How much should you eat at one meal, so as not to overload the stomach and not violate the principles healthy eating or lose weight. How to measure your serving size when proper nutrition visually, without any devices.

How do you determine your portion size? Here before parents they asked: “how many spoons should I give you,” and now we ourselves are faced with this problem. It is known that there should be just enough food on the plate so as not to leave the table hungry, but also not to overeat.

How to achieve this? After all, sometimes it’s still difficult to resist an extra piece of the pie.

Experiment

Scientists from American University conducted an experiment on assessing the weight of food by eye. Two groups of subjects took part in it: doctors and people far from medicine.

As a result, it was determined that, regardless of education, the difference in the estimate of the number of grams on a plate compared to the actual one ranged from 22 to 48%. This means that a person cannot always determine by eye the size of the portion in grams that he is going to eat. From this it turns out that (a fairly popular method of losing weight) is not always adequate and corresponds to what was actually eaten. Be that as it may, it is not always possible to weigh food on a kitchen scale. The solution to this problem turned out to be simple.

What will overeating lead to?

No one is immune from overeating. And if you eat an excessive amount of food, a person feels heavy, he is not inclined to work, thought processes are inhibited, and laziness appears (read in one of the articles on our website). Because the body puts all its strength into overcoming and digesting a huge amount of food.

Let's consider the distribution of food components that enter the gastrointestinal tract (GIT).

A person needs approximately 1.8-2.0 g of protein per kilogram of weight per day. When used in more, amino acids and polypeptides (components of proteins) from foods will not be absorbed. But there will be stagnation of food in gastrointestinal tract, the processes of decay will begin. Constipation (constipation) may occur. Signs of gastrointestinal motility disorders appear on the skin of the face. The functioning of the glands is disrupted. And this most often leads to the appearance of a rash. inflammatory in nature. Read our article to know how to avoid such negative manifestations.

The situation is different with carbohydrates and fats. All of them are used by the body for its needs. In this case, the amount of fats and carbohydrates eaten is distributed according to the needs of the body. These components are used for:

1) digestion of incoming products;
2) brain function;
3) ensuring a basic level of cell activity (this is the minimum amount of energy that is necessary to maintain life);
4) cells fulfill their special functions, requiring increased energy costs;
5) abbreviations skeletal muscles;
6) accumulation of glycogens in the liver and muscles.

After eating, carbohydrates in the gastrointestinal tract undergo many changes. Eventually they are broken down into glucose, which is absorbed into small intestine into the blood. Thanks to insulin, it reaches all cells of the body. And its entry into the brain, liver and muscles is determined by the concentration gradient. The more glucose circulates in the blood, the more it will go to these organs. If you overeat, the amount of glucose will increase sharply, and its consumption by the organs will accordingly increase. The muscles and liver will accumulate glycogen (normally, the muscles of a 65 kg woman contain 400 grams of glycogen). If there is a lot of this glycogen, it begins to enter fat cells. It is very difficult to get him out of there.

The same thing happens with fats. But when one gram of carbohydrates is broken down, 9 kcal of energy is released. For proteins and fats, this figure is 4.1-4.3 kilocalories.

Therefore, the serving size for proper nutrition should correspond to the needs of the body.

Determining the serving size

I Simple method

The most in a simple way Determining the required weight and volume of food is the rule of the fist. Stomach volume in calm state(on an empty stomach) is equal in size to a fist. In order not to overstretch the muscular walls of the stomach and not lead to its excessive activity, it is necessary to put into it exactly as much as it can withstand. In this case, eating should stop when there is no food on the plate. You can’t give yourself “several fists” during one meal. To do this, it is better to remove pots and pans away from your eyes.

II Exact method

There is another method for determining how much you eat. It's heavier. But using this method you can more accurately determine the serving size in grams. It is necessary to remember that:

1) palm adult woman equal to 100 grams white meat(chicken or fish);
2) 200 g occupy the same volume as a woman’s fist (the same amount in one glass);
3) half a teaspoon the size of a fingernail thumb(this is 5 grams), for example, that’s how much you need to consume sunflower oil per day;
4) a tablespoon holds 10 g (the area of ​​two nails thumbs);
5) a handful of one palm holds two tablespoons of liquid; A portion of salad, porridge, and pasta can also be placed here.

There are also certain recommendations from nutritionists. In their opinion, there are correspondences between hands and dishes containing different nutrients:

1) protein food should be like the palm of your hand;
2) a vegetarian plate (fruits, vegetables, salads without dressing) can be the size of a fist;
3) the part that falls on complex carbohydrates equal to one palm;
4) two phalanges of the thumb are equal to the amount of fat on the plate.

In order to avoid feeling hungry, you need to reduce the energy output of food by 500 kcal. Based on these calculations, a person needs three palms per day (two protein and one carbohydrate), three fists and one phalanx of the thumb. To satisfy your hunger, you can increase your vegetable portion.

Conclusions

It is easy to determine the correct portion size of food without a scale. All you need for this is your hands. Which method to use depends on the individual's preferences. The only thing in common is that overeating has a bad effect on the body and human health in general.

How much should you eat to lose weight? The arithmetic of losing weight is not so simple. When developing an individual diet, you need to take into account not only energy value diet, but also the approximate weight and volume of the portion, meal time, your own metabolic rate and physical activity, as well as many other factors.

Serving size and frequency: how much to eat to lose weight

What should the serving size be? To find out how much to eat to lose weight, you need to count total quantity meals including all snacks. Usually – 4-7 times a day. Naturally, portions for 4 and 7 meals a day will be different.

The mechanism for losing weight on four meals a day is based on the break between meals. When food has already been digested, insulin is not produced, which in turn causes the body to burn rather than store fat deposits. The disadvantages of such a nutrition system include the same hunger, which usually comes a little earlier than the allotted time, and nutrients are not absorbed as efficiently as with fractional meals. How much should you eat to lose weight with 4 meals a day? Breakfast should include 350-400 g of food, lunch - up to 800 g, afternoon snack - up to 300 g and dinner - about 400 g.

The main advantage of 5 meals a day is high performance. And since food intake occurs every 3 hours, blood sugar levels are kept at an optimal level, without provoking feelings of hunger. This method of nutrition improves metabolism because digestive tract always busy with work and burns more calories than with rare and large portions. But there are also disadvantages. To eat every 3 hours, you need to at least adjust your lifestyle to this. Fats are consumed more slowly due to high content insulin in the blood. How much to eat to lose weight with five meals a day? For the first breakfast there should be 350-400 g of food, for the second breakfast - 150-200 g, for lunch - up to 800 g, for an afternoon snack - 150-200 g, for dinner - 400 g.

If you are used to snacking more often, for example 6-7 times, then it is recommended to eat no more than 250-300 g for each meal. To improve the quality of your diet, you should include apples, vegetables, nuts, and muesli in your snacks. When watching how much you eat to lose weight, don't forget to drink at least 2 liters of water per day.

How many kcal do you need to lose weight

There is a myth about the norm of 2000 kcal per day for a woman and 2500-3000 for a man. It is a myth, because we are all different. Some have a thick build, some have a thin build, some are naturally given thin bones, others have wide ones, and we also differ in height, age and lifestyle. How many calories you actually need to lose weight can be calculated using the formula:

• For women: 10 x weight (kg), + 6.25 x height (cm) - 5 x age - 161;
• For men: 10 x weight (kg), + 6.25 x height (cm) - 5 x age + 5.

In addition, the resulting amount must be multiplied by a coefficient corresponding to the lifestyle:

• For sedentary lifestyle life - 1.2;
• With moderate training 1-3 times a week - 1.375;
• When training 3-5 times a week - 1.55;
• When training 6-7 times a week - 1.725;
• With intense exercise twice a day and high physical activity at work - 1.9.

Based on this formula, you can, for example, calculate how much a 30-year-old woman weighing 70 kg, height 160 cm, who works with documents and does not play sports, needs to eat to lose weight. To maintain her lifestyle, she will need 10 x 70 kg + 6.25 x 160 - 5 x 30 - 161 = 1389 kcal. Taking into account activity, her daily needs are 1389 x 1.2 = 1667 kcal. Therefore, to lose weight you need to consume less than 1667 kcal from food.

There is a simpler method of calculation that is suitable for people with a normal physique: approximately 24 kcal per 1 kg of weight in women and 26-27 kcal in men. Depending on the level of metabolism and physical activity, this indicator will change.

So, we have determined how to find the required daily optimal calorie intake. How many kcal do you need to lose weight? It will be safe for health to reduce total calories by no more than 20%. If you radically deplete your diet, you can lose weight faster. But this measure is effective only for a period short term, after which your metabolism begins to slow down, and even then you will stop losing weight, even if you consume fewer calories than you burn.

How many calories are considered safe for weight loss? The minimum safe caloric value for health is 1200 kcal for women and 1800 kcal for men.

Mistakes when losing weight

When deciding how much to eat to lose weight, you should remember that even a very modest calorie diet may not contribute to weight loss, but, on the contrary, lead to weight gain if you use the wrong diet. For example, when the main caloric intake and portion size occur in the evening, your body does not receive energy for normal functioning and slows everything down metabolic processes, switching to energy saving mode. You may feel weak and drowsy.

Experiencing stress in the first half of the day, the body remains in economy mode in the evening, storing nutrients to provide itself with energy for the next day. In this case, in the evening, by eating everything that you did not manage to consume during the day, you contribute to the accumulation of large strategic reserves of fat, which will then be difficult to get rid of. It is important not only to know how much to eat to lose weight, but also to understand when is the best time to do it.

If you evenly distribute food into 3-7 meals throughout the day, the sleep mode will be replaced by an active one. Then calorie consumption will correspond to consumption, and you will continue to move towards your ideal weight.

Products for weight loss

If you want to make your weight loss process more effective, you should include foods that speed up metabolic processes in your diet. These include:

There is no clear answer to the question of how much you need to eat to lose weight. However, knowing what foods should be included in your diet, what the optimal caloric content and frequency of meals should be, you can create an individual nutrition program that will help you lose weight. Use our advice, bet real goals and start moving towards them right now.

Hello, my dear readers. Eating 5-6 times a day, breaking up your diet, is one of the most common pieces of advice for anyone losing weight.

However, how to determine what portion of food the one suitable to lose weight ? How not to overeat at once and instead of getting the long-awaited plumb line on the scales, gain weight? The question is not as simple as it turns out.

By the way, about how to organize yourself , I already told you. Now it's time to figure out how much and what to put on the plate.

And before we start calculating portions, let's understand - what is a portion?

As the science of nutrition says, it is not specifically a plate of food, as some might think. The plates are different.

This is the one conventional unit one specific product(or type of food) - meat, pasta, fruits, vegetables, etc.

How much to put on a plate

It is always important to monitor the size of what you absorb, including with proper nutrition . Research shows that people do not always adequately estimate the amount of food they eat.

And, by the way, you can understand whether you are overeating by conducting a simple test, which I mention in the article.

And ways to measure a portion, several.

Using scales, spoons and glasses, as well as using the palm of your hand. The last one is the most popular and simplest. But not always applicable - for example, you wouldn’t measure soup with your palms, would you?

Pharmacy-like precision

Scales - this is probably the most expected way - will show the weight literally in grams . And the longest and most inconvenient.

But, if you want mathematical accuracy, then it may be useful to you, especially at first. True, you will have to outweigh everything you cook.

Kitchen scales should always be on hand. However, having filled your hand, as they say, after a while you yourself will be able to determine the required amount by eye.

It couldn't be simpler

The easiest way is to adhere to the “fist rule” - approximately this (one or two fists, everything is individual here) is the volume of our stomach on an empty stomach, if it is not distended.

Hence the need to put so much food in it so as not to stretch it. At the same time, of course, you shouldn’t deceive yourself and, having eaten “one fistful,” add another one to the plate.

Let me remind you that the easiest way not to overeat is to reduce the plate, and at the same time the spoon. A study conducted by Cornell University in the USA among nutrition experts confirms that even nutritionists can make mistakes about portion sizes. The group of experts was given plates and spoons different sizes, inviting them to help themselves to ice cream. As a result, those who had larger plates or spoons unknowingly put in 31% and 14% more ice cream, respectively, than those who had smaller cutlery.

We look at the palm

This method is more complex, but more accurate compared to the previous one. And in fact, it’s very simple: you look at your palm and you know for sure which portion should have normal size.

Just let's make it clear that all weight measures here are taken without a slide. Well, now the main thing to remember is that the portion of food at one time is:

The protein product is the size of the palm of your hand. This is approximately 100 grams of meat (chicken or fish)

Complex carbohydrates – palm or fist

Potatoes, rice – front part of the fist (approximately 75-100g)

Vegetables (salads) – two palms folded together

Fruit – clenched fist (about 200g)

Fats – one phalanx of the thumb

Greens - do not confuse them with vegetables. All kinds of salads, dill, parsley and the like can be eaten without restrictions.

The palm and fingers are also suitable as “weight measures”. For example:

A teaspoon (corresponds to the size of your thumbnail) is 5 grams (for example, this is the amount vegetable oil per day)

A tablespoon is already equal to 10 grams

A handful is equivalent to two tablespoons of liquid (so we found something to measure our soup with). In general, a serving of soup, as nutritionists say, is 150-200g, or a regular glass.

Nutritionists believe that to lose weight, a person needs to reduce the calorie content of their daily food by about 500 kcal.

And then his diet will be equal to:

two protein palms and one carbohydrate palm

three fists of fruits and vegetables

one phalanx of the thumb fat

Advice:As for me, it is completely inconvenient to measure using the palm of your hand - it is better to mentally divide the plate into 4 parts. Give a quarter to proteins, the other quarter to grains. And set aside half for vegetables and salads. Visual perception, by the way, is one of effective ways how to reduce your food intake. Often we don’t even notice how we eat a bag of chips or cookies, “carrying” one thing after another.

Determining the correct amount of food is described quickly, simply and clearly in this video:

This is the math dear friends. What do you think about this? Do you use any of your own methods to determine portion size?

Quality quantity

Well, and most importantly, when you decide to take care of your figure, first of all, change not the size of the portions, but the quality of the products themselves.

Less fast carbohydrates– more slow, long-absorbing ones. A bowl of rich, rich soup is not at all the same as a plate of coleslaw.

The first one will quickly leave the stomach, and the fat will settle where it is not needed, but the second one will take a long time to digest and you won’t eat for a long time.

Even 100 g of meat baked in the oven is much healthier for the figure than the same 100 g, but fried in oil (although I do not recommend meat to my readers in mind).

From online reviews

“Fortunately, I was able to accustom myself to small portions, it was not easy, at first the body did not want to understand whether it had eaten or not. But I want to talk now not about this, but about my friend. She weighed, you won’t believe it, 200 kg, and in two years she was able to lose weight to clothing size 46. And she achieved this by reducing the portion size - she ate 300-350 g every 2 hours. She has maintained the weight for two years.”

What to remember

So, what important things did we learn today:

• You don't need a scale to determine your portion size correctly.
• Use the palm and fist method - these “gadgets” are always with you and will never let you down
• At the same time, do not forget about the quality of food.

Well, that's all I have for today. See you again in blog articles!

In order not to violate the principles of losing weight, you need to understand how much you can eat at one meal. How to measure the portion size for yourself with proper nutrition visually, without any devices?

We know that there should be just enough food on the plate so as not to leave the table hungry, but also not to overeat, so as not to feel heaviness in the stomach and discomfort later. A person is not always able to determine the correct portion size in grams by eye. Agree that we cannot weigh food at every meal. After all, we don’t always eat at home, so what, should we take the scales with us? Well, this is funny and not real. This problem can be easily solved!

Determining the correct serving size

Enough to remember

using your hand,

what does it look like

daily portion of food,

I Simple method
Your own fist will help you determine the required weight and volume of food. Yes, yes! Our empty stomach has a volume the size of a fist. In order not to stretch the stomach and not lead to its excessive activity, it is advisable to fill it enough so as not to overload its working functions.
And it is also very important to stop chewing anything else after the food on your plate is finished. Don't be tempted to add a couple more "little fists" to the plate. Move pots and pans with tasty food out of sight so that there is less temptation to finish.
II Exact method
The exact method for determining serving size is a little more complicated. But with its help you can more correctly determine the weight of a portion. Here's what you need to know:

1. a woman’s palm is equal to a piece of white meat or fish weighing 100 grams;
2. a woman's fist is 200 grams (the same amount in one glass);
3. the size of the thumbnail is 5 grams or half a teaspoon, for example, sunflower oil;
4. in 1 tbsp. 10 g fits in a spoon - this is the area of ​​\u200b\u200btwo thumbnails;
5. 1 handful of a woman’s palm holds two tablespoons of liquid, as well as a portion of salad or side dish.

and divide it into 3 parts:

breakfast,

dinner

and dinner

1. protein food should be the size of your palm;
2. fruits and vegetables should be the size of a fist;
3. the part that falls on complex carbohydrates is equal to one palm;
4. the amount of fat on the plate should correspond to the size of 2 phalanges of the thumbs.

Serving size for weight loss

If you want to lose weight without starving and without harm to your health, then simply reduce the energy output of food by 500 kcal. To satisfy your hunger, you can increase your vegetable portion. But if you want to lose weight on a program accompanied by a personal consultant, then contact me:

Today we figured out how you can determine correct size food portions without scales. As for losing weight, let’s figure it out! Don't worry! Take the initiative - write, call, I’m always happy to help.