Portion Perspective - the real key to new year (or any time) weight loss!
Friday, March 19, 2010
When it comes to weight loss many people fall into the trap of employing the ‘all or nothing’ approach. But really, losing weight is all about perspective – portion perspective and knowing exactly what to put on your plate. Best of all, you really don’t have to starve yourself.
While there’s no doubting that the new year is the most popular time for making resolutions and vowing to change your life (with losing weight and getting healthy right up there at the top of the list), resolutions can also prove to be a huge pressure and more often than not, once the end of January hits, those resolutions are long gone but those extra kilo’s are still hanging around.
When it comes to weight loss many people fall into the trap of employing the ‘all or nothing’ approach. But really, losing weight is all about perspective – portion perspective and knowing exactly what to put on your plate. Best of all, you really don’t have to starve yourself.
“There is so much valuable research to show that the more food we put on our plates, the more we will eat,” explains dietitian Megan Pucci.
“In fact, the research shows that the larger the plate the more we eat; the larger the spoon the more we eat, the larger the packet or serving bowl the more we eat, the greater the variety on offer, the more we eat. All without significant awareness.”
“While many people believe that they won’t be fooled by using a larger plate or bowl, even nutrition experts get caught. One American study focused on 85 nutrition experts who were attending an ice cream celebration for a colleague. They were randomly given either a smaller (2 cup) or larger (4 cup capacity) bowl and either of 60ml or 90ml ice cream scoop.
After serving themselves, their bowls were weighed. And guess what? Even when the nutrition experts were given a larger bowl, they served themselves 31% more without being aware of it. They even served an additional 14% if they used the larger serving spoon.”
So the solution is simple, perfect your portions and start losing weight the easy way, eating real food and eating enough that you literally aren’t starving.