How Do You Approach Portion Control?

[petunia_843]

Portion control is a big issue with me. I have been eating enormous amounts of food, huge portions - not to mention it has been greasy, unhealthy food. I am now trying to get my portions in check. Tonight I had a 6" sandwich instead of a footlong - for me this is a victory.

I can remember having trouble with portions ever since I was a kid. I can eat a whole plate of food, and can usually have seconds on occasion. It's a lot of work to get my portions right-sized and realize that I can be full on more reasonable amounts of food.

I was wondering - do vegetarians and vegans have the same issues with portion control? Has anyone ever had an issue with eating too big of portions or not being able to keep it in check?

[meexie]

I've had the same issues. When I started changing my diet to part-time ETL (see the Eat To Live thread on the Food Board), I was making really large salads and heaps of steamed veggies because I had a hard time feeling "full" - which is beyond the point of "not hungry." ETL is vegan, whole foods, so the flavor profiles of my meals changed a lot. No salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc. to keep my taste buds excited. That helped me get my portion sizing down. It also helped that the reason I started doing ETL-style eating was because I was diagnosed with acid reflux, and a lot of foods I liked to eat were causing me physical pain, which was making me averse to certain things. I still don't want cheeseburgers.

Going out to eat is tough, because portion sizing in the US in restaurants is ridiculous. I started keeping a clean food container in my bag - as soon as my order arrives, scoop half of it into the container and save it for a meal the next day. Yes, people look at me funny.

A friend of mine who has also had portion control issues cooks enough for a few meals at a time, and before eating, portions out one meal onto a plate and the rest gets portioned out into containers and put into the fridge immediately, which makes it harder to take second servings. If he's still hungry, he can eat all the steamed vegetables he wants. I do something similar, and I allow myself all the raw fruit and veg I want.

Making solo meals a little more special helps too. I used to eat over the sink a lot; switching to setting myself a place at the table and using nice dishes is a way to pamper myself as well as control the portion size by dishing it out and eating with no distractions (which makes it much more noticeable when I'm full - if I'm checking Twitter on my iPhone, I could probably eat 2 - 3 times as much as I need to).
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[gemma]

I'm a vegetarian and I have issues with portion control. If I'm on my own, it's easier - but I'm easily influenced by my boyfriend (big dude with big appetite, not the most healthy eater) and others, which is my own issue, I suppose. :)

I've gotten divided plastic storage containers and used the large, main section for something really healthy, like greens, one smaller section for toppings for those greens (avocado, beans, bit of goat cheese, etc.), and the other small section for something not as healthy, like roasted potatoes or maybe some vegan mac and cheese.

I think this same idea can apply even if you're looking mainly to control portions and not even worrying about eating 'better' at this point. You can find the divided storage-y things at most grocery or Target, Meijer, etc. stores. Super useful! I also use small ones - 4 oz. size for stuff I really 'shouldn't' be eating, like ice cream or heavy pasta-y stuff that I know my body isn't super thrilled about, but I want sometimes anyway.
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[WorkAndPlay]

Most "big" eaters I know are also super FAST eaters! Are you a fast eater? I'm a really slow eater - I take small bites, "assemble" bites on my fork (bit of this, bit of that), chew for quite a long time, and wait in between bites. I take at least 15 minutes to finish a small plate full of food. And after 15 minutes of eating I'm pretty much over it, and ready to go do something else.

If you are a fast eater, maybe you can try to think of strategies to slow you down.
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[scarymonster]

Yes to what W&P said! I also have problems when I let myself get really super hungry before eating (this happens almost every day at work, cause my body just runs out of energy before I get to lunch time) so by the time I sit down to my food I am ravenous and I end up shoveling in the food way faster than my body can respond to (also doesn't help to have 30 minutes to eat! arrgh) to tell me I'm getting full. So yes, slow down. Have a tall glass of water along with your meal and take drinks between bites. Take time to really taste what you're eating, enjoy it.
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[daircroi]

This is a toughie for me too. I can eat a huge amount of food. Best thing I've done is used a scale--not all the time, I certainly don't measure out everything I eat. But I did it for a little while, so I could teach myself what sensible portions look like.

Not easy, because I can destroy a whole box of mac & cheese with no problem. Le sigh.
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[milyssa]

So I do Weight Watchers, which is big on portion control (because you have to know your proper servings in order to correctly count your daily points). Here are things I do to help me with portion control:

1) Measure out my food. It's not exactly fun, but worth it in the long run.
2) I like to use smaller dishes when I can, to give my food the appearance of being more.
3) I do my best to savor the food I'm eating. I don't consciously eat slower or anything, but I really enjoy what I'm eating!
4) If I'm still hungry, I wait a little bit to make sure my brain knows I've eaten a full meal.
5) I make sure to remind myself that I ate an entire serving (and when I eat dinner, I'm usually eating something that should be reasonably filling if I have a serving! This one doesn't work if I want a 2nd or 3rd cookie, hahaha) and that serving is the right amount of food for me.

And I do my best to never let myself get crazy hungry.

Oh! And it'll take a little bit of time to adjust to smaller portions! So while I certainly don't want you to feel like you're starving all the time, if you're a little bit hungry every once in awhile, just roll with it. Drink some water or something and tell yourself it's okay. When I first started WW I felt hungry between meals but now I've really adjusted to the smaller portion sizes and what I used to eat no problem is a HUGE meal for me now!

Good luck!!
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[Figwit]

I've found that if I eat more nutrient dense foods, I eat less of them, feel more full, and 'want' less.

I eat very little compared to most people in terms of bulk, so I've had to make sure that everything I am eating is better for me, instead of filling myself up on a seeded breadstick and then not eating for 6 hours (which I have been known to do on several occasions). When I'm craving certain foods, I have a few resources to check what the cravings mean - as in, what I'm deficient in - and try to supplement with foods that are rich in whatever I'm deficient in, before letting myself indulge in say... chocolate or ice cream.

I'm also an extremely slow eater. I've found that I like to read the paper or a book while eating, instead of browsing the internet, because it keeps me more focused and less scattered.
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[scaredsi11y]

Since I absolutely LOVE to bake, I've gotten in the habit of making small batches or giving some away. I went kind of crazy with fancy chocolate cupcakes yesterday, so I called on a few friends who live nearby and surprised them with treats. I only kept 4, for my husband and I to eat yesterday and today - they're gone! If I had kept the whole batch, we probably would have eaten them all and felt really sick right about now. I really don't even like sweets that much these days, but I'll eat anything ready-made if it's there when I'm hungry.

I used to have a real problem with the idea of "wasting food," and it got me in the habit of eating too much. I would almost always feel unpleasantly full after a meal because I'd want to make sure nothing got thrown away. Over the past year, we've transitioned into cooking all but one or two meals a month at home, and I've gotten better at making exactly the correct amount for two portions (or four, if we want leftovers). I'm not tempted to over-eat because there's not an excess. Frequent restaurant eating contributes a lot to this, I think, because the portions are so huge.
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[PrickleyPete]

My one weakness is Ben and Jerry's ice cream. It is very easy to eat most of the container at one time so I have a trick that you can take to your regular meals.

I went to an Asian grocery store and bought a few really cute little bowls. They're the size of what you would cup in your palm if you put your hands close together, and if you go into any Asian grocery store to the dishes section you can easily find them.
I also got baby spoons at the grocery store- they are little tiny spoons with the spoon part covered in plastic.

Whenever I eat ice cream I fill up a little bowl full and eat it with a little spoon. I can eat the entire bowl and I can eat big spoonfulls, but since the scale of the bowl and spoon are small, I'm not actually eating a lot.

Maybe you can buy kid sized plates, bowls, spoons and forks and start having most of your meals on this stuff. You will see that you're eating a full plate but it won't actually be that much.

[PurpleDoor]

I think vegans/vegetarians can definitely struggle with portion control, although it is somewhat easier than if you eat meat.

Personally, I try to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and focus on centering my meals around those. Let's face it, it's impossible to gain weight on steamed kale with balsamic vinegar.

Another thing I do find that helps is to eat with other people and make sure I'm not eating any faster than they are. Like W&P said, eating a lot and eating fast are often related. Doing things to make sure you are eating at a slower pace will probably really cut down your desire or need to eat a lot of food!
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