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Ways to control food portions.

Food portions are important when attempting to manage your weight. If you don't know how much you are eating of each food, you'll have no way of knowing when to stop eating in order to lose weight or in order to prevent weight gain.

Here are some ways to control food portions:

1. Buy a good scale, measuring cups, and measuring spoons. Begin to weigh and measure everything you eat and drink when you are at home. Write down exactly the amount you are eating of each food you eat. You are learning a skill here. Eventually, if you weigh and measure for long enough, you'll be able to look at a portion of food and estimate how much it weighs or the volume (in cups or tablespoons, etc.) of the food. Convert the measurement into calories. This will be the basis for keeping food portions and you eating under control.

2. When you are not at home, here are some guidelines for estimating food portions. Generally, a 3-ounce piece of meat is the size of a deck of cards and a cup of anything is equal to a fist. If you don't have your scale or measuring cups with you, estimate portion sizes this way.

3. Decide how many portions of each type of food you will allow yourself. For example, how many cups of vegetables will you eat per day? How many ounces of protein will you eat per day? How many ounces for fruit or fruit juices will you eat or drink? How many ounces of bread will you allow each day? Do some research or ask your doctor how to plan out your eating in terms of your portions and you'll be more apt to control food portions.

4. Put your plan in writing and begin to keep a food diary. Write down each ounce or cup or teaspoon that you consume. Continue to write until you are sure that you can keep track of this in your head without making errors. In many cases, it'll help to keep food records forever.

5. The trick to effective use of food portions is to know the estimated calorie content of a portion of each type of food in your plan. When you equate portions to calories, you'll be able to control the use of portions to meet your daily calorie allotment for the day. That will help to ensure your success.

Without counting something, you'll be in the dark about where you are with your weight management program. Essentially, losing weight or maintaining a weight loss boils down to numbers. The most recent research shows that weight loss can be attributed to taking in fewer calories than you use. In order to know how many calories you take in, it's necessary to keep track of portions and control them.

Learn more about this author, Lou Belcher.
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