New portion size guidance - what do you think?

[TheFifthKey]

www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/14/nutritionists-launch-portion-size-guide-to-tackle-overeating

This is roughly in line with the portion sizes I've been eating recently in a drive to be healthier - BUT I have been often pretty hungry (not starving, just used to a greater amount of food and having to reset my norms) and it's very very hard to eat out at all and follow these guidelines. I know reading threads on here, for example, many people think 500g of mince will only serve two people in bolognese.

I can’t take any advice seriously that recommends cereal for breakfast and ‘low fat’ foods. What a load of crap.

I saw a dietician and the portion sizes were an eye opener. However she told me how many portions of each I needed per day (can't remember off hand) so a bread roll would count as 2 carbs, but needing something like 6 carbs a day meant I could have double pasta at night.

(my calories were 2000 to maintain and 1800 to lose)

Portion sizes have slowly crept up, look at Warbutons bread and how it doesn't fit in a standard toaster. All of those little changes make a difference long term.

I do think we have lost sight of normal portion sizes, look how many massive bags of crisps or sweets there are these days.

I think it's a great, easy to follow guide.
have been weighing out portions sometimes, but that's a faff.
much easier to use hands as guide

I don't know anyone who could eat 2,000 a day either.

Don’t you know anyone tall? I’m 35, 6’, weigh 12.5 stone and am moderately active. My TDEE is about 2100 kcal.

Thanks my dad I suppose, but other than him the rest of us are of fairly unremarkable stature

for example, many people think 500g of mince will only serve two people in bolognese.

Haven't read it yet but quick comment, as I'm probably one of the posters you're thinking of having posted on spag Bol threads before.

I do 500g between two adults. Not because I think that's all it will serve, I know it'll serve 4 people when bulked our etc but, as we're both a healthy weight, we choose to eat that much when we do a spaghetti Bol once in a blue moon.

Going to read the article now. Sounds interesting.

Ah ok, 250g of beef per person is still a lot but I didn't realise it was literally the beef and a jar of sauce that was being added to it.

I do 250g each and make it 'properly' with own sauce etc, not from a jar.

A lot of us are eating huge portions. I recall quite clearly when I was growing up that my mum and us three kids (even when teens), would have ONE tin of beans, 8 sausages and probably only say a handful of chips for tea. It fed us all. Nowadays you’ll read that the same size family must have two tins of beans, at least 3/4 sausages each and pretty much the best part of a full pack of frozen chips. There was a thread on here recently about a ‘hangry’ teen who needed 5 breakfast biscuits after a giant plate of pasta. It’s like we can’t feel everso slightly hungry anymore at times. Take tins of soup, yonks ago your average person would share a tin, now (and I saw it at work today), everyone supps the whole 400 gram tin to themselves.

i found it! A TDEE calculator that reckons I should have 2630 kcal/day (I actually have about 2500, so pretty darn close). All other TDEE calculators are rubbish (I hereby declare).

Read it now and it does seem about right portion wise. Some of the protein portions seem small but if you wanted more, using common sense when looking at the amount of food overall would balance that out.

I agree 2000 is too much for a lot of women. I'd put on weight if I ate that amount of calories everyday, now and again fine but not each day.

My Fitness Pal is very good for anyone wanting to see how much they eat on an average day.

now and again fine but not each day.

for me personally. I'm sure it's fine for some people.

It's very macronutrient specific. There's no way I could eat that much pasta in a day (unless it was the focus of 3 meals a day, or I was in some kind of one off eating competition), but that little cheese would make me cry. I frequently eat that much cheese or more, plus seeds, nuts, nut butters, and other fatty foods like sour cream and avocado. I can never finish a "normal" sized jacket potato, even if only served with salad. I also eat very little sugar.

All this is to say, different bodies have different tolerances for different foodstuffs: some people work better with more fats, more carbs or more protein. If it's making you gain weight, the balance is wrong, if you're losing, the same. Women needs a LOT more fat per calorie than men to maintain health and hormones, and it also differs individual to individual.

Fig me. I'd have to spend 17 hrs/day sedentary & only 30 min/day on my feet, to get my TDEE down to 2000 (on last calculator I linked to).

If I was 5' tall I'd have to be 35 kg while as sedentary as previous, to need < 1500 kcal/day. How magical are you lot?

lljk I think I love that calculator.

I do question how accurate people's calorie counting is. I mean, I know there are apps available and use them myself, but I've not convinced they are much better than a vague indication.

Im 5'7, weigh 9 stone and eat 2000 cals + but I run at least 40 miles per week at a moderate pace so need the carbs. I weigh my food where necessary eg pasta, rice, chicken as my macros are worked out by my coach.

Even so, I was shocked when I took pasta to the canteen at lunch and my colleagues commented on how small my portion size was, when in fact it was the correct amount for my height, weight and calorie intake/expenditure. People really have lost sight of normal portion size and grossly overestimate the amount of food they need.

Enid - if your body is happy with 250g of minced beef in one portion of bolognese then why not I guess? Intrigued by how many grams of pasta you're having with it though? You'd have to have an awful lot to have a proper bolognese but maybe you're just going very, very sauce heavy and not including any pancetta... or maybe you are and are just meat mad! As I said, if you're fit and healthy on it, why not - still find it really surprising; even with DH's hefty appetite and total love of spaghetti bolognese, we don't get through more than 300g of mince between the two of us (and we never bulk it out with anything).

maybe you are and are just meat mad!

I'm actually not really. I only eat chicken and fish regularly.
Pasta wise I'd have about the amount suggested in the article or the amount suggested on the packet. I have gluten free pasta which is maybe not as filling as wheat pasta. No pancetta. We know it's a lot. It looks a lot on the plate! But it's not something we would have very often so guess it's like have a big takeaway meal.

(I'm 5ft6 9.2stone btw)

lljkk that calculator is good. It seems to correlate with what I'm currently doing. My BMR is around 1350, for my activity levels it suggest I expend around 2400 so it explains why I am losing weight on 2000.

I think it would be of benefit to encourage people to not eat constantly. That really going for hours with no food is ok and you will survive.

I think the idea of snacking and grazing is not working now that crap food and drink is everywhere ( and cheap). Portion sizes are only half the battle if you are eating breakfast, snacking during the morning having some lunch, nibbling on something in the car, snack with the kids before dinner, a little something watching telly.....

@Gingerkittycat

I agree. And how cheap it is to buy snack foods and convenience foods. When once we bought 1 KitKat it's marginally dearer to buy a multipack on offer at the end of an aisle. So you buy multipack I had to really think to myself, yes it may be better value but I know I will eat most of these over two days. If i want a piece of chocolate just buy one small piece.

I am fuller when I eat full fat cottage cheese for lunch; I don't look for fill me up foods. I always have two eggs for breakfast and never feel hungry/eat snacks before lunch. Whereas diets of low fat cereals, I felt hungry.

Just have no processed crap and build in exercise to daily life.

In short, i was fine until I went on a diet. At 5'8 and size 12/14 I was not overweight - until I went on diets. I am now double that size. 42yrs, Approx 24st. Metabolism buggered.

People mention upthread that they know literally no-one who could eat 2,000 calories a day without putting on weight.

I certainly can't now, but I used to work at a stables in my late teens with a couple of other girls, and were on the go non-stop literally from dawn to dusk 6 days a week. One day we calculated the calories we were eating. We were amazed, (as we were all as thin as rakes) but we were putting away over 3,500 calories a day.

My issue is that despite being 5’2’’ and a healthy weight, I have hands (and feet) of a 5’9’’ person.

Yeah, that's a good point Ottilie The suggested portions are assuming a person's hands are in perfect proportion with their bodies but surely it's pretty common for them to be extra small or a bit large?

Trump would be screwed.

2000 ish is fine I reckon, it assumes people exercise. With 'minimum' 150 minutes moderate exercise as defined by garmin I use about 2200 a day apparently, but I'm tall. If I'm doing more exercise it can easily average up to 2500.

That said I have no idea how many calories I actually eat.

And I don't use 500g of mince in bolegnese for 2