Portion control is an important part of any diet. We all know that we can’t lose weight (and may even gain a pound or two) if we eat too much at every meal.
And that’s even true if everything we eat is wholesome and healthy.
But watching your portion sizes is only part of the dieting equation, because eating the wrong foods, even in the “right” quantities, can still keep those fat cells locked down tight.
And eating too little, as many fad diets make you do, can actually force your body to regain any weight you lose -plus a few pounds extra – as soon as you stop starving yourself.
Eating the right foods, in the right quantities, is the true secret of healthy weight loss.
Some foods can lock up your fat cells so it’s almost impossible to lose weight no matter how little you eat. These are the foods that cause insulin resistance. When your body has too much of this hormone, it sets up a chain of actions inside your cells that makes weight loss incredibly difficult.
This is one of the reasons why diabetes is so closely associated with obesity.
According to Dr. Gabe Merkin, author of the book “The Healthy Heart Miracle,” The foods that can lead to insulin resistance are the ones that cause your blood sugar to go up too fast. The list includes any food made out of white flour, like bread, noodles and cakes; white rice and refined corn products like corn syrup; and anything that contains sugar.
Since these foods have been known to lead to overweight, diabetes, heart disease and tooth decay, there really isn’t any “right” portion size for them – if you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll have an uphill struggle if you include them in your diet.
Yet most websites that give tips for portion sizes assume that these foods will be part of your diet. After all, they’re part of almost everyone’s diet – especially for those of us who live in America. Since they assume that many of your calories will come from these foods, all of the portion sizes for everything else end up being too small.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Take a look at one of the frozen diet meals that you find in the supermarket freezer. There are lots of brands, and many different choices – but many of them include either noodles or white rice.
They do that because noodles and white rice are really cheap. But their aim is to sell you a portion controlled meal with just the “right” amount of calories, and to do that they make the portion sizes tiny.
When you eat one of these meals, you almost always come away hungry. What few people know is that if they substituted another food for the ones that cause insulin resistance, they could eat more food. The portion sizes for all the truly healthy foods could be generous enough to make you feel satisfied, and you would still lose weight.
And if you’re watching your portion sizes, losing weight is really the point, isn’t it?