Have you ever had someone tell you ‘you’re losing weight with portion control!’ What exactly do they mean by this and how to lose weight through healthy portion control?
First, I want to emphasize the important point that immediately after pregnancy your focus should be on ‘YOU’ regarding your postpartum recovery. You must give your body time to heal. And only then you can think about losing weight.
Quality vs. Quantity
We often judge value for money by quantity rather than quality. As a result, many of the foods we choose are larger than we actually need. Many fast food places allow you to ‘super-size’ drinks or meals because we see it as value for money.
Free refills on drinks only encourage people to drink as much as they can so they feel they are getting value for money.
The bigger the portions and the more free refills we have, the more calories we consume and this leads to weight gain. When we consume more calories than we need we gain weight which puts us at increased risk of weight related diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Important point
To maintain a healthy weight you need to do more than just choosing healthy foods and exercising. You should also consider how much you eat and this means paying attention to portion sizes.
A primary goal of PregActive is to provide you with the information needed to maintain healthy eating throughout your life.
And it involves keeping it simple and not having to weigh the food or measure everything. Instead, we want you to be able to recognize standard serving sizes when preparing food.
Portion Control Tips:
1. Replace your large plate with a smaller plate.
2. Don’t feel guilty about leaving food if it’s too much.
3. Eat breakfast every day to give you the energy you need to function.
4. Avoid eating in front of the TV because you don’t know how much you are eating.
5. Stop eating when you start to feel full.
6. When cooking large batches, freeze food that you won’t serve right away.
7. Freeze in single-meal-sized containers to prevent future overeating.
8. Eat slowly so your brain gets the message that your stomach is full.
9. Know that pre-packaged foods often contain more than 1 serving size.
10. Choose vegetables or salads instead of high-calorie foods like desserts.
11. Avoid skipping meals as this can lead to overeating at main meals.
12. Avoid eating out and take-away food.
13. Choose a dish for the main meal.
14. Share your over-seize restaurant meal with a friend.
