Cut Calories Automatically with Portion Plates

Portion Plates is a phrase you may not have heard before, but it could just help you drop some pounds.

This simply means using a smaller plate at mealtime, which is a portion control strategy that helps you limit portion sizes automatically.

Portion control is an appealing way to lose weight. It allows you to eat your favorite foods and cut calories at the same time.

A half-portion obviously has half the total calories.

Psychologically, though, it can be very hard to put smaller portions on your plate. Seeing all that empty real estate on your plate can make you feel deprived.

Portion Plates: To cut calories, serve your meal on a salad-size plate
instead of a regular dinner plate.

So despite the best of intentions for eating less we often fill up our plate anyway. Either that, or we don't keep the portion sizes as small as we originally planned. Portion plates neatly solve both of these problems.

And then, of course, we have to eat it all. We certainly can't leave uneaten food on the plate. That would be wasteful.

Many of us were raised to eat everything on our plates. Our parents didn't want us "wasting food". Plus, leaving food on the plate implied that maybe you didn't like the cooking.

So they convinced us to strive for membership in the "Clean Plate Club" at every meal.

You're not a child anymore, but that's a hard habit to break. It does seem wasteful to leave food uneaten. So go ahead and eat it all! Just use a smaller plate, and let the plate shrink the portion sizes for you.

Making the Switch to Smaller Plates

For years, I ate from standard 10-inch dinner plates like everyone else. One day I was reading about portion control and realized we had smaller 8-inch plates in the cabinet that we seldom used.

So I switched plates. The 8-inch plates are what I eat from now.

Trying to load food on an 8-inch portion plate is challenging at first. The plate seems far too small. That's your wake-up call! The portion sizes you've been eating are way too big.

If the steak doesn't fit on the smaller plate, then cut the steak in half. The steak was too large, and too many calories. If the baked potato doesn't leave enough room on the plate for your meat and vegetables - cut the potato in half.

The smaller plate automatically resizes each portion for you. It's almost like magic. If you put an over-sized serving of sphagetti on the small plate, you won't have as much room for your sides.

Even though you might end up eating your usual portion of spaghetti, you'll have much less of the side items. The calorie total for the meal will still be smaller than if you had used a regular-size plate.

It will take a few meals before you adjust to the portion plates and smaller portion sizes. But please: After you clean your small plate the first time, don't go back for a second helping.

That would defeat the purpose of portion control. You might even end up eating more calories than usual. Instead, add a healthy side-salad to your meal or a small serving of fruit.

If you make using a smaller plate a habit, eventually the smaller portion sizes will seem normal, and everyone else's huge portions will look odd. But you'll be cutting a lot of calories from each meal while those other people will continue packing on the pounds.

So remember the phrase "portion plate". That's not a salad plate you're eating your dinner on. No, it's a high-tech tool for cutting calories and losing more weight.

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