In our last basic nutrition tips article we talked about using the simple tool of using a 2 habit/item checklist for the backbone of your meals.

This week we will take things a little further and walk you through how to plate a meal for yourself without second guessing or strict rules. Having ease and flexibility can key for making something a daily habit that doesn’t get thrown out when you have a tough day. This can be a great way to take the stress out of figuring out portions regardless of what your goals may be as they relate to nourishing your body. One of the most tried an true ways to do this works great for both portions of already prepared food but also cooking from scratch. In today’s examples we will be showing you a real life food example that is prepared versus cooking after. If you have food already cooked, perhaps are at a salad bar or hot food station, or maybe even a restaurant if you eat out on the go a lot this makes things a breeze. However, you can also use this system when making a meal from raw ingredients.

Weighing and Measuring Food Can Be Problematic

Have you ever tried to weigh or measure the food or drink you eat in some way like tracking water or perhaps counting calories in an app that quantifies your entries nutrients after weighing portions on a food scale? While some of you may find this easier than other, it can be definitely be a tedious and frustrating task; and in the end may still not be very sustainable let alone accurate since in the U.S. the FDA allows labels to be off by up to 20%. USDA is responsible for eggs, meat and poultry mostly. Thus, the 100 calorie serving of yogurt may actually be 80 or 120. This get’s complicated further when you have food items that are not labeled and vary in size or content like fruit or perhaps cuts of meat that may have more or less carbohydrate/sugar or fat content. This isn’t to say that accounting for things you put in your body isn’t a valuable and insightful tool. It can definitely help you figure out ways to improve your nutrition when you see things spelled out and quantified and we will sometimes suggest doing this as an exercise to check in when working with health and wellness coaching clients. However, you may not need to do it so precisely.

Another frustrating and related issue that you will likely encounter in the health and fitness space is nourishment from food increasingly being viewed as some sort of transactional relationship to be precisely measured like weighing and measuring each meal. There is often a message that goes along conflated with goals of weight loss or some sort of body builder type diet. The idea is that food and meals need to tightly monitored, measured and perhaps even restricted in the case of weight loss. One issue already present here is that not everyone’s goal with food is to lose weight or look like a ripped bodybuilder. Some of you may want to maintain or promote better health, feel your best energy levels, or maybe you even want to gain weight in the form of muscle. Perhaps you have had disordered eating in your past and engaging in behaviors that may make you hyperfocus on food quantities only exacerbates things. Much of what you may see on popular media takes the idea of food restriction for weight loss and makes it seem like an imperative for any relationship with food (But hopefully not!). Basically, Unless you are keeping exact count then you will not be able to lose weight or perhaps reach some other goals tied to what you put in your body. Part of this message is true in the sense that you do indeed need to consume less calories from food or perhaps build muscle and/or move more than you were previously to lose weight. However, the hyperfocus and idea that you need to weigh and measure your food to lose weight, get in great shape, or make sure you are getting enough nutrients from food is not true, so don’t fall for it!

A Better System

One really great Tool that has been around for a long time is the Precision Nutrition (PN) hand portion guide and YOUR HANDS! Your hands are always with you and they may be really darn close to the accuracy of a scale when you take certain things into account. More on this…

I have personally been using this system for a LONG time (about 15 years) with brief weigh and measure excursions (and one very long 2 year one). I have maintained a body weight of ~190-198lbs with body fat percentages of 10-15% for about 5 years now both using hand portions and weighing and measuring very occasionally as a check in. The reality is that I likely didn’t even need to do that for myself. My body fat percentage is at about 12% right now using only casual visual portioning as outlined above since I tend to eat similarly from meal to meal as far as portions. When I get below 10% body fat, I personally don’t feel or perform my best and since I’m not 100% physique driven this range works great for me and I tend to stay at about 195lbs these days.

I am listing the above figures here for reference since these variables are used to calculate hypothetical ranges of energy (calorie) needs along with daily activity. My current caloric requirements to stay happy where I am are approximately 2900-3400 calories a day depending on the type of day and I usually eat and drink somewhere in that range barring my Sunday brunch day where I enjoy a meal out and some excellent pastries and mocha I like to order! Like I said, this is what I do and you may be different in your goals as well as day to day, but wanted to put out some numbers for this experiment and reference. But on to the experiment…

I thought I’d do a brief week long experiment checking in and calibrating hand portions to see if it still was accurate for me and my needs. The result:

I came in thinking I may be quite off on some meals but it turned out barring my Sunday brunch out, I was pretty dead on using hand portion guidance! I took some poorly lit images below of a really delicious Greek beef dish cooked at home with 97/3 lean beef, a variety of vegetables, some farfalle pasta here for lunch the next day (though we had some pita at home as well), and some feta with light cold pressed olive oil. I neglected to add the oil in the graphic below, but it likely would have put the meal closer to 700 calories with some of what I will also mention on food nutrient classification. With 3 meals a day that are quite similar ranging from 700-1000 calories (but heavier in fat in the morning) I calculated some days to be at ~ 2800 calories and other days to be closer to 3350 with snacks. I like to eat some popcorn and fruit in the evening after dinner but more on those caveats shortly…

With this one meal pictured along with numbers we will compare it to the PN macronutrient portion guideline to see how it held up here:

What you may notice is that the hand portions are near identical to what I ended up weighing out to check when you multiple by 2 since I use 2 portions for each meal for my needs (and sometimes 3 in meals not shown)! You may also see that you need to adjust for the fat slightly in the beef, which I did, but when you do, it actually evens out to what 2 thumbs would have been per the PN guide for the entire meal (17.5g vs 18g). Also not shown is the smaller amounts of protein I ate in the form of the feta cheese, pasta and even the veggies had some protein. Similarly, some protein sources can have quite a bit more carbohydrate or fat like lentils (carb) or whole milk (fat). These quantities for my meal above can be somewhat negligible but they add up and likely contribute to the meal being closer to 700 calories as well.

The Take Home: Though I have been using hand portions for a long time and am fairly dialed in with doing it regularly, almost anyone can do this with some practice and a pair of eyeballs (technically even without). It’s so simple and so close to accurate compared to tabulation using an app (which I also did using Cronometer) that the difference shown was 37 calories total (663 via Cronometer). The one I calculated by hand was only 5.5% off. If you refer back to the FDA levels of tolerance for food labels that’s well within 20%. In other words, it’s possible that my hand portion was just as accurate and hypothetically could be more though we will never know for sure.

What may be even more important is that for me and many others I’ve helped use it regularly is that it’s far simpler, more sustainable, and removes much of the quantification and disconnection from what food really is. It’s closer to intuitive eating. Food is nourishment, connection to your body, and indeed also quantities of macronutrients, vitamins and minerals as well. It just doesn’t need to be a numbers game unless you are a physique competitor, pro athlete with very stringent requirements (or weight cuts), or you really prefer it.

Tailoring to Goals Made Simpler

One last thing you may be wondering and want to come back to is how to use this for YOUR goals. Afterall, what good is this system if you can only use it to maintain.

If you want to gain weight, simply add 1-2 thumbs of fat and/or 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbohydrate daily until you are moving toward your goal. (2-3 total portions for 200-300 calories daily)

If you want to lose weight, simply subtract 1-2 thumbs of fat and/or 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbohydrate daily until you are moving toward your goal. (2-3 total portions for 200-300 calories daily)

If you want to gain muscle or improve performance and energy simply add a thumb or cupped handful (or two) of carbohydrate and/or fat daily until you are moving toward your goal.

Everyone is a little different but most reading this will likely do well with 1-2 hand portions per meal of the main macronutrients (protein, carbohydrate, fat, …and also vegetables) shown. If you eat a wide variety of mostly whole and minimally processed food, you will likely also get your daily requirements of micronutrients as well. However, you may have requirements that are different and need some adjustment. To know for sure, it’s always best to get a more definitive or tailored plan. We offer this service to all coaching clients, but you can also do this for free right now here.

General Rules of Thumb (pun intended)

1. Start using hand portions as outlined to suit your appetite by making time for meals and eating slowly. Use the guide as a way to assume proper portions but also adjust more or less carbs or fat (or swap one for the other) per your preferences and goals.

2. Not all nutrient types contain all of that one nutrient. For instance, proteins will likely also have some fat; and carbohydrates may also have some protein. That is ok as long as you categorize the same foods the same way.

3. The system works best when you consistently qualify/categorize foods the same way. I.E. always count cheeses as fats. If you are vegan or vegetarian, some of your proteins will likely also have a lot of carbohydrate so what an omnivore may count as a carb (i.e. legumes and beans), you will count as a protein. If a meal has two servings of protein dense carbs as a mostly all plant based eater then you can count one serving toward protein and one toward carbohydrate.

4. Highly processed snacks like potato chips and cookies likely count as both a cupped handful of carbs and a thumb of fat. For instance, a cupped handful of chips likely counts as both a cupped handful of carbs and a thumb of fat.

5. Alcohol typically is considered to have 7 calories/gram; but, it’s not always straightforward like in the case of a sweet mixed drink or high content craft beer. Consider regular size glasses of wine (5oz) or a 12oz light beer 1 cupped hand of carbohydrate or 1 thumb of fat (for caloric purposes). Consider mixed drinks and heavier content craft beers to be closer to 2 (or one of each)

6. Consistency always matter most like with any system, so make sure you do the same here and soon you won’t even need to think about it.

We have a few more spots remaining in our holistic health coaching program for Winter through Spring. If you want to take the guesswork out of nutrition and what will work best for you and your wellness goals, we would love to help you!

Sign up here for a consult to reserve a spot:

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=20706020&appointmentType=17238949