Survive in a Super-Sized World

The secret to lasting weight loss can be found in two simple words nearly everyone can live by: portion control.

By Polly Turner

Every time we sit down to eat these days, people are putting in front of us oversized helpings of pasta, burgers, French fries, soda or ice cream.

Twenty years ago a standard bagel was 3 inches in diameter and 140 calories; today it's more like 6 inches and 350 calories. The typical pasta dish has more than doubled in size and calories, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Blueberry muffins have more than tripled in size. We're confronted with oversized portions in restaurants, in packaged foods and drinks, as well as in home-cooked meals.

No wonder cutting back on calories can seem tough.

The problem, of course, is that the more we're offered, the more we eat. In one telling study, researchers handed out huge buckets of five-day-old popcorn to moviegoers-more stale popcorn than a person could eat in a sitting - and found that people who received the largest buckets ate 53 percent more on average than those with smaller (but still huge) buckets. It's the size of the portion, not how hungry we are or the quality of the food, that appears to determine how much we eat.

Secret to Downsizing

"Portion size is critical to managing your weight," says Kelli Hughes, a dietitian at the University of Virginia Health System. Hughes herself dropped 80 pounds and has kept it off for several years. She credits much of her success to regular exercise, healthy food choices - and portion control.

"Anybody is capable of getting control over their portion sizes. If I could do it, anyone could," Hughes insists. Her tried-and-true tips?

First, know the size of a recommended serving. "When people start to be aware of what's recommended for a healthy diet, they can be astounded by how much they've actually been eating." Peek at the back of a bag of chips or a bottle of soda to see how many servings the product contains. If a candy bar is worth two servings and you eat the whole thing, you'll be getting double the listed calories per serving.

Measure at least once to see what a serving should look like. If there are 11 potato chips per serving, count out 11 and place them in a small container; the next time you snack use the same container so you don't have to count again. Just don't eat right from the bag-you'll munch to the bottom before you know it. Do the same for sugary drinks: Pour once in a measuring cup to see. Or, buy a healthier frozen meal such as one from Lean Cuisine to see what a serving of meat or pasta should look like.

Remember, good things come in small packages. The "value meal" is no value if the additional cost to you includes packing on twice as many calories.

Eat enough to be satisfied, but not so much that you're full. "Every time I eat, when my meal is halfway done I try to assess whether I'm still hungry or not," Hughes says. "The feeling of satisfaction is different than a full belly. Learn to enjoy the company you're with, the aroma, the taste and the texture.

"Growing up in an Italian family, food was love. I always associated very positive feelings with feeling full. It wasn't until I thought about those hunger signals that I finally got it-the key is to not eat when I'm not hungry, and to stop eating when I'm satisfied."

How Much Is Enough?

Try these hints for judging a healthy serving size:

Food

Serving size

Think of

Margarine

1 teaspoon

Tip of your thumb to the first knuckle

Meat, fish or poultry

3 ounces

A deck of cards

Baked potato

3 ounces

A light bulb

Cooked rice or pasta

1/2 cup

An ice cream scoop or half a baseball. Or, give pasta the high five: spread out all five fingers over the plate; if pasta sticks out beyond them it's too much.

Yogurt

1 cup

Your fist or a baseball

This article appeared in the winter 2007 issue of Vim & Vigor, a family health magazine sponsored by UVA Health System. If you don't already receive it at home, sign up today. It's free.