Since losing weight comes down to calories in versus calories out, controlling the amount of food you eat is crucial to losing weight. By regulating the amount of calories you eat through portion control you can effectively lose weight and still enjoy a lot of the foods you love!
Smaller Dinnerware
You can minimize the amount of food you eat just by switching to smaller plates. Swapping your 12 inch plate to a 10 inch plate may result in 22% fewer calories being served studies show. This also goes for drinking glasses and bowls.
Take Half To Go
Many restaurant dishes contain an upwards of 1000 calories or more! Cut that amount in half by getting a to-go box and taking half home to eat the following day.
Increase The Portions Of This
You wouldn’t think by eating more of certain foods would actually decrease the amount of calories you consume, but that’s exactly what eating water-rich foods such as broth based soups, salads and vegetables do. Try eating these at the start of your meal to help you feel full before moving onto the more calorie dense main dish.
Portion Out Trigger Foods
Portion out the foods that you are most likely to binge on, also known as trigger foods, into smaller bags. This way when your next snack attack occurs you won’t grab a large bag of chips out of your pantry and eat the whole thing in one sitting as you’re more likely to just eat what’s in the smaller bag. Another good option is to only keep one trigger food on hand at any given time.
I am a firm believer that diets do not work. Making healthy lifestyle changes is the key to losing weight, keeping it off, having more energy and feeling good about yourself. Portion control is important. Do not deprive yourself of the foods you want, just watch how much you eat.
I’ve tried various low-carb, low-calorie, and low-fat diets for the past couple of years. Although the Atkins diet is very popular, it made me feel somewhat unhealthy.
The diet plan I’m on right now is the Medifast Diet. The caloric intake is roughly 800-1000 calories. However, it doesn’t make my body feel weak. It is a bit of a pricey diet, but there are plenty of coupons available on the internet. You should never pay full price.
My advice is just choose a diet plan which your body reacts positively to. No one knows your body better than you do!