How to Perfect Your Food Portions

As you go about your fat loss diet plan, one thing that you’ll really want to be taking into account is your portion sizes. While eating the right types of foods is going to be critical to your weight loss success, perfecting your food portion is also critical to your fat loss success.

Even if you eat too much of strictly healthy foods, you can still put on body fat, so keeping your serving sizes in check will ensure you reach your weight loss goals without a problem.

Let’s look at some of the key things that you should know if you want to perfect your portions.

Meat Portions

When it comes to choosing your meat portions, women will want to opt for around 3 oz. per meal while men will want to go for 4-5 oz. instead. As men have more lean body weight to support, they will require more protein on a day to day basis.

As an easy reference guide, women should eat a serving about the same size as the palm of their hand (fingers not included), while men should add the fingers to the sizing guide.

Grain Portions

Healthy grains such as brown rice, quinoa, and oatmeal can be a good part of any diet for active individuals. These foods will supply you with the energy you need for intense exercise, but you do need to be careful not to eat too many of them or fat gain is highly likely.

To estimate your portion size for these foods, women should aim for half a cup, which is about the size of one cupped hand, while men should aim for one full cup, which would fit into two cupped hands.

Fat Portions

Dietary fats are an important part of any healthy meal plan but at the same rate, are very high in calories so will also add up quickly. Since each gram contains nine calories while each gram of protein and carbs contains just four, you need to make sure you don’t overeat in this food variety.

A good rule of thumb is to use your thumb. Both men and women should aim to have about one thumb size worth of fat. Women should add this to most meals of the day and men should add it to every meal of the day as they require slightly more fat on a day to day basis.

Fruit Portions

Fruits provide a wealth of antioxidants to your diet and will also supply you with a good dose of vitamins and minerals as well.  Plus, they add important fiber to your diet, which helps to keep you feeling full between meals.

To estimate your fruit serving size, one medium fruit, or about the size of a fist should be consumed.

Eat two to four servings of fruit per day depending on your calorie needs.

Vegetable Portions

Finally, when it comes to vegetable portion sizes, the general rule to follow is anything goes.  Vegetables, as long as they are prepared in healthy, low calorie methods are essentially freebees for your diet plan.

You can’t get too many vegetables on a daily basis, so feel free to add these to your plate as desired. The more, the better as these foods pack in a load of nutrients, are high in fiber, and won’t really add any additional calories to your day.

So there you have the quick and easy guide to perfecting your portion sizes. Make sure that you do think about your portions at each meal you eat and you’ll find you naturally take in the right amount of calories on a day to day basis.

Let me know what you learned from this article and what tips you’re going to start using in your fat loss plan by leaving me a comment in the box below.