The Importance of Portion Control for Weight Loss

It is generally quite tempting to ignore the fact that portion control is pretty important for weight loss, because when food tastes good you just want to eat lots of it! You can tell yourself that you're being healthy, because you eat plenty of fruit, vegetables and wholegrain foods. However, it is still possible to eat too much! If you serve huge portions of pasta with lots of chicken at meal times, the fact that you're eating a salad as well will not change the fact you're consuming too many calories. Plus, you have to take into account your snacking habits, since even healthy snacks can soon add up in terms of calories.

Ultimately, you're only going to lose weight by reducing your calorie intake so that you consume fewer calories than you burn. You can eat anything to achieve this, but you have to remember that all foods contain calories, so that you can adjust the portion sizes you serve accordingly. Clearly, if you opt for lower calorie options you can serve more, whereas higher calorie options will require you to eat less. Thus, for instance, you can eat plenty of salad at dinner time without worrying too much about the calorie intake, but you have to go easy with pasta, especially if you are not doing enough exercise to justify the calories going in.

Overall, then, you have to get used to controlling your portion sizes if you want to lose weight. This isn't as bad as it sounds, though, because it does mean you can eat a wide variety of different foods. You don't have to stop yourself eating chocolate and other calorific treats all the time, since you can still stay within your calorie requirements by factoring these goodies in. You just have to ensure that you eat a smaller quantity of such calorific treats, rather than eating them all the time, since otherwise the high calories and fat content could hinder your ability to reach your weight-loss aims.

It can be difficult to reduce your portion sizes at first, especially if you have picked up the habit of filling your plate to the top with food. If you're serious about losing weight, however, you're going to have to start measuring out quantities and using smaller plates, so that you don't go overboard at meal times. It is not only at meal times you have to be careful, though, since it is very easy to get carried away with snacking. You may intend to only eat one or two biscuits, but before you know it you've eaten the whole packet and this can amount to a lot of calories!

You definitely have to make portion control a priority if you want to lose weight, since it is often eating too much food that leads to weight gain or makes weight loss so difficult. After years of being overweight you may not be entirely sure what a sensible amount of food to serve at meal times is, and so you might have to start measuring the amount of food you serve to ensure you stay within sensible limits. This may well be inconvenient at first, but learning to control portion sizes will help you to maintain a healthy weight in the long run.