Why Understanding Portion Sizes Is Important for Weight Loss
If you want to lose weight, you need to know better how many calories you are eating. With some foods, like peanut butter or ice cream, this is really tricky to do. That’s why it’s important to be a little more precise than “A looks like one serving” if you want to lose weight.
As I demonstrate in the video, it’s hard to imagine a bagel, two tablespoons of peanut butter, or any other serving size unless you know exactly what it looks like. Check it out: Make peanut butter and any other sandwich using just one serving of peanut butter (that’s two tablespoons or 32 grams). Go ahead and use the measuring spoon, which is still prone to a lot of mistakes. Now weigh your serving in grams. What did you get?
If you’ve never paid attention to this product before, it could very well be double a serving or double your calories! If you’ve lost even 10 grams of weight, it’s still extra calories that you never counted on. It is clear that it is easy to overdo it with your favorite food without even realizing it. If you’ve picked the perfect serving size, congratulations!
Tracking and weighing food is not for everyone and takes a lot of work, but it is a powerful process for losing weight. Please note that calorie information can be inaccurate by up to 25% and you will never be truly accurate (which is normal). Be careful not to get hung up on weighing and tracking every lettuce, cereal, and whatever you eat. This is overkill. Just do it for a few weeks with your most frequently consumed foods to get an idea of what suitable serving sizes should look like.