One of the more frustrating parts of trying to lose weight is when you think you’re doing all the right things, but the scale doesn’t budge. Or worse, it budges in the wrong direction. And while there are many factors at play when it comes to weight loss success or failure, a possible culprit may be that you’re eating more than you think.
“But Jeff! There’s no way. I’m eating less and have been eating whole foods and exercising regularly!”
I hear you, my friend. I know the struggle all too well. And while I totally believe you (you ARE doing those things, right?) sometimes it can be as simple as misjudging just how much you’re eating. This is where some useful tools can help you keep track of your food intake.
Start With Portion Control
An important place to begin is to manage your portions. Yeah yeah, we always hear about “eating less,” but sometimes its helpful to have it mapped out for us. For example, you may find one of these guidelines helpful:
Don’t Eat Directly From Containers.
It seems self-explanatory (and proper manners), but eating or drinking directly out of a container isn’t the best idea.
When it comes to managing your waistline (and germs), eating from a container is probably the biggest no-no. It is far more difficult for you to manage how much you eat when its such a large quantity to begin with. Add in taste-hunger, when food tastes good and triggers a dopamine rush causing you to crave more, you may reach the bottom of that container before you know it. Likely with an accompanying stomach ache and multiple-times the serving you should have eaten.
Use Dishes To Control Portions
Start by actually using your dishes. You know, those silly bowls and plates sitting in your kitchen. Again, this may seem obvious, but just because you do it 90% of the time doesn’t mean you’re doing it enough. I recall many a night when I would give in to the temptation to just “dig in” despite portioning all day. Guess what? That undid the entire day of portioning in one fell swoop.
Oh, this also counts for pots, pans and ladles. Don’t make a big batch of pasta and then stand over the pot eating it when nobody is looking. Seriously. As Dmitri Martin so eloquently put it, “If you don’t know the difference between a spoon and a ladle, then you’re fat!” This made me laugh because I’ve been guilty of it in the past and it felt like being caught red handed in being, well, fat.
By using your dishes all the time, it will force you to decide how much is sufficient from the beginning. That way you have a fixed amount of food that isn’t as excessive. Also, if you’re considering “seconds,” it at least makes you reconsider because you have to get up and go back to refill the dish (which gives you time to second-guess said decision).
Downsize By Using Smaller Dishes.
Speaking of using dishes, take note of the size of the dish. How much do you think you’re going to eat when you stockpile an 11 inch plate? Probably everything on the plate, or whenever you’re stuffed, whichever comes first.
By using a smaller plate or bowl, you’re giving yourself less food by default. Plus you’re not seeing empty space, which we are always oh so inclined to fill. If you think of it mathematically, the space on a 11 inch plate vs a 9 inch plate is a pretty significant difference (the 9 inch plate only has 66% the surface area of the 11 inch plate). However, a lot of times our brains can barely tell the difference. A full plate is a full plate.
This reminds me of when I was a youngster (I got really obese between 12 and 14 years old). I would take a full size dinner plate and completely pile it with food. Specifically, I remember either doing it with white rice or scrambled eggs. And when I say pile, I mean it’s about to spill off the edges if I added anymore.
Sometimes that wasn’t enough and I would go for seconds (or thirds)! Sure, growth spurt/growing young man blah blah, but the bad habits started early. I didn’t eat quite like that as an adult, but it brings home the point. A smaller dish forces smaller portion limits.
Its best to plan the portion ahead of time. Using a smaller dish is a nice little trick up the ol’ sleeve. Those of you with a naturally slimmer body type may seem to have this entire “stop eating when full” thing down, but some of us have to be a lot more strategic (ghrelin variability in individuals is a real thing). If you’re still reading this, you might have the same problem as me. But the good news it can be overcome. And no, you won’t starve.
Measure Portions By Hand.
If you want to eye-ball measure your food, a good rule of thumb is to measure each portion by either the size of your fist or the size of the palm of your hand.
When you go to make each meal, try breaking it down into parts. For example, a piece of chicken the size of your fist, a serving of rice roughly the same as the palm of your hand, and the same for a side of veggies, like broccoli. This way its a well rounded nutrient profile, fills up the plate, and isn’t excessive in serving size.
Keep in mind, this kind of approach does lead to eating more frequent meals. I don’t have a hard and fast rule on how many times a day you should eat (because at the end of the day, calories in/calories out). Finding what works for you is most critical. That can be eating once a day or 6 times a day, so long as the calorie intake meets your goals and you can consistently stick with it.
Try Intermittent Fasting or Time Restricted Eating
- Example: Wake at 8 am. Start eating at 12 pm. Final eating at 8 PM. Bed at 12 am.
Worth mentioning: While IM is effective for assisting in weight loss, it isn’t optimal for retaining muscle mass while losing fat. Protein partitioning throughout the day (intake of protein at multiple points in the day) is beneficial in muscle protein synthesis, so if you are lifting weights and/or simply don’t want to LOSE muscle, IM isn’t optimal. However, it is still effective. I recommend 16/8, as you can fit in 3 meals in that period, spreading your protein out across 8 hours and still get the benefits of 16 hours of fasting.
23/1 is a fairly extreme approach. Some people still do it, but for me its hard to justify the downsides. That sounds like a lot of time of being hungry, and additionally, while we can absorb more protein than previously thought, eating your entire daily allotment of protein in one sitting is both difficult and disadvantageous for muscle retention. Keep in mind: Higher muscle mass increases your resting metabolism making it slightly easier to lose fat.
Diet adherence is by far the most critical long term factor in weight loss. Anyone can lose weight, but KEEPING that weight off is actually quite rare. A really big factor at play here is the choice of diet method.
You can pick whatever method you want. Keto. Vegan. Mediterranean. Whole foods. Calorie tracking. Paleo. Carnivore. Intermittent fasting only. Etc. These factors are less important than the following 2 factors:
- Does it achieve what you want it to achieve? And
- Can you do this indefinitely?
That 2nd point is by far the most important. If your approach to weight loss is some drastic change to your diet or lifestyle, but once you lose the weight you plan on going back to living how you did before, you will invariably gain all of that weight back.
Choose carefully. You must be able to sustain the change. Of course, when you hit goal weight, you don’t have to keep restricting your food as much, but you still want to follow the same principles to maintain weight. If you’re cutting calories, you nudge your calories back up until you maintain weight (in fact, no matter what method you’re using, this is always technically what is happening – calories in/calories out). Going on an extreme diet only to throw it to the wind when you hit goal weight is going to lead to the yo-yo. And in fact this can do more harm than good, as typically you will lose muscle mass during a diet, but when you regain all that fat, you don’t regain muscle if you aren’t lifting weights and eating a lot of protein.
You do not want to keep losing muscle mass (Yes, this includes you too, ladies). That leads to not only having a lower metabolism, it also leads to less strength, weaker bones (muscle mass correlates to bone density via exercise), and a less than optimal appearance when you reach goal weight (ever hear of skinny fat?)
Get Quality Sleep
I know you’re busy, but when it comes to optimizing health, there really is no arguing with 8 hours of quality sleep. Want to reduce stress? Sleep 8 hours. Want to increase focus and performance? Sleep 8 hours. Want to lose weight? Sleep 8 hours. Want to build muscle? Sleep 8 hours. It really doesn’t matter if you find it convenient or not, it is a HUGE factor in our well being. This is the time the body heals and the brain de-fragments. In fact, if you’ve been perpetually under-sleeping and you start sleeping enough, it will feel like you started taking performance enhancing drugs.
If you insist on 8 hours being excessive, at least try to add 1 or 2 hours to however much you are sleeping. You will thank yourself.
Take it to the next level with these tools:
The previous tips are pretty easy to try, and they do work fairly well. However, if you really want to know how much you’re eating, how much you need to eat, and want more consistent results, I’d encourage you to consider the following tools:
- MyFitnessPal: This is a great way to track calories and macro/micro nutrients. You can use it on several “smart” devices, or you can log in to their website. You can set goals, input exercises for calorie burn estimates, network with friends using the app, and more.
- Measuring Cup – “But Jeff, I don’t want to measure my food. :(“ Give it a shot. You may realize you under-estimate (or vice versa) your portions. This doesn’t have to be permanent, but I suggest giving it a shot for a few weeks until you get an objective idea of how much food you’re eating.
- Food Scale – An extension of the previous tip, this one is useful for portions of meat, as well as other bulky items that aren’t going to translate to a measuring cup. This one is particularly useful because it is more difficult to judge a foods weight… unless you’re some magical weight measuring wizard (wingardium… weightiosa?).
I hope you find these tips and tricks useful for your weight loss journey!
What tools and tips do you guys and gals like to use to track how much you eat? Share your good ideas below!
Until Next Time,
Jeff
