Of course.
I rarely eat bread and never crave it. I almost never eat foods with added sugar (just not my preference) and never crave them. I cannot smell them with some superpower smell. I enjoy other starchy carbs and veg and fruit. I think I should be pitied for my lack of super powers!
Are we deciding that poor pierifitness has some uncontrollable pasta craving (and is too poor to have some chicken or veg with it -- see vanity's prior post)? I don't think that was his point, but if so, I agree, very sad. Chicken and veg in the US are very cheap, and we have SNAP.4 -
pierinifitness wrote: »
I’ll make one final redemption post before moving on to my expertise of fitness training chatter by sharing my Sunday meal. I generally cook myself something on Sunday after a long 60 minutes run to get what I want rather than what wife has in mind.
Baked polenta topped with olive oil sautéed diced yellow onions, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes and basil.
Smoked Apple Chardonnay Chicken Sausage 2 each diced with sautéed diced yellow onion, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes and basil, topped with a blanched frozen vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower and orange and yellow carrots.
I ate it all and it was preceded by a protein shake a couple hours earlier after a 60 minutes run. Total calories 1,359 - carbs 45% - proteins 18% - fat 37% (excludes protein shake.)
Real men know how to cook and satisfy their manly taste buds and eating volume which differ from the ladies.
Thanks all for letting me participate in this pasta discussion.
[edited by MFP Mods to remove quote]
Looks yummy @peirinfitness
1 -
pierinifitness wrote: »
I’ll make one final redemption post before moving on to my expertise of fitness training chatter by sharing my Sunday meal. I generally cook myself something on Sunday after a long 60 minutes run to get what I want rather than what wife has in mind.
Baked polenta topped with olive oil sautéed diced yellow onions, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes and basil.
Smoked Apple Chardonnay Chicken Sausage 2 each diced with sautéed diced yellow onion, cherry tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes and basil, topped with a blanched frozen vegetable medley of broccoli, cauliflower and orange and yellow carrots.
I ate it all and it was preceded by a protein shake a couple hours earlier after a 60 minutes run. Total calories 1,359 - carbs 45% - proteins 18% - fat 37% (excludes protein shake.)
Real men know how to cook and satisfy their manly taste buds and eating volume which differ from the ladies.
Thanks all for letting me participate in this pasta discussion.
[edited by MFP Mods to remove quote]
Curious--what did your wife have in mind?2
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 911 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions