6 Tips for Understanding Portion Control

Angela Jenkins

| 1 min read

Food and Recipes
Diet and Nutrition
Woman sitting cross-legged with plate of healthy food in lap
Portion control is a huge challenge, especially when eating out or away from home. Healthy portion sizes are an important part of maintaining and losing weight. We all know that portion sizes have increased in the past few decades, but there are ways to keep yourself in check.

Keep These Tips in Mind

  1. Your finger tip is the size of about 1 teaspoon
  1. Fist = 1 cup or 1 medium whole fruit
  1. Thumb = 1 ounce of cheese
  1. Thumb = 1 Tablespoon
  1. A woman’s palm (minus fingers) = 3 ounces of cooked meat or fish
  1. Cupped hand = 1-2 ounces of nuts or pretzels
Here are some great visuals for portion sizes using common household items.

Are You Distorted?

Enlarged portion sizes at restaurants and fast food chains is hurting Americans. Obesity is a national epidemic and these extremely large portions are not helping.
Take these portion distortion quizzes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to see how you measure up when it comes to healthy portion sizes.
What helps you stay true to healthy portions? Share it with us below.
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Photo credit: Foxys_forest_manufacture

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