The Case for Portion Control

You’ve heard the research. Diets, on average, don’t work. Most dieters fail to maintain their post-diet weight or yo-yo up and down for years, putting them at risk for heart disease. The percentage of dieters who lose weight and keep it off is discouragingly small.

Instead, experts recommend that you change your eating habits and lifestyle: eat healthier foods instead of processed snack foods or gorging on carbs. Try whole grains, natural products, and tons of fruits and vegetables. However, some people think this gives them a license to eat whatever they want, as long as it’s healthy. There are two major problems with this:

1. What constitutes ‘healthy’? Some foods are better for you than others, but any more than a small amount of them can hinder your weight maintenance or loss. One good example is a box of Triscuits. Sure, they are healthier than eating a bag of potato chips, but most people don’t stop at the recommended serving size of seven crackers. In one serving of the original whole-wheat crackers, there are 140 calories and 5 grams of fat, in addition to 22 grams of carbohydrates. The fat content is 8% of your recommended daily fat consumption. This might seem small, but by eating multiple servings (which most people do) the numbers start to add up – fast.

2. If you are trying to lose weight, you need to strongly consider the composition of your diet. What percentage are you getting from fats and carbohydrates? Where are the majority of your calories coming from? Eating a large amount of carbs, even if they are whole-grain, is likely to stilt your progress or make it difficult to maintain your current weight. Instead, you should aim for a healthy balance of proteins, fats, and carbs. American diet guidelines call for 15% protein, 30% fat, and 55% carbs, but other diet advocates urge a lower content of carbohydrates. A low-carbohydrate diet might include 25% protein, 65% fat, and only 10% carbohydrates. Another option is a high-protein diet, which might look like 30% protein, 30% fat, and 40% carbohydrates. Regardless of the composition, you cannot overindulge in one of these areas and expect to find success.