Portion or serving size is key to weight loss and maintenance.   

Weight Loss Tip 85 – Know your serving sizes

Cake

The serving size in the United States has been growing for the past 50 years.  Unfortunately, our serving sizes are influenced by all the wrong things.  Product packaging has become larger, and the number of servings in the bag has grown.  Restaurants give you 2-4 servings on a single plate.  The dimensions of our dishes have even expanded to take on the more substantial portions.  With these changes, our waists have also increased.  

It may sound simple, but it is not.  It is not as simple as “Don’t eat or drink too much and you should lose weight.” But this concept is deceiving because it is not that simple.  It’s easy to eat or drink more than you planned.  But the fact is that you need to burn more calories than you consume or eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight.  Knowing your serving sizes it the key to success and you are behind the curve if you are incorrectly estimating your portions sizes. 

You eyeball the portion size if you use the following rules:  

Charts of Hand Portion Control Guide

The bottom line: Knowing your serving sizes is integral to weight loss success.  How much you eat is as important as what you eat when it comes to weight loss and portion control is one means to control how much.