You eat soooo well. I’m talking chia seeds with breakfast, kale with lunch and organic, grass fed meat with dinner. But, for some reason you either aren’t losing the weight you want, or perhaps now that you’re eating all these ‘superfoods’ you’ve actually put on weight.
Well, one of the reasons for this, and a topic that I often get asked about a lot, could be portion sizes. While I’m not a calorie counter, and nor should you be, there are certain guidelines to building the right sized meal.
These recommendations are for an average male and female who are not overly active. If you were more active, you would likely need to be adding a bit more protein & healthy carbs to your diet.
The protein serving, unless it is a powder, should be the approximate size of one palm for females, and two palms for males.
A non-starchy vegetable is usually green. Starchy vegetables include things like yams, potatoes, carrots, beets, turnip. For the non-starchy vegetables, a general recommendation is two full fists for females, and four for males.
This could be a starchy vegetable, or something like quinoa, brown rice, millet, or oatmeal, and a cupped hand is a good size for females, or two cupped hands for males. Remember that white potatoes and other white starches can spike your blood sugar more than table sugar, so I’d recommend to stay away from those.
A healthy fat is a non-processed, pure form of fat that ideally hasn’t been heated. The approximate serving size is one thumb size for females and two thumbs for males. Always try to get some Omega 3s in there, from flax, chia or hemp hearts.
A great way to really decide if you want seconds is to have more of the vegetables. If it’s only the vegetables you’d eat, do you still really want seconds?
Some other tips to keep you on track, portion wise: