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Portion Sizes
Nutrition | February 03, 2015
I’m not a fan of counting calories, because quite frankly it’s a little bit of a hassle and besides, it’s not always accurate. If you rely on searching for nutrition facts in handbooks, websites or apps, you can’t be sure the data are correct. In fact, research has shown they can be off by about 25% because of measurement errors, incorrect labeling, or food quality. You have to also consider “calories out” which comes with another 25% measurement error because it’s hard to determine exactly how many calories you burn on any given day. It will vary depending on the activities, workouts, and individual differences. The good news is that calorie counting is rarely necessary. All you need is your own hands to determine your portion sizes:
- Your palm determines your protein portions.
- Your cupped hands determine your veggie portions.
- Your one cupped hand determines your carb and fruit portions.
- Your thumb determines your fat portions.
Protein Intake
For protein dense foods like meat, fish, or egg whites use one palm sized serving. Two palms for men.
Vegetable Intake
For veggies like broccoli, spinach, salad, carrots, etc. use two hands cupped together sized serving. Double the amount for men.
Fruit and Starchy Carb Intake
For carbohydrate dense foods like grains, starches or fruits use a cupped hand sized serving. Two cupped hands for men.
Fat Intake
For fat dense foods like oils, nuts, nut butters, avocado, egg yolk, etc. – use your entire thumb sized serving. Two thumbs for men.
Body Size
Our hand size correlates pretty closely with our body size including muscle, bone, the whole deal. Therefor your hand is a personalized and portable measuring device for your food intake.
Planning your meals
Based on the guidelines above, which assume you’ll be eating about 4 times a day, you now have a simple and flexible guide for meal planning. Remember that this is a starting point. You can adjust your portions or meal frequency depending on your goals and the progress you’re making. You can’t know exactly how your body will respond in advance, so stay flexible and adjust your portions based on your hunger, fullness, goals, etc.
For example if you’re trying to lose weight but don’t seem to get any results, you can try to eliminate a cupped palm of carbs at a particular meals. Or if you’re having trouble gaining weight, you can add an extra cupped palm of carbs or a palm of protein. Since this is a starting point, it will always be important to adjust your portions based on how is this working for YOU.
If you want to take this a little further and dig a little deeper, I have a really good guide to help you eat right for your body type.
Private Member |
OMG… I can eat a whole avocado… I love avocado, I can eat a bag of nuts… that explains a lot of things jajajaja I eat too much, I’m always hungry jajajajaja… I try with the portions sizes but I feel hungry after eating. what can I do?
Private Member |
Hahahahahah this Made my Day. I feel the same
Private Member |
boise, idaho
I have the same problem! ⬆️ Hahaha!
Private Member |
boise, idaho
I’m the same way! I can eat several servings of peanut butter with my apple or a whole avocado or a couple handfuls of almonds :/ I’ll never win. Zuzka you have amazing self control and will power!
Private Member |
Heeey, i thought i got it, but no.. 🙁 I donno how to ask, but is it like if you eat 3 times / day (not talking about snacks) you include one palm of prot, 2cupped salad etc in every meal, so lets say then you will have 3 palms of prot during the day? or is it like you have one palm of prot and then split it into every meal? Like in this case, into 3 smaller portions..??
Hope somebody can help meeee <3
Love
~c
Private Member |
As far as my nutrition book says, it’s the palm (no fingers) for red meat and the palm with fingers for white meat. Do you agree?
Private Member |
HI ZUZKA! Just one question Please. The protein portion you are showing us is for once a day? Or once a meal?
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
Once a meal.
Private Member |
Wow!…are all of these portions once a meal? If, then im totally under eating 😀
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
Oh yeah 🙂
Private Member |
Ufff, I thought it is for one day….
Private Member |
Thanks!
Private Member |
So the idea is that we can eat the appropriate portion of protein, veggies, fruit, and healthy oils three times each day? Am I understanding that correctly? That seems like an enormous amount of food to me!
Private Member |
To me it seems awefully little 😀
Private Member |
Holy horse, so i can eat like a horse! Now im usually eating my first meal at four in the evening, and having a smoothie just before going to bed. And I though that was enough..
Private Member |
mexicali, baja california, méxico
Z! i’m very confused.. I’m getting ready for a bikini competition. I had a trainer that had me eating 7 times a day and it was terrible having to carry food everywhere.. because they believed my metabolism would slow down which I think is bollocks.. anyway.. I stopped training with him and decided I was going to do this on my own.. Do I really have to eat that much protein to gain muscle? does it really matter? I would eat 100 grams of protein with every meal.. a bunch of egg whites and protein in form of legums.. but no fat.. and carbs in every single meal.. the only fat i would eat was in the one whole egg i would eat in the morning and maybe some in protein.. but no good fats.. what are your thoughts? can i be stage ready by eating 3 meals a day?
thanks!!
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
Hi Paola, I personally eat and train to be bikini ready all year long 🙂 not for a competition of course but for myself to feel good, and my diet approach is quite simple and easy to follow. Check all the links in my nutrition guide here, it’s all there explained. Im sure that you’ll get awesome results if you start following it to the T.