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If you start using smaller plates when you're eating at home, you may be able to control your portions and prevent yourself from overeating. Usually salad plates or appetizer plates are smaller than typical dinner sized plates and can prevent you from eating large portions of foods. Some studies have even show that using certain color plates can help your be satisfied with less foods. Go for blue colored plates to help you eat less at each meal. Place the food on your plate and walk away from the serving bowls. When bowls and serving platters are on the table, individuals are likely to eat more than if they pre-serve themselves and then sit down. Keeping them off the dinner table will help you resist the temptation to scoop additional helpings onto your plate. Keep all food in the kitchen instead of bringing the extras to the table with you. Another good option is to put the food away prior to sitting down at the table. Even when you go back to the kitchen to put dishes away, there is no food to nibble on while you clean up. To make sure you're sticking to the exact portion size recommended for you, it may be helpful to measure your food before serving it or eating it. Each person requires slightly different portion sizes of each food and quantity of servings throughout the day. In general, stick to the following portion sizes for the food groups: 3 4 oz of protein, cup or 1 oz of grains, 1 cup of vegetables or 2 cups of leafy greens and cup of fruit or 1 small piece. Adults typically need to eat protein at each meal or snack. Include 1 2 servings of fruit each day and 3 4 servings of vegetables. Grains should be included one or twice a day, but not necessarily at each meal. Food scales may be preferable to use as you don't have to squish all your food into a measuring cup. You may also want to consider measuring plates, bowls, serving utensils and reusable containers to see how much they hold. If you're packing meals, you'll know in advance how much you're eating. When you're out to eat it can be difficult to eat small portions or stick with a single item. Restaurants offer the temptation of appetizers, larger entrees and dessert courses. Not only do you have to deal with larger portion sizes, you may be tempted with multiple courses. Consider ordering an appetizer for your entree. These are generally smaller, but big enough to satisfy you for dinner. Be mindful of the complimentary bread, chips or crackers that are served. These are easy to overeat when you're hungry and waiting for your meal to arrive. Consider asking your server to skip these or only bring a small serving. Speak to the server about the portion size before you order. If it is a large meal that could feed two people, ask them to bring half of the meal to you and put the other half in a to-go container.
Use smaller sized plates when eating at home. Remove serving bowls from the table when eating. Purchase a food scale or measuring cups. Order a small portion at restaurants.