How easy is it to use Portion Control⁉️
Your weapon of choice is Portion Control
Portion Controlled diets have successfully been used for years long before calorie counting apps! Weapon of choice of big companies like Lite n Easy, Jenny Craig, and even old skool bodybuilders.
Here are the 5 easy steps to Portion Control
Step 1
You need a measuring tool…something that you have with you every time you eat…your HAND. What’s good is they are unique and most of the time proportional to your body size. Step 2 Break food down into categorise… 1. Protein (lean meats, low fat dairy), 2. Carbs (grains, starchy veg, fruit), 3. Fats (oil, nuts, high fat dairy), and 4. Veg and Greens (non-starchy veggies, leafy greens) Step 3 Use the tool (HAND) to measure the 4 food categories. Protein Portion = Palm Size Carb Portion = Cupped Hand Fat Portion = Thumb Size Veg/Greens Portion = Fist Size Step 4 Find out how many of each portion per meal! A general starting point is if you’re having 3-4 meals per day then in each meal would have: MALE: 2 of each Portion (Protein, Carbs, Fats, Veg/Greens) FEMALE: 1 of each Portion (Protein, Carbs, Fats, Veg/Greens) Step 5 Adjust portions depending on your goal. The amount you eat will depend on your body type (stature) and your goals (if that’s weight loss or muscle gain). Example If I was coaching someone for weight loss then I would set the portions and get the client to track their body weight to get feedback on the diet. If their weight was going up then we would remove a portion of carbs from 1 meal, then see what the effect is….and continue to adjust until we reached the desire goal. Removing carbs is the first step, you should not remove protein, this is the foundation of all diets. Your Next Actions So what are your next steps…start small. Have a goal that you will portion control at least one meal per day for a week. If you combat that goal then move on to 2 meals a day…before you know it you’ve portion controlled your whole diet. Remember: track feedback from the body weight scale and adjust accordingly. Check this out Look below for a really good visual that Precision Nutrition has put together to explain this method. Print it out, Stick it on the fridge. Coach Michael