portion sizes..in a way i can understand please!!

does anyone know any good websites or ways of helping me visually understand portion sizes? like for example--how much 100g is in terms i will be able to relate to daily food lol or how much 2 oz of meat is...Im so confused...

i know like certain amounts = the size of deck of cards, or size of a tennis ball etc....like i need comparisons to real things...

i feel when i try to log my daily food and it askes me how much i ate i really have no clue if it was 100g or 500g or 5oz or 10oz...

any help in this department would be greatly appreciated!

obviously it depends on the density of the food so i cant give you any specifics :S best thing to do is get a set of scales and measure foods in advance, then write down your own size guidelines. obv the best and most accurate way is to weigh everything every time.... sorry i cant be more specific

I second!  Get a scale.  I got one on ebay for about 20 bucks and it's taken all the guess work out of it.  Of course, if you eat out then you'll still have to guess a little, but I have found by weighing my foods at home I'm learning by seeing the size of the portion on my plate how much is a proper portion even when dining out.  Hope that helps.

Yep. Seems we are all in agreement. Get a scale, great investment. I just recently bought one and I love it! Got mine for about 30 bucks (but the cheapest one I saw was about $12). My fiance does weight-watchers, and they use your hand as a guideline for measuring food (I think your palm is like 4 oz) but that seems really inaccurate because my palm is almost twice the size as hers.

this won't help with translating serving sizes into grams, etc., but it helps to get a visual idea of what your serving size should be. The meat serving should be able to fit in the palm of your hand. Hold your hand over the meat serving, anything extending beyond your palm is too much. For other items like mashed potatoes, or other side items, make a fist. The portion size should be about the size of your fist. For  crackers, nuts, etc. I ususally grab a handful and consider that a serving size. Hope this helps. It's a lot easier for me because I don't count grams, carbs, etc. I don't own a scale, but I will measure things out with measuring cups, and when I use the palm/fist rule, it is very close to what I measure out as a serving. I use whatever is on the package of what I am eating as the calorie count that I record so that I stay within my calorie limit. I've been able to lose 1-2 pounds a week using this method. However, if you really want to count grams, etc. then the scale is your best option.

I agree that a scale is best.

That said, let's say you go out to dinner and want to log what you've eaten once you get home.

The best way is to visualize food amounts in terms of objects you are already familiar with i.e. a deck of cards, a floppy disk, dominos. This way you can approximate how many ounces or grams you ate.

Here is one website that I found helpful, here is another.

Hope that helps!

Yup..invest in a scale it will save you alot of guess work. Also there is a tool on CC used to convert grams to ounces or ounces to grams or what have you..It is under the foods tab..then click on unit converter. Also what proud2bme said those are general easy ways to measure out your foods if a scale is not an option. Good luck to you.

I found my most useful tool to be the food scale. It tells me exactly how much 2 ounces of meat is. I found it really important because 2 ounces of chicken does NOT look like 2 ounces of red meat or 2 ounces of fish. It is an extra step but it is definitely worth it.

This may sound silly but there is a web site that sells a plate that is rather cool .

It is www.theportionplate.com

Check it out , it may be useful .

Personally, forget the scale.  It never worked for me.  But that's just me.  I think the scale isn't simplifying anything and still makes everything take too long.  Here's what my wife and i did.

We found a book (sorry, I can't think of the name right now) that you can buy all your groceries on the weekend, cook everything on Sunday, and voila, you have your meals for the week prepared.  Each recipe tells you how many meals it makes so all you have to do is divide it up appropriately.  The book may be called (something to the effect of) Cook once, Eat all week, or something like that.  It only takes at most 3 hours to cook all your food for the week, and at most when you get home it will take 30 minutes to reheat/cook.

Goodluck.

Original Post by proud2bme:

this won't help with translating serving sizes into grams, etc., but it helps to get a visual idea of what your serving size should be. The meat serving should be able to fit in the palm of your hand. Hold your hand over the meat serving, anything extending beyond your palm is too much. For other items like mashed potatoes, or other side items, make a fist. The portion size should be about the size of your fist. For  crackers, nuts, etc. I ususally grab a handful and consider that a serving size. Hope this helps. It's a lot easier for me because I don't count grams, carbs, etc. I don't own a scale, but I will measure things out with measuring cups, and when I use the palm/fist rule, it is very close to what I measure out as a serving. I use whatever is on the package of what I am eating as the calorie count that I record so that I stay within my calorie limit. I've been able to lose 1-2 pounds a week using this method. However, if you really want to count grams, etc. then the scale is your best option.

 I do it this way as well. Measuring cups for my grains, pasta, potatoes, etc. I eyeball my beggies because I figure more can't hurt, and I splurge on fruits bacause they are just too dang good! Meat - I'm not a HUGE fan of meat - I stick to chicken, sturgeon, lean turkey and pork most of the time. I'll have beef maybe once every 6 weeks. I keep my portion about the size of my palm.

I use a scale as well. It's so much more useful.

But we also have a couple plates in the house just like susan12c2001 in post #8 said. Except one of ours is the Slim Fast portion control plate which just so happens to be exactly like toddler plates that are all sectioned. This site discusses it:

http://www.vibrantglow.com/2008/02/eat-your-m eals-on-sectioned-plate-to.html

Where the largest section is for your veggies, and the 2 smaller are for your meat and starches.