portion control

Parent Cafe
41

<p>I am a petite person who is constantly accused of never eating. I guess it’s because I look smaller than I am. I say that because when people (women) tell me I never eat, they also tell me they think I can’t possibly weigh even 100 lbs. </p>

<p>I weigh plenty more than 100lbs, I am a healthy weight for my height & bone structure. I eat between 1700 and 1800 calories per day, so I am not starving myself. But I also rarely eat the cake, cookies, candy and general crap food that is constantly available at work. I just like to save my cake binges for the times when I really want it, which is fairly often, just not at work.</p>

42

<p>I am a petite person – just five feet tall – and, except for one brief period in my life, have always weighed in the neighborhood of 107. Sometimes a little more, sometimes – due to stress – a little less.</p>

<p>I eat a Greek yogurt for breakfast, have a piece of fruit in the AM and the PM, eat a ham sandwich with cheese for lunch, a small piece of meat (usually red meat) that’s only the size of a deck of cards for dinner, and a potato and/or something green with dinner. If that were all I ate I’d probably weigh around 102, but my downfall is cookies. Love love love cookies, especially the ones I make myself, and especially the cookie dough. </p>

<p>In my opinion, keeping the meat at dinner to a deck of cards-sized portion is important. So is focusing on the veggie portion of the meal instead of the meat.</p>

43

<p>This is a great discussion because I do think that portion control is the key for many people. One of the three keys: portion control, food choices and exercise.</p>

<p>My situation is similar to 1moremom. I am thrilled and proud to say that at age 54 I feel stronger, leaner and in better shape than ever. But I will add that I LOVE food and LOVE to eat! So in order to do that, I have learned to gauge everything that goes in my mouth, portion size, a true dedication to exercise and then, because of all that, I enjoy good eating and “treats”. Key thought: “within reason”!</p>

<p>Below is a typical eating day for me. In fact, it’s my eating plan for today. Most mornings I can tell you 90% of what I will eat for the day because I think/plan ahead. </p>

<p>Breakfast: Several celery sticks with 1-2 T peanut butter and about a total of 1/4 c. dried fruit and nuts on top (a la “ants on a log” :slight_smile: ) A soft boiled egg. I cup coffee with a little sweetner and a splash of half and half.</p>

<p>Lunch: About a cup of leftover stir fried chicken and vegetables. A small container (2 -3 T?) of hummus with carrots for dipping. A fiber one bar if still hungry either mid morning or mid afternoon. </p>

<p>Dinner: About a cup of homemade chili using ground round, topped with a little shredded cheddar and a small dap of sour cream. 1/2 c. fresh pineapple. Maybe a few (like 5) pita chips to eat with the chili.</p>

<p>Evening snack. I almost ALWAYS have an evening snack. I want it, like it and plan to afford it. It’s often a sweet. Could I lose more, be leaner without it? Sure. But it’s a habit I don’t really want to give up and enjoy. But again, it’s PORTION reasonable. One homemade chocolate chip cookie with milk. One scoop of ice cream (not reduced calorie or anything) eaten slowly. A very small piece of pie with a squirt of whipped cream. </p>

<p>I drink water pretty much exclusively except for a morning tea/coffee/iced coffee (made at home). I have never drank alcohol - nothing against it, just don’t care for it. I exercise at least 4 times a week pretty religiously. Run 8-10 miles a week and then other stuff mixed in as time allows - neighborhood walking, some rowing at the gym, a zumba you tube at home. An average of 30 mins of exercise at each outing. Makes me feel GREAT!</p>

<p>I am not nor ever have been a size 4. I stand about 5’6-7 and weigh somewhere around 142-144. I RARELY weigh myself though. Prefer to not be a slave to the scale. Prefer to be consistent and to rely on the mirror and the fit of my clothes to guide me. I am finding since this new lifestyle my body has nicely settled into a size 8-10. I like things to fit comfortably. </p>

44

<p>Ugh. I know folks who have to work to keep the weight on have issues too, but seriously, I’ll trade ya, I gain weight from smelling cookies baking. Years and years of yo yo dieting and poor body image have screwed up my metabolism and ideas about food royally. I’m down about 125 lbs, with 40 to go until I am at a healthy weight. I have only recently figured out what “full” feels like. I think many obese people have lost track of what hungry and full truly feel like. </p>

45

<p>Good for you @shellz. That is an amazing accomplishment. I hope you feel really good about it!! </p>

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<p>@abasket‌ I do :slight_smile: Stuck in a plateau right now and battling through it. The Easter candy in the sale bin got me. I’m a sucker for 1/2 price Hershey’s Kisses. </p>

<p>On another note, I bow down to those who can stop at 6 unshelled peanuts or 2-4 crackers as a snack. I’d just be getting started at those quantities. ^:)^ </p>

<p>Onward!</p>

47

<p>@shellz‌ - congrats on your hard work!</p>

<p>I’m about the same size I was when I get married. Thin but not skinny, never ever underweight. I don’t weigh myself but concentrate on the fit of my clothes. I eat protein every morning and avoid fast carbs but embrace slow carbs (legumes). I always have a dark chocolate bar hidden away somewhere in the house and enjoy a square when I want a sweet. But if there is a cake I want to have, I’ll have a bite. Or a piece. But I balance it with eating less the rest of the week. I walk most every day and swing a kettle bell. For me, it’s all in moderation but that just tends to be my personality. I don’t have the experience to understand how hard it must be to struggle with weight every day but having family members who do so I see the difficulty. </p>

48

<p>Well,honestly, I didn’t see Ato’s reply as being anything but honest. I’ve always wondered about naturally thin people. What IS the difference? They always seem to say food is not that important to them and they just don’t have much of an appetite. As she said, if she could bottle that and sell it, she’d be the richest person in the US.</p>

49

<p>Get an app to help you. I like My Fitness Pal. You can use it on your computer or your phone. Track your portions, your calorie intake - your calorie use if you want. Huge database of foods. </p>

50

<p>Shellz,that is great!</p>

51

<p>Naturally thin people are just that - naturally thin because they have been born with the genes that make their metabolism faster (or whatever). Just like Ozzie who should have been dead from all the stuff he injected, inhaled, ingested etc. or just like Ed Whitlock who can run a 3:30 marathon at the age of 82, they have something unique about their bodies. I do not see anything snarky in atomom’s posts. I also strongly agree with Gourmetmom that one should embrace his/her own body shape and take the best care of it. IMO, I lose 10 pounds, I will look awful (been there because of an illness and have photo proof - ugh). As my snarky sister likes to say, a skinny cow will never pass for a gazelle. Well, I’m definitely not a gazelle and I do pretend to be one. Cows can run, too. ;)</p>

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<p>Ahahaha, great comment BunsenBurner. I’m of the cow variety even at MY goal weight. (Which happens to be 10 lbs heavier than any chart or Dr indicates as being "healthy). I’m big boned, and tall, so I tend to hide some of my pounds quite well. Hiding an extra 125 lbs…not so much. Hiding 10? Piece of cake. Pun very much intended.</p>

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<p>I’m 5’-6" and weigh 133. I’d like to lose a little more. I don’t want to eat less, but I would like to exercise more. I weight 122 in my 20’s when I ran four times a week and ate dessert every day. Sigh!</p>

<p>Anyway, what I eat now:</p>

<p>Breakfast: 1/2 English muffin with jam or 1/2 minibagel with cream cheese
1 egg (twice a week with bacon)
coffee with 1% milk (at least 1/4 cup milk)</p>

<p>Lunch:
4 oz meat
6 to 10 oz vegetable (usually just sauteed in olive oil or oven roasted whatever is leftover.)
coffee with milk</p>

<p>Snack:
Rarely needed except I often have a decaf coffee</p>

<p>a few carrot sticks and 2 Tb of hummus
or
1/4 cup Greek yogurt and 2 Tb or so of fruit
or
1 Tb of peanut butter</p>

<p>Dinner
4-5 oz meat
6 oz cooked vegetable
6 oz salad with homemade vinaigrette
water</p>

<p>After dinner
one small piece of chocolate (not always, but fairly frequently)</p>

<p>On weekends I eat a little more and have wine with dinner. DH makes waffles for Saturday breakfast.</p>

<p>We only eat at fastfood restaurants on road trips, but we do like a nice dinner out. If servings are generous, I don’t hesitate to take half home. We nearly always share desserts in restaurants.</p>

<p>I only eat rice on Sunday when we have sushi for lunch. I don’t eat pasta more than once a week, and then in tiny quantities I pick up from the hot bar at our local grocery store. I eat potatoes very, very rarely. </p>

54

<p>Where it got snarky for me was a naturally thin women who isn’t all that interested in food and snacks throughout the day but eats little wondered if overweight moms were chained to her and ate the way she did they might not be as heavy. I’m sure that most of us overweight people would be thin if we ate little, weren’t interested in food and just snacked a little here and there all day. Or maybe not. If it was that easy, it WOULD be a profit-making diet, but it’s not.</p>

<p>In any case, I’m getting some good suggestions for meals and tricks to stay on track, and I appreciate that.</p>

55

<p>I think her point was simply that most overweight people eat more than they think they are eating. Those little snacks add up quickly and a handful of potato chips is much different from polishing off a whole bag. </p>

56

<p>Yes^^^^. Add to that, that I don’t always feel full when I know I should, and well that equals eating way too much. Eating slowly helps, but sometimes I am rushing around and that just doesn’t happen. Making meals/snacks more “formal” (ie, at the table, not in front of the tv or on the run) can help me focus on slowing down and letting the “I’m full” signal hit my brain BEFORE over indulging. </p>

57

<p>I’m 5’8" and weigh about 153, but most people guess I weigh less. I run and am usually training for a 1/2 or full marathon so keep active that way. I LOVE food!</p>

<p>I went ovo-lacto vegetarian at the end of 2012, mostly because meat wasn’t appetizing to me anymore. I didn’t really lose any weight, but I seriously upped the amount of veg/fruit I was eating, so I do think I was healthier, if not lighter. At this point (and until a few months ago) I weighed about 165.</p>

<p>Two things helped me—one was the book Vegan Before 6. Cutting out most processed stuff, and not eating eggs or dairy for 2 meals a day helped me shed a few pounds (and it doesn’t have to be dinner where you eat meat or dairy or eggs, it can be breakfast or lunch if you like. Mark Bittman, the author, considers himself an omnivore which I why I mention meat, he eats it).</p>

<p>The other thing that I think really helped drop the weight and quickly and easily too was cutting out as much ADDED sugar as possible. I confess to still taking a teaspoon in my morning coffee, but otherwise no sweets (and again, cutting out processed food helps with this too—sugar is in everything!) except on very special occasions. I’ll have a couple dried dates or apricots after a meal if I want something sweet, or a banana. I avoid fake sugars too. I have a real sweet tooth so this was hard, and in the past week or so I did have a few cookies, cupcakes, etc and found sure enough I’d gained a pound. </p>

<p>I’ve tried other ways to lose weight like counting calories or eating twice a day or 6 times a day; nothing really worked for me. When this did, I was kind of shocked. </p>

58

<p>Studies have shown over and over that thin people have lower basal metabolic rates than obese individuals. As you lose weight, the calories have to decrease or the amount of muscle mass has to increase or the activity level has to increase to maintain proper weight. It’s the dirty little mechanism our bodies developed over centuries. One of my colleagues is a vegetarian who had a BMI over 40 when we were in residency. I don’t think he changed his diet recently but started biking 300 miles per week and lost about 150 pounds.</p>

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<p>If you bike 300 miles a week, you have to work very hard not to lose weight. When I bike 300 miles a week, I stuff myself with delicious food at every opportunity and the pounds melt off.</p>

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<p>My body type alone motivates me to watch what I eat and to be mindful of portion control. I am just about 5’0 and am small boned. The issue with this body type is that 5 extra pounds (not all that much weight), looks like an additional 10 or 15 on me. Up until I was 40, my metabolism allowed me to eat heartily and not gain weight. Those days are long over. For the last 5 years I have basically enjoyed a diet that is 80% vegetarian. I still have an occasional piece of grilled chicken or fish but I actually have come to enjoy a plant based diet. I am not tempted by desserts or most sweets - one or two bites after a meal satiates me. Anyway my daily meals look something like this:</p>

<p>Breakfast - 2 cups of coffee with almond or coconut milk. Bowl of berries sprinkled with 1/4 cup of cereal. Handful of nuts. I am not a big breakfast eater - just not hungry in the morning.</p>

<p>Lunch - huge mixed greens and raw vegetable salad with some variety of Annie’s salad dressing. Handful of nuts and maybe some hummus and crackers on the side. Alternative to the salad is a bowl of soup or sushi. Beverage is sparkling water with a splash of POM.</p>

<p>Snack is usually nuts or hummus/guacamole with vegetables or crackers.</p>

<p>Dinner - usually a veggie burger over a salad - I am partial to Dr. Praeger’s Tex Mex or the Black Bean Chipotle GardenBurger. I usually serve some sort of grain to the rest of the family, so I will have a small portion of whatever that is. If I am serving grilled chicken I would substitute that for the veggie burger. Couple times a week I will have a glass of wine with dinner, otherwise it is the sparkling water and POM.</p>

<p>Week-ends look different because of social activities and dining out. This I think is what puts the few extra pounds on me.</p>

<p>My ideal weight is between 112 and 114, but I am finding it increasing difficult to maintain that despite exercise and yoga. My litmus test is whether I can tuck a white tee shirt into my low rise jeans and sit down with nothing spilling over my belt line. </p>