All About Proper Portions and Serving Sizes for Weight and Health

In this article: 

• How much you eat determines weight, long-term health, and how you feel. 
• Serving sizes are predefined quantities of food, such as in dietary guidelines or on nutrition facts panels, that are predetermined and don’t change. Portion sizes refer to the amounts of foods or beverages you serve on a given meal or snack occasion. 
• Portion distortion is the idea of larger portions becoming the norm. It can lead to weight gain.
• Research shows that pre-portioned foods and portion control tools help with portion awareness and smaller portion sizes. 
• You can use measuring aids like cups, spoons, and kitchen scales to determine proper portions. You can also visualize common objects to help estimate reasonable portions. Portion control tableware like plates and small spoons may help.
• To achieve proper portions without being hungry, try smaller portions of high-calorie foods, and larger portions of lower-calorie foods like vegetables. 
• Your Lark coach is available 24/7 to help you make healthy choices around nutrition, activity, and more. 

Whether you eat healthy depends not only on what you eat, but also how much you eat. That’s where serving and portion sizes come in. Here’s what you should know about serving sizes and portion sizes, what research says about portion control, and everyday tricks to help you serve proper portions. 

Portion Sizes Matter!

The amount of foods and beverages you consume at a sitting has a big impact. Here are some reasons why portion sizes are important. 

• Weight management - too many calories can cause weight gain, while having fewer calories can support weight loss
• Healthy blood sugar control - too much food can raise blood sugar and insulin levels. This can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) within hours of eating, and increase insulin resistance or the risk for diabetes long-term
• Managing hunger without feeling overfull - overeating can lead to an upset stomach, while undersized portions can lead to feeling hungry again soon
• Getting sufficient nutrients - a balanced diet with enough food can support nutritional sufficiency, while undersized portions or high amounts of low-nutrient foods can raise the risk of nutrient deficiencies
• Reducing food waste - serving the right amount of food to satisfy hunger without being overfull can help reduce leftovers and the potential for waste

Serving Sizes and Portion Sizes Defined

Serving sizes and portion sizes refer to different things. Serving sizes are a predefined amount of food or beverage. It may be specified in dietary guidelines or on a nutrition label. Serving sizes stay the same. For example, a serving size of strawberries is always 1 cup, or about 8 large strawberries. 

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Portion sizes are the amount of food or beverage served or consumed at one time (such as a meal or snack). Portions can change from occasion to occasion. For example, a portion of strawberries may be ½ cup if that’s what you have at breakfast one day, but 1 ½ cups if that’s what you have for a snack another time.

Portion Distortion

Portion distortion describes the shift from smaller portions to larger portions becoming the norm, or expected amount. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have examples of changes in expected portions from the 1980s to the 2010s.

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Research: Portion Control Helps with Weight Loss

In the Portion-Control Strategies Trial, 186 overweight or obese women joined a weight loss program. They were separated into three groups.

1. Standard Advice - these women were advised to eat less food while making healthy choices
2. Portion Selection - these women were advised to choose portions based on energy density; that is, they were advised to choose foods with fewer calories per serving
3. Pre-portioned Foods - they were advised to structure meals around pre-portioned foods

Researchers measured participants’ weight loss for 12 months. Women who were told to pre-portion foods lost more weight! The study is published in the International Journal of Obesity. 

Learning Serving Sizes

These are standard serving sizes that can help guide reasonable portions.

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Serving Sizes and Nutrition Labels

Nutrition labels also show serving sizes. Serving sizes on nutrition labels are standard amounts that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates. They’re based on amounts that people are likely to consume, and are called “reference amounts customarily consumed” (RACC). 

The RACC may be different from “serving sizes” based on food groups and nutrition. For example, a serving of bagel in the Dietary Guidelines is 1 oz (28 grams), but the RACC is 110 grams. 

Quantitative ways to measure portions

You can use tools to measure portions accurately. Here are some examples. 

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Research: Portion Control Tools Increase Awareness

Awareness can be the first step of making changes. In a study in the journal Nutrients, researchers looked at 36 different studies looking at people using portion control tools. Tools included:

• Non-tableware tools like cooking utensils, educational aids and computerized applications
• Tableware tools like reduced-size and portion control/calibrated crockery/cutlery

Overall, the use of tools helped people reduce portion sizes. There was a small effect on calorie consumption and food intake. The act of using portion control tools can help increase your awareness of portions, which in turn may help you take more appropriate portions for your goals. 

Portion Control Tools for Proper Portions

Specialized tableware is among the portion control tools that are available to assist you in serving proper portions. Commercially available portion control plates, for example, can have images marked of how much vegetable, protein, and carbs to include. They’re often based on the Plate Method, with half your plate filled with vegetables, and the rest of your plate divided into lean proteins and high-fiber. 

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Some plates are divided into compartments to make portion control easier. 

Small plates and bowls can help people eat less. If you’re not ready to invest in a new set of dishes, try filling your plate mostly full with salad greens or vegetables before adding other items. Small spoons and forks can also help you eat more slowly.

More Tips for Proper Portions

Here are more tips to make proper portions easier. 

• Eat only at the table so you know how much you’re eating. In one famous study, people ate soup from a self-refilling bowl without knowing that the bowl refilled itself.. These people ate more than people who ate from a bowl that didn’t get refilled. The bottom line is that knowing how much you’re eating helps with portion control. 
• Serve yourself before sitting down so you know how much you’re taking and you have a clear end to the meal or snack.
• Leave food separate from table so you have to stand up if you want second helpings
• Take vegetables first, both for first and second helpings 
• Wait 5 minutes, stand up, see how full you feel (sometimes feel fuller when stand up from table)
• Pre-portion foods when on the go or snacking away from the table

Proper Portions Without Hunger

With some foods and beverages, especially high-calorie or low-nutrient ones, having proper portions may mean having smaller portions than you’re used to. For example, if you simply make portions smaller, you might swap something like a double burger, large fries, large drink, and cookie for a smaller meal comprising a kids’ burger, small fries, small drink, and half a cookie. 

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However, simply having “less” food can leave you feeling hungry. It may not be a sustainable tactic for managing weight. Instead, keep in mind that appropriate portions may mean taking larger amounts of some types of foods, especially vegetables. 

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In the above example, swap the original burger, fries, drink, and cookie for a small burger, small fries, large salad, large water, and piece of fruit. You’ll have fewer calories, more nutrients, and less hunger.

Smart Portions of Healthy Foods

Whether low or high-nutrient, it’s usually smart to have smaller portions of high-calorie foods and larger portions of low-calorie foods. 

• High-calorie foods (eat less): butter, oil, fatty meat, peanut butter, cheese, starchy foods, caloric beverages
• Low-calorie foods (eat more): steamed/grilled/plain vegetables, salads, fresh fruit, lean proteins (e.g., egg whites, non-fat yogurt, fish)

Even nutrient-dense foods can be high in calories and have small serving sizes, so it’s important to practice portion control no matter how healthy your meal is. Consider a meal with quinoa salad. 

The “before” meal is quinoa salad with quinoa, olive oil, feta cheese, avocado, and herbs and spices. It is 1 ¼ cups and has 560 calories.

The “after” meal includes the same ingredients as “before,” but with less quinoa, olive oil, feta cheese, and avocado. These are high-calorie ingredients. This meal adds garbanzo beans and vegetables. The result is a meal with 2 ½ cups and 500 calories. It’s bigger, more nutritious, and lower in calories than the original meal.

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How Lark Can Help

Proper portions can help you feel better, lose weight, and manage or prevent chronic conditions. Lark can help you make positive choices on a daily basis. Your Lark coach is available 24/7 for encouragement, nutrition and physical activity coaching, and habit tracking. Lark can help you make healthy choices and establish habits that fit into your lifestyle so you can lose weight and keep it off with or without GLP-1 medications. 

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Click here to see if you may be eligible to join Lark today!

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