I am very careful with portion size...one of things I noticed, once I started paying attention, was that for the most part people I knew who weren't over weight ate smaller portions than I did...I've concentrated on this since day one...it's now second nature...this has also caused my stomach to shrink...if I ate the same portion size as I did previously, I would be hurtin' for certain...if I'm going to over do it on portion size, or have seconds, I always make sure that it is extra veg...I'm in Phase II on the beach and I'm consuming between 1800 and 2000 calories per day without hunger.