portion control

Portion control...seven simple tricks to get into the habit

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How can I eat less? I’ve probably been asked this question more than any other in my twenty years in the fitness industry. In times gone by I’d have probably talked about the importance of counting calories, weighing food, measuring out portions etc, and whilst they’ll certainly work, there are other, quicker, niftier little tricks you can use to ensure you don’t over-indulge. Here are a few of my favourites, taken from a mixture of scientific studies, my own thoughts and tricks my clients have taught me over the years.


Share and share alike

When it comes to takeaways and eating out, you’ll often find yourself with a massive portion that you just can’t eat. Fish and chips is a prime example, you’re sure that they’ve illegally battered a whale and wrapped it in paper for you. Why not just order one portion between two? You can also use this technique in pubs and restaurants; have a main meal each but share starters or desserts. It sounds simple but it literally halves the calories you could have consumed if you’d gone it alone.

The only issue you may have is if you’re like this guy!


The Rule of 3

Here’s one for buffets and takeaways - real danger spots when it comes to portion control; choice means calories. There’s a large element of FOMO at work here, you really must try a bit of everything just in case it’s amazing. Chinese and Indian takeaways are also notorious - you always order too much and even if you can’t eat it all, you don’t want it to go to waste so you stuff in as much as possible before you’re literally ready to burst.

With the Rule of 3 this won’t happen - you simply limit yourself to just three choices. Your absolute favourite things maybe, or possibly three different options every time if you’re an adventurous soul.


Halve it

Do you always have two slices of toast? Do you butter both of sides of the bread when making a sandwich? For that matter, do you use two slices of bread to make the sandwich? If so, try going halves. One slice of toast, butter only one side of your sarnie, or even take on slice of bread, cut it in half and cut your portions and calories in the process. Equally, if you know you normally spoon yourself two portions of roasties with Sunday lunch or two scoops of ice cream with dessert, you can cut one of these in half instead.

This doesn’t need to be an extreme measure; it’s certainly not something to do at every meal but done at times when you know you normally over-indulge or for just one meal each day, it can gradually add up to an effective change.


Get stuffed

In a nice way I mean; healthier food choices are generally higher in fibre and therefore more filling. Snacking on carrot sticks before a carb-heavy dinner can help you feel fuller quicker and control your eating. Celery or pre-dinner salads have the same effect.

All of the suggestions so far work, but they require willpower. If you want to make it easier to eat less, you can physically alter your eating environment using the following tips.

Is it small, or just far, far away?

Those of you’ve followed balance for a while know I’m a big fan of this one - it’s known as the Delboeuf Illusion. It’s all about perception; in much the same way that Dougall is confused about the proximity of the livestock in Father Ted.

Take a look at the image below from my book The Complete Guide to Weight Loss - which of the inner circles is the biggest?

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If you’ve seen it before, you’ll know they’re the same size; if not that may come as something of a surprise. Even when you do know, it takes effort for your brain to overrule your eyes - the one on the left clearly looks bigger. The (apparent) size of the inner circle is directly related to the size of the larger outer one; the smaller the outer circle the bigger the one in the centre appears.

When it comes to plate and bowl size, this works wonders for making you feel full. Food tends to pile up when you use smaller china, also giving the appearance that there is more. And when you think there’s more, you feel full more quickly - downsize your plates and downsize your appetite.

Split it up

How often do you open a large bag of crisps, have a few, feel satisfied and put the rest away for another day? What about sweets? Biscuits? Or anything that comes in large portions for that matter. The human brain is incredibly poor at judging how many calories you have actually eaten - we all like to believe that we can total up how much we’ve had as we go along, stopping when we’re full. The reality is that we eat what’s there; maybe it’s still harking back to a time when if we had an opportunity to gorge, we took it, unsure when we might have that possibility again.

So what’s the solution? We have to prepare our food in such a way that it is much harder to eat more - portion things out into tupperware tubs or bags, buy smaller packets or multi-packs where at least the items are separately wrapped. You’re less likely to eat six small packets of crisps in one sitting than you are to much down a giant sharer bag. Having to stop and open a new packet acts as a natural pause; time to consider your choices. We also tend to naturally assume that if something is wrapped in its own packet then by default that is a sensible portion to consume.

Make it inconvenient

Want to eat less of something? Place it on a higher shelf, put it at the back of the cupboard or fridge, pop it in a drawer at work, better still, a lockable one and then place the key on the other side of the room. Use the method I mentioned above of individually wrapping foods so that it requires more effort on your part to get at it.

Studies have shown that people will eat considerably less peanuts when they come in their natural ‘monkey nut’ form with shells still on, compared to when they’re covered in shelled, covered in salt and conveniently placed in a giant bag for you. Usually laziness is a problem when it comes to weight control but here you can use it to your advantage to reduce your portion sizes.

You’ll have your own tools and techniques for controlling how much you eat; please do share them in the comments below to help others find their balance.





Having your cake and eating it...the psychology of portion control

If you know that yousometimes eat more than you need, here are some simple tips to help you control the size of your portions...

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Portion it out first

A famous scientific study gave movie-goers a small or large portion of popcorn to enjoy whilst watching their film. Half of them received fresh popcorn whilst the other half received a bucket full of old, stale and bad tasting popcorn. What the researchers found was that both groups ate more when given the larger portion, even though those who ate the stale stuff found they didn't like it!

The message...as humans we're wired to eat what is there. Maybe it's something to do with our genetics when food was scare, maybe it's just that if we're distracted doing something else we continue to eat unconsciously. Whatever the reason, the message is clear; prepare your portions carefully. Rather than take the whole packet of nuts to work, pop some into Tupperware and leave the rest at home, rather than have the entire jumbo bag of crisps next to you on Friday evening, pour a few into a bowl. You'll often find your can't be bothered to get up to go and get some more.

Out of sight, out of mind

The food science expert, Brian Wansink, has carried out numerous studies on human behaviour and eating. He's noted that people tend to eat less chicken wings in a restaurant if the waiter leaves the plate of bones on the table rather than continuously taking them away, that if a bowl of soup keep refilling, people will continue to eat from it and that leaner individuals tend to sit facing away from an all-you-can-eat buffet. 

Here are a few things you can try to put this research to good use:

• Put the treats away and make the fruit bowl clearly visible. Wansink notes that people will eat what they see, so having the biscuit tin on show continuously puts the idea of eating biscuits into your brain.

• If you've cooked too much, rather than put it on the table and tempt yourself into finishing it off, put it in some Tupperware and have it for lunch tomorrow or freeze it for a rainy night if you can

• Make it as difficult as possible to access those treats. Wrap them up, put them inside a box in another box, lock them away, whatever makes it a pain to actually go and get them

• Better still, choose your shopping carefully. It's been shown that on average, almost 75% of the food we eat comes from that which we have at home. That means if you don't have the worse choices there, you're much less likely to consume them.

Recognise the danger times and places

Lots of behavioural research in many different contexts shows that people who plan ahead tend to be more successful in what they're doing. The same is true in this instance; spend some time identifying when and where you're likely to go off the rails and build a plan to either avoid or cope with these situations. Planning prevents poor portion performance! ;-) 

Use smaller plates

I've mentioned this one numerous times before but it's worth revisiting. The same amount of food on a smaller plate appears more filling to the eye, or brain I should say. It's known as the Delboeuf illusion and it really works.

This picture, from my book, The Complete Guide to Weight Loss, shows how a larger plate (the black bit), can make a portion of food (the blue bit), appear smaller and therefore less filling.

This picture, from my book, The Complete Guide to Weight Loss, shows how a larger plate (the black bit), can make a portion of food (the blue bit), appear smaller and therefore less filling.

Remind yourself of your goals

People will work harder to achieve things that are more important to them. Firstly, make sure you've set yourself a goal that you REALLY want to achieve, one that has a powerful WHY behind it. Sometimes though, that's still not enough; life is busy and stressful and so it can be easy to be distracted from your targets and end up doing things you know won't help.

For this reason, it's important to do what you can to keep your goals and the powerful reasons for them at the forefront of your mind. Write or print them out and stick them on the fridge, on your desk, the dashboard of your car, or use a photo of them as your phone screensaver. It might make the difference in those moments of weakness.