Your Portions Are Too Damn Big. This Guide Can Help.

The legendary “clean plate club” has a strong mission statement: Finish the food put in front of you, so nothing goes to waste. But what if there is road too much food in front of you, for more or less every meal, at the rate of almost 3600 calories one day?

American adults have little trouble licking their plates clean. research published in the International Journal of Obesity A few years ago, it indicates that we finish 92% of the food we eat.

Yet those plates are sinking under the weight of portion sizes that have skyrocketed in the last 50 years. Bagels, hamburgers, popcorn tubes, Thai takeout trays… it’s all bigger than it used to be. And if your stomach is trained to expect a certain amount of food (ultra-processed, calorically dense foods, mind you), it’s only natural that you’ll over-index when cooking for yourself, too.

How to regain control of your portions? This guide is a good place to start. From adopting a Confucian technique at dinner to taking a stand on the infamous cheat meals, here’s what you need to know.

hara hachi bun me

That’s Japanese for “Eat up to 80% capacity”. It is a common intonation before meals in Okinawa, one of the five on the planet “Blue Zones” (a term that describes regions with an unusually high concentration of centenarians), and not coincidentally, a place where daily caloric intake is less than 2,000.

Counting calories is a stressful exercise, one that too often backfires and encourages unhealthy eating habits, but those who follow the 80% rule don’t exactly care about labels or serving weights on digital kitchen scales . They are listening to their bodies, practicing a form of a concept that is now popularly known as “intuitive eating”.

It’s easiest to practice the 80% rule during a standard weeknight dinner list. This is a subjective concept, obviously, despite the apparent official percentage, but it’s one you can get used to by paying close attention to your stomach during a meal. Slow down, eat with friends or family (instead of in front of the TV), and once you’re almost full, give him a call. If you are Really Hungry later, fair enough, but at least give yourself a chance to eat a portion that gets you right where you need to be.

beware of restaurants

They know what they’re doing: Butter, salt, and enough food for two and a half dinners, not just one. In an age where standing out on Instagram is more important than ever, some establishments have outperformed even the conventionally oversized American portions. (Every day or two I see a food blogger pounding away at a plate of chicken and waffles that would make even Homer Simpson happy.)

Eating out can ruin any semblance of control over portion sizes, and in some ways that’s okay, like celebrating one’s birthday or during the holidays, it’s important to embrace happy eating events. Playing mental word associations with “big portion” and “fucked up” is an exercise in futility and self-defeating. Life is hard. You are allowed to seek out good food.

But remember: if you wish, you can also ask your waiter for a half portion. Consider: reviewing the menu before you go, pairing a couple of sides instead of choosing an entree, ordering before everyone else (so you can stick with your decision!), having a thoughtful snack on the house, saying yes to salad or soup (give a little runway to find out how hungry you are), or share with a partner.

eat colorful

It’s arguably the most important nutrition creed out there: If your plate always has a caramel brown hue, you’re probably neglecting some food groups and leaning too heavily on fried/frozen/processed foods. Meanwhile, qualifying to eat “colorful” requires a little more than tossing various sauces on those beige plates; it means embracing vegetables, grains, seeds, beans, peas, lentils, nuts, and fruits.

But embracing diverse dishes and keeping them small and sequential can completely trivialize dinner…in a good way. Why not make some small dishes (using the caps philosophy) instead of filling the plate around a cut of meat? For example: Make a tasting menu of blistered tomatoes, then oven-roasted asparagus, then mushroom risotto, then seared scallops. Eat like chefs eat, if the spirit moves you, cooking as you go. It will help foster an appreciation for different flavors and how much you need to eat to feel full. Also, you probably become a better cook by accident.

About cheat meals

It’s complicated. Cheat meals are fun (and again, all over Instagram), but as nutritionists are quick to point out, they tend to function as a kind of permission slip for extreme overconsumption: the idea is that certain foods are considered bad, until one day. holy. where you’re allowed to binge as much as possible (usually because you’ve conquered some physically strenuous challenge).

But the practice can lead to weight cycles that, over time, can lead to feelings of anxiety and depression. if you’re not The rockeither Chris Hemsworthwith an entire team dedicated to helping you stay in shape, the problem will only get worse.

From a portion size perspective, consider why you’re inclined to “cheat” at a meal in the first place. If you just finished a multi-day marathon or hike, that’s fine. (You’ll probably throw up most of it anyway, fair warning.) But if you’re craving a medieval-fest-level cheat meal every time Sunday rolls around, that could indicate you’re not fueling properly all week. A commitment? Try to calm the craving without go crazy with calories. See what a burger and fries do for you. Don’t start with two burgers, large fries, a milkshake, and chicken tenders.

To jump or to scarf

Intermittent fasting is legit. Not because a YouTuber told you that his exact breakdown of 8:16:8 (or whatever) is “the only way to get into a fasted state and achieve god status here on Earth” but because, In general, we all eat too much and Occasionally skipping meals is a great way to cut calories. (Plus: there are genetic benefits to be hungry.)

But similar to going to Trader Joe’s on an empty stomach, it’s possible to overdo it when you’re hungry and prepare/order road too much food, which just isn’t going to have a positive impact on portion control. When experimenting with intermittent fasting, pay attention to what skipping a meal does to your energy level and mood; how that, in turn, affects your ability to do work or exercise; and how rational you feel when you finally make it to your next meal.

It can be helpful to know exactly what you are going to eat to break your fast ahead of time, and perhaps get into the habit of preparing that meal or snack ahead of time. But if you start to feel like you’re forcing the issue, or that your chosen time of day makes skipping a meal really difficult, then it might not be worth it. Similar to hara hachi bun methis is a situation where developing a subconscious understanding of wholeness will pay dividends for decades to come.

Full!

Grazing had a moment in the mid-1980s, then became woefully obsolete when intermittent fasting burst onto the scene. Who cares, pay no attention to the schizophrenic maneuvers of poppy food trends. If snacking here and there throughout the day keeps your energy up and, more importantly, prevents you from serving too much food when it’s time for a “real” meal, then you’re perfectly fine.

Just keep it simple. Choose sliced ​​apples, whole-grain toast, avocados in literally any shape, almonds, and dried fruit. I personally make a smoothie with peanut butter, two bananas, and oat milk every day. That’s all I really want in the morning, along with a few cups of water and an iced coffee, and once I get some work done, it’s time for lunch. Find what works for you, and when in doubt, drink more water and eat more fiber. Your servings later in the day will reflect that sensitivity.

mother earth

the americans pull 80 billion pounds of food each year. Up to 40% of the US food supply ends up in the trash. That’s my fault, that’s your fault, that’s the fault of everyone you know. We all do it and it sucks. If you want to be part of the solution, know your true portion size. That way, you can buy and cook what you know you’ll really want to eat, and avoid throwing the rest away (or do that thing where it sits in a container for three days…and then throws it away while holding your nose in embarrassment).

Smaller plates?

Size matters, when it comes to tableware. Research has confirmed that people eat larger portions of food when they eat from larger plates or bowls and, alarmingly, they don’t even realize they are doing it. This is perhaps the most stupidly simple way to control portion control; just put your first serving on a small plate. If you want more, so be it. Put on a little more. And go from there. Trust us: it will be full, that is, 80% of the way, in due time.