Let me tell you a story first. My best friend Esperance and her husband went to a fancy restaurant and discovered what other inspired people have named the “new kitchen”: Three 6cm shrimps and a small bunch of spinach lost in the middle of a huge plate. They were almost angry. Let’s rewind the scene: My friends are late, their table was allocated to other customers… 3 shrimps later they finally ended up in the brewery on the next block without having even touched their dinner.
At the brewery, Esperance and her husband were served the same amount of food but on a much less sophisticated plate: Smaller and rounded like a bowl. They had the sensation of eating a good meal at low cost. They were really happy and the evening out was finaly a success. Long live the optical illusions that make us enjoy a menu and lose weight!
Moral of the story: The choice of plate size is important to avoid overeating and helping to lose weight permanently. The bigger the plate, the more we are tempted to treat ourselves with larger portions. The same goes with glasses or any packaging. Have this test by yourself: Don’t you use more shampoo when the bottle is bigger?
An urge to eat can be satisfied by using a smaller plate
Research by Brian Wansink,a specialist in eating behaviors, confirms this trend. His team distributed bowls of different sizes to health and nutrition professionals. Each person had to fill his own bowl with ice cream. Despite being aware of the audience of scientists, participants with a large bowl served themselves 30% to 50% more ice cream than people with regular bowls! Good to know if you aim to lose weight. The gigantic plate fashion must stop! They are far too fattening and encourage overeating. To lose weight permanently, use a smaller format rather than XXL plates.
Control your weight permanently by eating a meal in suitable proportions
The influence of the container goes further than that. Some companies have developed talented marketing packaging impregnated with fragrances that spread once the product is passed into a microwave oven! These well thought-out packages play on our sensitivity: As long as it smells good, we will be able to eat anything and take on extra pounds.
Many overweight people find it difficult to detect their satiety point; large plates or large portions may lead them to overeat, hence the reason they aren’t eating well. It is advisable to bring a normal sized dish and use packages that promote smaller portions… if still hungry, it is still better to serve yourself one more time instead of having too much to eat initially. This will allow you to better control your hunger so you can lose weight and keep it off.
How to keep control of your portion sizes
How do you stop repeatedly oversizing your meals so you can prevent yourself from gaining weight that will takes weeks to lose? In order to better control your portion sizes, you have to watch out and note at each meal what your common portion size is when you’re having lunch and dinner. Write everything down during the week. Then it will be time to examine this diary and take the proper action.
The best way to begin controlling your portions when eating is to use a kind of a measuring tool that will help you learn and recognize visually what good quantities look like. Various tools exist on the market: They look like big cookie cutters or ring molds and they allow you to serve food according to the size of the ring.
After having made a little research I found out a very good product that allows to dose several ingredients at the time.
To dig further in our quest of portion control here’s a selection of dinner set and accessories, recommended by our readers on Amazon:
Why waste time with the tedious task of counting calories when you can just use your eyes to limit your portions. If you eat less, you’ll weigh less. Each plate’s imagery incorporates designated food placement areas that correspond to recommended food portions and serve as a gentle visual reminder not to overindulge.
These micowaveable ceramic bowls have measurements up to 2 cups printed on the inner surface of each bowl taking the guess work out of healthy eating. Now you can track serving sizes without those pesky measuring cups. Eat proper portions of soups, cereals, vegetables and more! Ideal for those trying to maintain a healthy way of eating.
Including plates, bowls and glasses, this simply elegant and complete portion control set is brought by Wine-Trax. Clear glass dinnerware with frosted lines – rid your world of measuring cups!
So what are your strategies and tactics to better control your portion size to lose weight?
