If you are trying to lose body fat; think you are following a pretty
healthy diet and exercise regularly but just can’t seem to reach your
goals, it is highly likely that the problem is portion size. Over the
last 20 years portion sizes have dramatically increased in almost all
food outlets from restaurants to fast food and takeaway joints. This
means that every time you eat out you are probably getting far more
than you need. And if you’ve paid for it you’re going to eat it! This
might be value for money but it’s certainly not value for health. This
becomes an even greater problem, for once you get accustomed to eating
larger portions you will always need that much to be satisfied. So you
start to eat more at home as well and so the cycle continues.
A
young child will only eat when they are hungry and stop eating when
they are satisfied. Adults and sadly even many children as young as
five years-old, have lost this ability. The constant availability of
food; the wide variety of different, appetising choices and our
relatively low levels of activity all make it difficult for us to eat
only what we need. We are taught as children to finish what is on our
plate and not to waste food. This sounds like a good policy but
frequently just leads us to overeat.
To break this cycle we need
to learn to listen to our bodies which may well mean getting accustomed
to a smaller portion. Apply some of the behavioural techniques below to
start listening once more to physiological cues for food intake, rather
than all the other visual and psychological cues around us. And if you
do overeat one day, simply cut back the next.
Behavioural Techniques
Eat slowly, putting your cutlery down between mouthfuls so that you recognise when you feel full
Avoid having a buffet of food on the table as this encourages you to keep picking
Serve your food onto a plate and put any remaining food away in the fridge or freezer
The one exception to this is veggies, either as a large salad or simply
steamed or stir-fried. Put these on the table to encourage everyone to
fill up on these
Wait at least 10 minutes before going back for
seconds – in all likelihood the desire will pass as you give your brain
time to receive satiety signals
In a restaurant decide how much you should be eating as soon as your meal arrives and leave the rest
Order entrée sized dishes where you can and order extra salad or veggies to fill you up
Buy a measuring cup set and physically measure out foods such as pasta,
rice and breakfast cereal to give you a visual reminder of how much you
need. Often you are having a much larger portion than you realise
Serve food on smaller plates - the meal looks larger and you tend to eat less