A Key to Weight Control? Portion Size
For many Americans, downsizing may be in order
 (HealthDay News) -- That all-you-can-eat buffet may not be such a bargain if you're trying to stay healthy or lose weight.
Super-sized, never-ending colas and all-you-can-eat bonanzas have left Americans with what experts have dubbed "portion distortion."
"People don't want to waste food. If it's on your plate, you'll probably eat it," Madelyn Fernstrom, founding director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told HealthDay.
What to do? She suggests paying attention to how hungry you actually feel. "If you went by your appetite, you'd probably only eat half of your entree," Fernstrom said.
"You have to change your mindset, eat slower and get some tools to help you with portion control, like smaller plates," she added.
Cutting down on portion sizes "would be the single greatest way to combat the creeping obesity epidemic," she said. "It's such a simple concept, but it's hard to do. There's so much hidden fat in food, it's hard to know what a serving size is."
Another problem is that people often don't realize how quickly a little extra food can add up. Just "100 calories a day more than you need adds up to 10 pounds in one year," Miriam Pappo, clinical nutrition manager at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, told HealthDay.
"That's only one or two tablespoons of salad dressing," she noted.
Determining a correct serving size, though, can be tricky. Experts at the University of Louisville say that a serving of meat should be about the size of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand. A serving of rice or pasta should be the size of a tennis ball or the size of your fist. A serving of cheese should be about two fingers in size or the size of a domino.
Some foods, though, have outgrown those sizes over the years. For instance, 20 years ago, a bagel was three inches across and contained about 140 calories, the Louisville experts say. Today, bagels are usually six inches and have 350 calories.
Cheeseburgers have ballooned from about 333 calories 20 years ago to about 590 calories today.
Even dinner plates have grown in size, Fernstrom said. She advises people to eat from salad plates all the time. And if that's not enough food, you can always go back for more, she said.
Pappo suggested another "plate method" that can be effective for people who don't like to weigh and measure their food. It involves dividing your plate. Half should be vegetables, a fourth should be foods high in protein and the remaining fourth can be set aside for a starchy food.
Even using this method, though, she recommends that people weigh their food periodically to make sure they're not overeating. "People don't like to measure their food, but you need to do it every three or four months to see if you're on target," Pappo said.
Then there's eating out -- which both Pappo and Fernstrom acknowledge can present a lot of challenges.
"Always assume it's more than one serving," Fernstrom said about restaurant portions. She suggests ordering an appetizer for dinner or splitting an entree with a dining partner.
But it's important to be vigilant about portions when eating away from home because, Pappo said, it's quite easy to eat an extra 500 calories if you're not careful. And, for a 130-pound woman, that translates to an hour and a half of bicycling to burn them off.
On the Web
To learn more about appropriate portion sizes, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
SOURCES: HealthDay News; Miriam Pappo, M.S., R.D., clinical nutrition manager, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City; Madelyn Fernstrom, Ph.D., founding director, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Weight Management Center, Pittsburgh; University of Louisville (www.louisville.edu)
Author: Serena Gordon
Publication Date: Jan. 31, 2010
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