Portion Sizes !!!

narabanekeater

My DH nad also my other family memebers who live with me do heavy manual work do work nights dinners do tend to be large for them ( I really dont mind as they dont leave any and both work hard. They would get 4 sausages each and lots of veg, pots and gravy. In fact they have larger plates to out the dinner on then myself and my 2 children. We would have 2 of everything each- fishfingers, sauages etc
As for yorkshires my lot would happily eat a plate of them alone. So I always cook lots but there never seams any left
Ive posted very simalar posts in the past and ive found controlling portion sizes very effective in cutting my spending costs
Good luck

jcr16

my hubby is a big chap ( ex rugby and ice hockey) so does a big appetite and also has a manual job so very active.

he has 3, i have 2 and the kids have 1 sausage each.

fish fingers usually 5 for hubby, 3 for me and 2 for kids.

yorkies at roast, now see we all love these. i home make them and sometimes they don't always work. so it will depend on how they come out. but i just make a batch up and put them on table. as with roasties i will give 2 each to children 4 for me and 6 prob for hubby ( all depending on how big or small i made them ) i will then if any left over again put on table.

i dont' have any set size of portion. but i always put less on a plate so it can be eaten and if more is needed i can serve seconds. but if not then it can be frozen down etc. i think the kids sometimes feel over whelmed ( i know i do) if your presented with a huge plate of food and can't eat it. but less on a plate works well for us.

MaggieBaking

I've recently decided to lose weight and I just wanted to share how well it's going for our finances too!! I've always eaten a lot of food (a lot more than average!) so during this diet I've been counting calories and that has involved actually trying to follow standard portion sizes.

This website is great http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions to help work out what is the "right" amount of food you should be eating.

I'm now sticking to 50g of rice per person, 30g of cereal in the morning (that's a lie - I still can't cope with such a small bowl, so I count 2 bowls of cereal in calories and have a 60g bowl :rotfl:!)

I'm measuring the butter for my toast, the milk in my coffee, the potatoes for dinner and the pasta too. You don't always have to weigh them, after a couple of days your guess will be pretty good of "10g" of butter or "30g" of cheese for your jackets.

The other day me and the OH fancied a KFC, before it would have been £10 (I know!!) whereas we both went and got snack boxes for £4 and really felt like we treated ourselves

Whereas before we'll have cooked a meal for 4, eaten most of it and thrown away a little bit, now I'm halving the recipe, or halving the portions and I have another dinner all saved up.

I know many of you will already be doing this, but perhaps there are others like me and I thought this little tip might be a great reminder to live cheaper and healthier

VfM4meplse

Great tips here, I wish you every success with this.

MaggieBaking wrote: »

30g of cereal in the morning (that's a lie - I still can't cope with such a small bowl, so I count 2 bowls of cereal in calories and have a 60g bowl lol!)

I have never been a big eater, but 30g of cereal IMO just can't be done, the problem with carbs is that they leave you craving more. So much as I love cereal - at any time of the day or night!- I no longer eat it.

A couple of habits that keep me slim:

• When eating lunch out, I prefer the girly habit of ordering a course and sharing btwn two, you still feel like you've eaten a decent meal, but not over-eaten. This also works for afternoon tea (sharing the cake, not the coffee!).
• If I have lunch, I don't eat dinner and vice versea.
• Keep a few medium-sized apples to hand. Eating 2 in a row is as filling as a meal.
• If you don't believe in leftovers, cook less rather than more and then eat some fruit afterwards if you're still hungry

It is also useful to remember that the food on your plate should be no bigger than the palm of your hand. This may be tough at first, but it is surprising how quickly your body can adapt to eating less (or more!).

beemuzed

Portion control is the thing I find hardest to do, so thanks for the tips and website link. I do agree about the cereal - 30g is just not enough! I find chopping an apple up seems to make it last longer, and it looks much more than you'd expect!
Wish DH would also try portion control - he's actually got far more will-power than I have, and he does most of the cooking, so could control at source!

MaggieBaking

losingpatience wrote: »

Before starting though a 500g pack of mince would do me and H2B 1 meal

:rotfl: Yup, us too!

Glad it's going so well! An incredible achievement, really well done!!

VFM4meplse - I have tiny tiny hands, don't think I could manage that dinner tip, although I would be very slim! Thanks for your advice, and beemuzed too!

I'm finding counting calories 10 million times easier than I thought I would - I can eat whatever I like - just different amounts and not unhealthy all the time

anguk

VfM4meplse wrote: »

It is also useful to remember that the food on your plate should be no bigger than the palm of your hand. This may be tough at first, but it is surprising how quickly your body can adapt to eating less (or more!).

The palm of my hand is smaller than a saucer! I do agree that portion control is a very good thing to do but it's very easy to slip into bad habits, I'm certainly guilty of putting more on our plates than we need.

Rebob

I find using smaller plates makes a big difference. If you look at plates and dishes used 20 years ago (charity shops) they were much smaller than the ones most of us use today. Also, portion and freeze spare portions before you sit down to eat so seconds are not available and have some fruit instead if needed.

OrkneyStar

I have gradually been eating less, partly through tooth pain for a while , and now find I am less hungry. Lots of us over-eat without realising it. The key is small portions packed full of nutrition!

Owain_Moneysaver

And remember, if you don't buy it you can't eat it.

This goes for biscuits, cakes, pies, crisps, chocolate, those little ferrero rocher things that are so great for snacking on at 3 a.m., etc.