Maintaining a healthy weight is a cornerstone of modern lifestyle. Today, we often spend all our time sitting in the office, working with our brains instead of physical work. Even if you spend lots of time in the gym and practice various physical training, food management is also important. This means that you are what you eat. Moreover, not only does the quality of food matter! Its quantity is also essential. So, let’s talk a bit about portion control and how it can positively impact your well-being.

What Is Portion Control in Its Essence

Food is an essential need, and it is one of the most popular and affordable pleasures humanity adores. There are countless meals and cuisines, tastes and products. And typically our eyes run up from a diversity of meals to choose from. Have you ever faced a situation when your fridge is full of fresh and tasty products, or you stand at the mall’s shelves and want to eat all you see on them? Often it leads to controversial cases: you select low-calorie and healthy food, you eat greens, vegetables, and low-fat meat, but your weight stands still or grows. That’s what is called overeating.

This happens simply because you control your food basket, but you forget to control the portions you eat daily!

It is quite understandable and proved by nutritionists that you lose weight only when you spend more energy than you consume. This rule is unbreakable.

There are several ways to get to this point:

  • You have to train hard daily and then, you can eat what you want.
  • You can thoroughly maintain the balance of your workouts and daily meals.
  • You can simply control your meal portions to get enough calories for your activity, but not overeat.

The last option is quite an easy one, despite it sounds odd.

Why You Should Control Your Meals Portions: 3 Reasons for Healthy Weight

The first and foremost question to consider is why we need to control food portions today. Probably, for your grannies or grand grannies the whole idea may sound weird. Earlier, meal portion control was something fantastic and needless. The lifestyle in the modern era is different from the lifestyle of humanity even 50 years ago.

There are several factors which impact the need for portion control:

  • People do not work hard like they did decades ago. Automation, machinery, and innovations diminished the need for hard work and physical work. Thus, you do not need as many calories for your energy balance as your grandpas or grandmas needed when they worked on plants, farms, factories, or even offices.
  • The food industry develops. It means, we have a more diverse menu today and have lots of products which consist of carbs and fats. Let’s add to that fast food options, snacks, and beverages which are calorie-intense and we consume them mindlessly often. The result is we consume more calories than we can process.
  • The healthcare industry also comes to a new stage. It is obvious today that nutrition balances and food choices are keys to well-being, not only a source of energy.

That’s why besides healthy menu development you have to control how much of this healthy food you consume. And that’s portion control as-is.

The Main Principles of Portion Control: How to Maintain It

The first and foremost principle of portion control is the following: it doesn’t mean that you need to eat miserable portions of food. Your body shouldn’t consider you are starving, or you should maintain the diet. That’s the wrong idea, as it can boost saving fats and carbs instead of producing energy from them. Thus, it is better to adhere to the following rules in portion control to gain success:

  • Start with a glass of fresh water in the morning and before meals. When you fill your stomach with water before eating, overeating is less possible.
  • Eat more vegetables and greens. They help to process food and fill the stomach with lower energy levels.
  • Make carbs an additional part of your meals instead of making them the center of your plate.
  • Do not eat on the go. The atmosphere of dining is important. Prepare for your meals, serve the table and eat consistently without a rush.
  • Select healthy desserts to finish your meal. High-protein desserts, low-caffeine tea or fruit-based desserts can be good to control portions.

Besides, you should remember that portions for men and women should be different. It is due to hormonal balances that impact metabolism. Naturally, men produce more Testosterone and HGH which boosts metabolism, and they need more calories to maintain energy levels and muscle growth. For women, the need for proteins and carbs is lower. Thus, portions for women should be smaller and with less protein.

To consider the proper portion, you can adhere to one of the following principles.

  • The principle of plate. This method is based on a certain amount of protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fiber on your plate in a certain proportion.
  • The principle of counting PFCs – you have an amount of calories and proportions of fats, carbs, and proteins to consume daily. Then you distribute them between your meals.
  • Using the principle of a certain food portion. On average, 300-350 g of food is enough for a single meal. And you can use this amount to get it on your plate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
  • The principle of palm. Get a food portion which can be placed on your palm. Adherents of this method believe that everyone has a unique hand size, so the portion will be suitable for a specific person.
  • Eating when you need it. This principle is the most body-oriented, and it assumes that eating when you feel hungry and consciously stop eating when the feeling of starvation mitigates.

Each of these approaches is reasonable, so you can try them to select the best one for you. Besides, we have one more tip on how to get a proper meal portion with no effort.

Getting Healthy Meals in Reasonable Portions Is Easy!

As you can see, portion control is no less important than maintaining healthy meal choices and overlooking the energy levels of your meals. Do not also forget that portions for men and women are different as the need for calories also differs and their consumption in men and women is not the same due to physiology.

Thus, you have to thoroughly control your daily portions so as not to overeat. Our store can help you with this if you have no time to spend in your kitchen daily. We have a diverse menu and special portions for men and women. This can diversify your menu and help you in your HLS routines. It is a double bingo as you save time, spend reasonable money on your meals, and get an opportunity to eat healthy, diverse, and tasty food. Just get the menu to your taste and enjoy the simplicity of our daily meal ideas.