The Importance of Portion Control
 

When I was growing up, my family which is of Eastern European decent, would consider meal time "THE TIME" and thus, we ate a lot...for a long time. I remember as a child my mother hosting dinners of so much food that we'd have leftovers for days. So I became a chunky child because that "eat everything on your plate" mentality was bombarded on me.

No wonder I got fat.

The truth is that many of us have a problem with portion control...even as LCers and even if we have lost some weight. I know that now that I really pay attention to portion size, I am losing better and funny, I am just as satisfied (hunger).

So now, no more Large Bowl or Large Plate...I use the smaller ones to make my portions and its working.

So even if you Low Carb, its how much you eat that can be the monster that slows you down.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Somewhere I read a theory that in our paleolithic past, people ate whenever food presented itself on the assumption that it might be a long time before they see it again. Our brains are still in that mode. We see food, we eat food.

And some people have a harder time with this than others. For a lucky few, an overflowing plate makes them almost nauseous. But for most of us, if it's there, we eat it.

There was a study done recently where a group of people were all given a bowl of soup. For some of the group, the bowl was (unbeknownst to them), hooked up to a tube that would keep the bowl continually full.

The results? The group with the 'bottomless' bowls ate about 33% more than the other group. A lot of it really does seem to be a "I see food there, I should eat it" sort of reaction.

So yes, a lot of us will have problems with portion control and you're absolutely right that we need to control it.

I don't care what anybody says, there is no diet where you can "eat all you want" and get thin.

~Ryan :)

Here here!! Yes I posted something in regards to portions a while back and I had the same issues you did as I was growing up -- Italian here. For us eating was part of our culture and especially showing respect and enjoyment for finishing all that was on your plate.

When I started LC I was making huge salads and took the "eat liberal amounts of these meats" to heart. At the beginning I was certainly having problems and not losing weight and the minute I controlled my portions, the lbs came off. What's interesting though is that if I even do a minute amount of exercise such as walking or shopping or anything that keeps me moderately active in the evenings... I noticed that I can go ahead and eat larger portions and still lose weight. The second I resort to the couch for movies or football or video games with friends... bahhh I have to curb the amounts... sigh.

For now I really enjoy that small feeling of "hunger" I sometimes still feel after a meal. It's not annoying but just a reminder of how I have finished my meal, I enjoyed it but I am not overly stuffed.

I remember an episode of Oprah (OMG I watched her show like 3 times ok!!) and she was talking about diet. She mentioned that her 1000$ a day diet specialist had always recommended that it's a great idea to come out of a meal feeling not full but rather satisfied. Also that when bedtime came that the small shallow feeling in the tummy that it was almost empty or at least not still full from a recent meal was a good indication that you were doing things right and that you were not overeating.

How many of us have made meals where we think we are going to eat soooo much and make soooo much. Then after about half the plate we could "in theory" stop as we feel pretty full but we just keep eating till we finished what's on our plate. Yeah nasty.

My sister once told me that the best diet is the Catholic diet. I expressed interest and said I had never heard of it. She then retorted by says that it simply says to eat half of what you think you were going to eat… in a sense as if you were giving the rest to the poor or a stranger or your annoying dog I guess. Well simple enough eh?


Great job... take care

Claudius

I don't always clean my plate, but I find that what really helps me is to get just 1 portion or even a half of one first. After eating it I wait a moment and analyze how hungry am I really. Time and standing up (gravity) are what tell me I'm full. Otherwise I'll eat most of whats there.

Except I got this bakes brie tonight and I just cna't stay out of it, it's soooooo good.

I'm lucky, I guess. I hate, hate, HATE feeling overly full; I'd rather be hungry. I've always been that way. (I can't imagine how fat I'd be if I'd cleaned my plate my whole life.)

I think this is my biggest problem. Yesterday I made spaguetti squash. I went to Fitday to check the nutrition facts. I thought one cup was not going to be enough. Today, I had 1/2 a cup, I ate it slowly and it was plenty. It reminds me of what Ladybelle said about taking the time to realize you're full. I'm so used to not measuring and filling a plate without thinking, and to finish what I have in front of me without stopping to think if I'm full. But by measuring and cutting, during the last two days I only had 1400 calories, vs. the 2,000 I was eating before. (Although I know if I eat something sweet, portion control is almost impossible!)
Yvonne, I am going to take your suggestion and start fixing my meals on a smaller (dessert?) plate.

I used to eat that way, eat till I feel like I'm about to explode. I felt like crap the rest of the day/night but I did it every day. Funny how when I started atkins I dont feel like eating as much, regardless of how much is on my plate.

Yup.

When I first started CAD, I was SO worried about completing the reward meal in under an hour, I wolfed it down like there was no tomorrow, often feeling full before I got to my "reward" but eating it anyway....and having to deal with feeling uncomfortable for hours. Now I've learned to moderate both my pace and my portions, although the "eat it while you can" feeling is hard to shake.

For the record, I'm now eating reasonable portions, slowly enough to savor every bite, and STILL coming in WELL under the limit.

Who'd have ever thought we'd have to learn how to eat at OUR ages? :lol:

Heh I'm still in that stage :/ I think once I get some of the got to try things out of my system and I monitor portion control I'll do much better. At leas tI'm trying to make sure it's balanced. Once I get the salad, the protien, and the veggies in anything on top of that is over kill, but I do it anyway :P It's like the button with a sign above it saying don't touch. I know better, but I still have to try it.

Definitely a problem here. I honestly think that I will always battle that....hopefully I will win the battle AND the war!

I too am the same ways as all of you. I would eat until my eyes pop out, as if there is not going to be food for the rest of my life. With Atkins, I realize that portion control is a huge amount of the way of eating in addition to a low carbohydrate count.

I think we all have/had the problem on lc, that for the first time in ages, we can eat REAL FOOD. It's hard to exercise a lot of self-control when you've been yo-yo-ing and/or starving for so long...