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Weight Loss and the Mastery of Portion Control
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Serving as a catalyst to help others get fit and lose weight is Carole s specialty. Having transformed her own life, Carole has a personal connection to this topic. After chronicling her 62-pound weight loss in a weekly…
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Weight Loss and the Mastery of Portion Control
If you're eating wholesome food but unable to lose weight, you may be overestimating the calories you are burning, or underestimating the amount of food you are eating. You wouldn't be alone since both are common mistakes.
At one end of the spectrum is the difficulty of measuring the calories expended. For example, exercise machines can overestimate calories burned during exercise by as much as 31 percent. We can also overestimate the level of difficulty of our workout. Or maybe we are math challenged and can't follow the algebraic formulas involving our height, weight and BMI, to arrive at an accurate answer about expended calories.
At the other end of the spectrum are mistakes we make in calculating the calories we consume. For instance, one survey showed that when eating out, customers significantly underestimated the levels of calories, fat and saturated fat in less-healthful restaurant items. "Actual fat and saturated fat levels were twice consumers’ estimates and calories approached 2 times more than what consumers expected."
Are individuals any better at estimating calories in the portions they eat when eating healthful items? No. Researchers found that when people think they are eating healthy, they eat more. As a result, they consume twice as many calories as they believe they did.
We also confuse portions with servings. For instance, if I eat a large bowl of cereal for breakfast, I may be unaware that I've eaten two servings of cereal. When you add the common problem of overeating through snacking or unintentional eating (such as sampling food while cooking,) you can see how many snakes are in the Medusa head of portion control.
Here are five helpful strategies to help your stay in control of the amount of food you eat:
- Carole Carson
At one end of the spectrum is the difficulty of measuring the calories expended. For example, exercise machines can overestimate calories burned during exercise by as much as 31 percent. We can also overestimate the level of difficulty of our workout. Or maybe we are math challenged and can't follow the algebraic formulas involving our height, weight and BMI, to arrive at an accurate answer about expended calories.
At the other end of the spectrum are mistakes we make in calculating the calories we consume. For instance, one survey showed that when eating out, customers significantly underestimated the levels of calories, fat and saturated fat in less-healthful restaurant items. "Actual fat and saturated fat levels were twice consumers’ estimates and calories approached 2 times more than what consumers expected."
Are individuals any better at estimating calories in the portions they eat when eating healthful items? No. Researchers found that when people think they are eating healthy, they eat more. As a result, they consume twice as many calories as they believe they did.
We also confuse portions with servings. For instance, if I eat a large bowl of cereal for breakfast, I may be unaware that I've eaten two servings of cereal. When you add the common problem of overeating through snacking or unintentional eating (such as sampling food while cooking,) you can see how many snakes are in the Medusa head of portion control.
Here are five helpful strategies to help your stay in control of the amount of food you eat:
1. Educate yourself. Go to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Portion Distortion website to see how portions have expanded in 20 years. A picture is worth a thousand words.Developing mastery of portion control, like learning to ride a bike, requires patience and persistence. If you fall down while learning this skill (and you will fall from time to time,) pick yourself up and begin anew. As author, inventor, politician and diplomat Benjamin Franklin said, "Energy and persistence conquer all things."
2. Whether eating out or at home, choose healthy, filling foods. Adopt a simple, inviolable rule: No second helpings.
3. Savor your meals without distraction and eat from a small plate. Chew each bite 35 to 40 times.
4. Drink healthy beverages. For example, drink water instead of sugared juice or have a sugar-free tea in place of a cola.
5. To address cravings between meals, eat satisfying fruit such as apples, grapefruit and oranges.
- Carole Carson
RELATED POSTS
lol. I had a thing in my family that you eat the whole thing, and nothing less than the whole thing, unless, my dad ate the rest of what you didn't want. lol.. Well, it sure has been different now since this surgery that i will feel full like tonight, and
Posted on 11/08/11 12:20:18 am
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For the record I am losing weight, but the difference between maintenance and weight loss diet for me is so slight as to be almost negligible.