Portion Sizes for Dieting
Posted on 14. Dec, 2009 by dietman in Balanced Diet
How to lose weight by eating the right amount of food. Today we discover how portion sizes work and how they help you lose the unwanted pounds of fat.
The key to losing weight is to eat right, and eating right requires one to limit and reduce the portion sizes during meal times. There are numerous guides instructing people that its better to eat less more times a day then eat a lot during the sitting. While this is true, there is also a school of thought that suggests that eating three – four times a day is plenty and has the same affect as eating 6 times a day with small portions.
Why is eating three times a day better? Well first of all it allows the body to regain all of the depleted energy in one sitting and process it efficiently. Having a nice moderately portioned meal allows the body to consume it in a way that doesn’t force it to store excess of food as fat for later use. It allows your stomach to digest all of it and minimize the fat storage. Eating small portions 5-6 times a day effectively convinces your body that you are on the endge of starvation by constantly providing less energy that your body requires. As a result any excess fat that is consumed can be potentially stored for long term in your stomach or butt, leading to weight gain, rather then weight loss.
Since eating 3-4 times a day is most efficient, and since we have been following this pattern for thousands of years now, we must therefore regulate the portion sizes that are being served and consumed by us.
How much food should you actually eat per meal? The key to figuring this out is very simple. All of us are different and we all require a unique approach to losing weight, so it is in our hands to decide how big the portion should be. In order to help you decide, we have come up with one simple rule:
Rule: Eat until you begin to feel full, then stop. For each meal of the day.
If you apply this rule all the time, your stomach will begin to shrink in matter of weeks, and you will begin to eat less food, effectively reducing your portion sizes. Now, don’t worry, once you start losing weight your body will know how much food it needs, so just listen to it, and never eat more than your body requires.
If you just beginning to lose weight learn the approximate portion size by following the rule and then eat a bit less, this will help you stomach adjust to the reduced portion size effectively shrinking it.
Once you have decided on your portion size remember that next step is to begin exercise, losing the accumulated fat will only happen if you burn it all off. So don’t be afraid to get on that treadmill and give it all you’ve got.