When it comes to losing weight, there’s plenty of advice out there. But there is one critical secret to weight loss that is hardly ever talked about, and that is portion control. That’s because portion control doesn’t satisfy the public’s desire of a quick fix for easily losing weight, yet it is a crucial component of losing weight – and probably the one thing that will guarantee weight loss even if you do nothing else.
Whether you are counting calories, limiting carbs, lowering your fat or boosting your metabolism, one thing is for certain and that is that eating less food will result in a loss of weight.
Keeping Up The Volume With Portion Replacement
But eating smaller portions doesn’t necessarily mean having less food on your plate, there are certain things you can do so that you can make your volume of food equal to what you normally eat or even larger. For example if you currently eat a lot of sugary and fatty foods, replacing those with fruits and vegetables will allow you to keep basically the same volume of food and still be taking in a lot less calories.
You Can Still Eat The Foods You Love
Most people, though, don’t really want to give up the foods that they are used to eating. Sure, a lot of us don’t mind making a few adjustments and substitutions but for the most part we still want to eat those foods that we’ve been eating our whole lives. A lot of times these foods have emotional attachments to them and giving them up is extremely difficult.
So, if you simply reduce the portion of those foods, then you can find that you can eat anything you want as long as you eat it in moderation. Do you love chocolate cake? Then instead of eating a whole slice, just have a couple of bites. Can’t give up that double cheese pepperoni pizza on Friday night? Then instead of eating two or three pieces simply cut one piece in half and eat only that. I guarantee you that if you simply cut down on the amount of foods you are eating, you will be able to still eat your favorite foods and lose weight.
Cutting The Volume In Half
I recently ran into an old friend that I hadn’t seen in about a year. She’d been a little bit chubby the last time I’d seen her, about 20 pounds overweight. But when I saw her the other day, she looked fantastic. She was slim, energetic and gorgeous. I asked her how she had done it. Was it some new diet? A new type of food? Juicing? Surgery? It was none of the above.
She said all she did was eat only half of what she normally ate. She ate all the same foods that she usually eats but she only ate half the portion she normally would have had. She was able to lose the weight and still enjoy the foods that she loved to eat.
Cutting Down On Unhealthy Foods
Of course, if you are on a diet (and even if you aren’t), it is smart to cut down on the unhealthy fatty and sugary foods that you normally consume. You should be trying to eat healthier and add more vegetables, whole grains and fruits to your diet. It’s not wise to simply go on eating high-fat, unhealthy foods and merely eat half, but using this portion control trick will allow you to have your splurges and still keep your weight loss on track.
Getting Your Head Around Smaller Portions
Portion control can be challenging because most of us are conditioned to keeping our plates full of food and eating everything on the plate. If you don’t have a huge gigantic plate of food in front of you, you may feel deprived and this can sabotage your weight loss efforts. So, part of successful portion control entails getting yourself in the proper mindset about eating in the first place.
Do you really need a huge heaping plate of food? The answer is no. You need enough food to nourish your body and give it the fuel it needs until the next meal. Eating healthy food will enable your body to be fueled on a smaller amount of food because healthy food has more nutrients.
The next time you are planning out your diet regimen, consider portion control to be the secret weapon towards achieving your success. Eating the right amounts of foods will not only help you get the right amount of calories your body needs but it will also help your body become accustomed to eating smaller amounts so that you get hungry less often. And besides, eating a smaller amount of food fills you up quicker.
About the author: Lee Dobbins is a lifelong dieter and healthy eating advocate. You can get more tips for losing weight and learn more about healthy eating at her blog The Low Carb Resource.