10 Easy Tips for Food Portion Control

Here are 10 simple ways to keep your portions a healthy size:

1. Measure accurately. For foods and beverages, use gadgets like a measuring cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, or food scale.

2. Learn how to estimate serving sizes. Ballpark food portion sizes by estimating serving sizes in comparison to known objects. For example, three ounces of cooked meat, fish, or poultry is about the size of a deck of cards. Other easy measurements to eyeball include:

• ½ cup is the size of an ice cream scoop
• 1 cup is the size of a tennis ball

• 1 ounce of cheese is the size of a domino

3. Use portion control dishware. Pick out smaller plates, bowls, cups, and glassware in your kitchen and measure what they hold. You might find that a bowl you thought held 8 ounces of soup actually holds 16, meaning you’ve been eating twice what you planned.

4. Dish out your servings separately. Serve food from the stove onto plates rather than family-style at the table, which encourages seconds.

5. Make your own single-serving packs. Re-portion bulk quantities of favorite foods such as rice, snacking fruit & veggies, and nuts into individual portions in zipper bags so that when you’re in the mood for some food you’ll instantly see the number of portions you’re preparing.

6. Add the milk before the coffee. When possible, put your (fat-free) milk into the cup before adding the hot beverage to better gauge the amount used.

7. Measure oil carefully. This is especially important because oil (even the healthy kinds like olive and safflower) have many calories; don’t pour it directly into your cooking pan or over food.

8. Control portions when eating out. Eat half or share the meal with a friend. If eating a salad, ask for dressing on the side. Dip your fork into the dressing and then into the salad.

9. Add vegetables. Eat a cup of low-calorie vegetable soup prior to eating a meal, or add vegetables to casseroles and sandwiches to add volume without a lot of calories.

10. Listen to your gut. Eat when hungry and stop when satisfied or comfortably full.