Portion Control Diet - Why it is Still the Most Affective

Portion control or a diet where you size down your servings is increasingly becoming one of the most obvious and successful methods of dieting and keeping the number of calories that you consume down. It has been so successful that many trainers and dieticians would first recommend this diet to start off with anyone that wants to slim down. Compared to any other slimming diet out there, this is by far the simplest and is relatively easy to follow.

The diet simple requires you to concentrate on the portion for your meals rather than the calories or even what you have to eat. The basic requirement is to have you reduce what you normally eat by half. Take your steak and only eat half, take-away the rest so you can eat it again later. It really is as simple as that. Naturally you don’t need to only eat half, but most dieticians and nutritionists will recommend that you try half first and work forward if you find yourself too hungry.

The problem in our modern society is that portion sizes have grown exponentially over the years. A recent study by John Hopkins Hospital research department showed that over the last 30 years, our portions have actually increased 10 fold. The greatest increases were in typical fast food restaurants with foods that are high in refined carbohydrates and fat content. Just to quantify this, the normal serving of pasta has increased six-fold. The weight of a serving of cookies has grown eight-fold. The size of salads has increased two-fold and the size of steaks have also doubled.

The main reason for this increase in portion size is mainly down to good ol’ competition. Most people in America know the importance of value thus for the same low price getting more food is seen as valuable and economical. Many fast-food restaurants have had to upsize their servings just to keep up with competition and the demand for “more” by the customer. As a result today, the calorie intake by many Americans far exceeds their body’s requirements and thus we continue to grow more obese everyday. The problem is that this has spilled out into the whole food industry with frying pans, baking pans etc all being made larger by demand.

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