How Do I Know What Portion Size I should Be Eating?
The nutrition label doesn’t determine your serving size… you do!
I get asked all the time how I know how much I should be eating… and let me tell you the serving size on the food label is not the answer.
Let me repeat that. The food label should not determine your serving size!
The serving size merely tells us how much nutrition a given quantity of food is going to give us but you have the freedom to choose your own portions based on your specific needs. The reality is that your portions will, and should, change based on what you’re eating the rest of the day… and this is really where pre-planning comes in.
The portion you choose depends on how much nutrition you’re aiming for in that meal. So let’s take my breakfast for example. I almost never eat just one serving of greek yogurt. So yesterday I had pre-logged my lunch and dinner because I already knew what I was eating since it was all meal prepped for the week so I knew how much was “leftover for breakfast.” 1 serving of my greek yogurt is 170g which provides 17g of protein. But I needed 25g of protein in breakfast based on the rest of my day. So instead of 170, I measured out 250g.
On the flip side, there are some foods that I seldom eat a full portion size of. I’ve been using cereal to put on top of my greek yogurt for some texture but that doesn’t mean I’m using a whole portion of 50g because that’s 210 cals and 38 grams of carbs which would make my breakfast way too calorie dense for this phase of dieting. Instead I’m just using 20g for texture which is 85 cals and 15g of carbs. It doesn’t mean I can’t top my yogurt with cereal, it just means I’m gonna adjust the portion size.
If you’re going out for a big dinner later, you’re probably going to reduce the portion sizes of your carbs and fat earlier in the day.
If you’re meeting your vegetarian friend for lunch, you probably want to increase your protein portion size at dinner.
And when you learn this, you start to realize that there are no foods that are “good” or “bad”. If you know how to choose portion sizes effectively, there’s no foods that are off limits… everything goes!
And that’s what I teach clients at Moxie Barbell. How to enjoy all the foods by adjusting portion sizes based on their specific needs and goals!
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