Hi, everyone! Hope you are all well. You have probably, especially if you are a woman, wanted to lose weight at some point in time in your life. You may have even tried all of the FAD diets. While I am not knocking Fad diets, they really are not meant for long term success. If they were then they would go out of business, the businesses that promote and sell Fad diets. The can work quite well for people who want to lose small amounts of weight in a fairly quick time. Some will keep it off, but most probably won’t. Which brings me to today’s topic, Portion Distortion.
I am a numbers and facts kind of girl. However, that does not mean that I am very good at estimating portion sizes, or amounts of calories in a portion. For me to have long term success, at getting to a healthy weight, staying there, and having a fit and fabulous bod in my 50’s, I need data. I need hard facts, and data that I can see and track my progress. I am not a scale kind of girl, it can become so obsessive for me. I had to learn to measure my success in other ways. Not that I never weigh myself, doctors are quite obsessed with it too, lol. I use my Fitbit to track exercise, and steps progress. Plus, I use the Fitbit app to input my daily fluid intake and food intake. This allows me to stay within a certain amount of calories, and the percentage of Carbs, Protein and Fats that I consume. A little more on that below. I can compare the data I collect to labwork, how clothes fit, my energy levels, sleep patterns, and weekly body measurements to keep track of my progress.
Part of all that is obviously knowing what I am actually eating in a day. I was way under estimating my daily calories, especially where drinks are concerned. While I mostly drink water, I do love French Vanilla Creamer in my coffee. Plus, if I have an Iced Coffee I was consuming even more creamer. I was easily adding over 300 calories to my daily intake through just coffee. Since the body needs a calorie deficit of at least 500 calories per day, you can see how this would sabotage my goals. Sodium, is another item that people consume a lot of that will make you retain water and water adds weight. Following a low sodium diet is always a good idea. Please remember a low sodium does not mean no sodium. The human body needs sodium to function properly. Don’t go under 2,000 mg per day without the direction of a doctor, and if you are someone who sweats a lot, you are losing lots of sodium in your sweat. Just be mindful of that. One other biggie for me is Pasta and Rice. As I am mostly plant based for a diet, pasta and rice a good part of my healthy diet. Only problem is they are very calorie dense and I was eating at least twice what I thought was a portion size. 1 cup of cooked pasta or rice, is a serving, some say 1/2 of a cup. Not many people eat only 1/2 or 1 cup of pasta or rice. Pasta, rice, and potatoes are a very important part of a Healthy Diet. Just be sure you are eating the portion size recommended on the package label. The human body runs on carbs and you need them. Don’t avoid them, love them, just in smaller amounts. Meat is the next biggie for a lot of people. While meat plays an important part in getting protein, most people way over eat on a portion. 1 portion of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, or the palm of your hand. Most people eat at least 3 times that if not more. Meat is pretty high in calories when you are over eating it by that much. Choose lean meats, avoid processed meats, and skip breading and deep frying. If you do choose to deep fry, remember that part of your calorie intake will be the breading and the oil you cook it in. Those need to be added to your daily intake as well.
In the US 50% of your daily intake should come from Carbohydrate sources, 30% from Fats, and 20% from Protein. A food tracking app will calculate that for you daily. You can then tweak your diet as needed. Fats are a particularly hard one for me. Not because I really like Fats, but because I have Kidney Disease low fat, or no fat food options are almost always higher in Phosphorus, and other unhealthy additives to replace the things that are taken out to make the product low fat. For me I have to learn to just eat less of Fats, but eat full fat, not low fat. The only exception is Mozzarella Cheese. I do part skim for that, and skim milk as well. Cheese is a very calorie dense food, and portions are very small. So be careful with cheese as well if your goal is weight loss.
You don’t need a fancy Fad Diet to lose weight. You can simply learn portion control and food measuring to keep you knowing exactly what you are putting into your body. You can be successful and keep it off. If you would like to use my Health Coach services to assist you with this, please contact me using the contact form below.
I picked some videos for you to watch. A couple of points to the first video. They lost weight totally by learning portion control. This is awesome! However, in one part of the video she states that a takeout burger would be one serving of protein for that meal. That is most likely not true unless you order a kiddy burger. Most fast food burgers are way over the 4 oz portion size. When eating out I recommend you find their menu online and know exactly how many calories are in the items you are wanting to order.
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