How to determine your portion size?

One of the other reason for increasing obesity prevalence in our country is we are double sizing our portion.

We measure up daily calorie requirement as 2000 Kilo calories. It is OK for the six feet tall muscular man consuming 2000 Kilo calories but not a 30 years old female with regular activity, build will not need 2000 Kilo calories.

I weigh 125 pounds and my Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is 1350. Of course, with the daily extra activity the energy expenditure goes up from our BMR. But not to 2000 Kilo calories.

It is always good to check your calorie requirement by measuring the basal metabolic rate (BMR). So you can estimate how much calories you should consume in a day.

Let's talk about the portion. Here are some rule of Palm!

In each day, we should have breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack or may be two snacks.
Snack should give you about 100 kilo calories for each portion.
Meals should be in 300- 500 Kilo calories

Red meat (beef, pork) should be half of your palm size. White meat and seafood should be two third of your palm size maximum for each portion.

*

Vegetables generally are not calories dense and you can have liberal amount for a normal weight person. But if you are trying to lose weight, you can limit to 2 to 3 fistful of veggie for each portion.

*

The starch/the grains are not necessarily bad thing. I do not think you need to avoid it completely.

*

Drink: develop a habit of drinking in an 8-ounce cup/glass/container for each drink. When you have 8-ounce cupful of drinks should satisfy your thirst,give you energy at each time. When we do 16 ounces we are doubling the portion. Remember! nowadays 8-ounce cup are almost obsolete in the restaurant and fast food chain. So you want to share the tall/grande cappuccino with your friend or spouse. Or leave it in the fridge for next time.

Make a habit to visualize and aware of the size of the food portion. There is an olden rule; it says you should fill your stomach one third by food, one third by water, one third by air to stay healthy. I believe it is true. we should not eat to fill the whole stomach with food. Let's practice!