Dec. 31, 2008
Shedding Pounds With Portion Control
Simple Tricks May Help Your Drop The Weight
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(CBS/The Early Show)
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Believe it or not, you can eat fast food, chocolate, candy and cookies and still shed pounds. The Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen met a professor who says it all comes down to something very simple: portion control.
Junk and fast food may be considered the enemy in the battle of the bulge but that doesn't have to be the case.
Nutrition expert Jim Painter says it's not so much what you eat but how much you eat. He proves it in his documentary, "Portion Size Me," where he put two of his students on a 30-day fast food diet.
"They both ended up losing a couple pounds, their blood cholesterol dropped, their blood lipids stayed normal, their liver enzymes stayed normal, everything was fine if they ate the right portion," Painter explains.
The students ate fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still ended up losing weight. But getting the right portion size is getting harder.
Painter showed Koeppen how portions have ballooned over the years. A Caesar Salad 20 years ago was about half the size of a salad today - and half the calories. The same goes with the portion size of pasta and meatballs. Portions have gotten much bigger.
"One of the problems is that we have this idea that more is better, and if you look at people's waistlines, they are more now, and it's not better," Painter says.
But is it possible to eat smaller portions and still be satisfied? Painter says yes, and to prove his point, he helped The Early Show set up an experiment.
We invited a group of people to take part in an all-you-can-eat ice cream taste test.
Painter invited participants to take as much as they wanted and to come back for seconds. We started by splitting them into two separate groups.
Group A was given a big scoop, big bowls, and big spoons; group B was given a scoop, bowls, and spoons that were half the size.
As a result, group A took huge portions and piled on the toppings. Once we weighed each bowl, they ate. Everyone in this group ate quickly and most came back for seconds.
When group B came in with smaller bowls, they filled their dishes but with the smaller spoons, it took them more time to get to the bottom of the bowl and most quit after only one serving.
Asked if they felt like that had eaten enough ice cream, the group said, "Yes."
Then we revealed the truth of our experiment, and the results. Even though both groups said they were completely satisfied, group A - the one with the bigger bowls and spoons - ate twice as much as group B.
"Why do you think your group ate less?" Koeppen asked a woman from group B.
"I guess when you see that your bowl's full and you eat everything in there, you feel that you've had enough and that's all that you need," she replied.
Jim painter says the lesson is simple: control your weight by controlling your portion size.
Asked the appropriate size is, Painter says: "I don't think you need to make a big calculation, and I tell people this and I'm serious about this. Reach down and grab your side. If there's more between your thumb and your index finger than you want, think small and choose small."
Painter says choosing small can be as easy as downsizing all of your plates, bowls and glasses.
Painter has some other great tips on how to keep your portion size in check:
For more information about portion sizes and Jim Painter’s documentary, “Portion Size Me,” click here.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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And estabwary, you are correct RE: the size of plates & bowls and how that relates to portion control. I''m only 5 feet tall - I don''t need anything served on a plate the size of an airplane wing. But most restaurants use huge plates, platters, and bowls. And the last time I went to Texas Road House, most of the tables were full of people who looked like they weighed 300 pounds or more. Watching fat people gorge themselves is usually enough to curb my appetite . . . . . .
I use the salad plates from my dinner ware set instead of the dinner plates.
Also, it really helps me and my husband to split dinner at home into two courses. I serve a small tossed salad with olive oil and vinegar before the rest of the meal. I usually drink a large glass of water with my salad. Then we both have one reasonable serving of meat, some kind of carb, and maybe a cooked vegetable. I hate to feel stuffed and bloated after a meal anyway. With portion control, that is a thing of the past.
The latest news is that calorie restriction causes brain function loss ( like memory loss) and it happens quickly.
http://www.dietingscience.com
Real scientists report this research so it''s not hype.
And as far as portion control, people could learn a lot from anorexics. Of course always use a smaller plate. Choose mostly vegetables, fruit, lean protein. Take a really long time to eat and chew a lot.
When eating out (this is sooo easy), ask that vegetables be plain--lots of places put butter and other fattening garbage on them. Eat only portions the size of your hand. If you don''t trust what''s in the food, get salad with a viniagrette dressing and some lemon ice water. Keep fresh fruit with you so you won''t give in like everyone else does at restaurants. You''ll feel better, stronger.