Thread: Portion Control

Ok, I know the SW literature says that there is no need to weigh out portions and to simply stop eating when you are full. There are a couple of problems with this for me:

a) I find it very difficult to tell from dry ingredients (eg rice/pasta) how big the cooked portion will be
b) I tend to eat everything on my plate. If I've served myself (say) 50g of pasta, I'll eat that and be satisfied but if I've served myself twice that amount, I won't stop until I've eaten all of it.
c) It takes me a while to realize I'm full. Often by the time, I'm 'full' I'm actually overfull if you see what I mean?

It would be much easier for me to weigh out dry ingredients, know that what I've cooked is an appropriate portion and be able to eat without wondering if I'm overdoing it. So, can anyone tell me what constitutes an appropriate portion of pasta and rice? Dry weight ideally so I can weigh before I start cooking to reduce waste.

Many thanks!

I've been following EE since I started in Jan. Only last night I opened my Red and Green book. I'm thinking about trying a red day. You have to measure your rice, pasta and potatoes. Maybe try that.

I'm the same. I could eat a tonne of rice. I could just keep going. Chips too. When I'm making chips I'm never sure how many potatoes are enough to peel. I always end up with loads!

The more replies about this the better, I really struggle mentally with the portion sizes but I have done very well so far which adds to the mental anguish, weird but I'm just making sure that if I have a goodly sized plate of main, that I increase the superfree that goes with. But an expert view would be really good

Use the portion sizes on the packets of rice/pasta etc or the portion sizes from a red day

Have u tried cooking some of the recipes from the SW site or books.

These have in them the quantities needed for each component and are a good start for your portions. There are just two of us in my house but I make recipes for 4 and serve onto 2 plats 2 freezer pots for another day.

Anything from 60g - 80g (dry) is an acceptable portion to have. 100g when you're really hungry. I feel over 100g would be over eating.

I'm exactly the same as you which is why I struggle with sw a bit, but if I weigh these things out I feel I still have some control and I know I haven't overrate.

Good luck x

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That's very helpful. Thank you. xx

I too need to learn about portion control, I love my food and will eat everything on my plate lol xxx

Why don't you use the guidelines on the packets? I think100g of dried pasta is one portion, so just use those guidelines on the back of pasta/ rice packets

Just incase some of you aren't sure you CAN'T have rice on a red day and if you have pasta it has to be a measured amount wholewheat pasta as your HE B

Thanks, everyone. Some good ideas there. I've just checked my book and wholewheat pasta as a HEB on Red days is 35g (dry weight). I'm doing EE with the odd Green day here and there but I think I'll use that as a rough guide. 35g seems like quite a small portion to me, but I'm willing to give it a go and see if it fills me up! Just a case of finding out what works for me I suppose. Thanks again for the suggestions. xx

That's the only thing which puts me off red days abit, I love pasta and potatoes and the HEB amount just isn't enough for me.
its always worth giving a few red days a try though, you might find them to help balance out your portions xxx

I have to measure pasta and rice otherwise I would make enough for the whole street (and eat it!). I do 100g as a pasta portion and 75g for rice.

The red day hexb is only about 120 calories though, surely not a normal portion of pasta? I'd have double this on green/extra easy

Originally Posted by Rochelle1

The red day hexb is only about 120 calories though, surely not a normal portion of pasta? I'd have double this on green/extra easy

I guess I'll just have to play around with portion sizes and see what works for me. Hmmm...maybe I should get some of Rosemary Conley's portion pots? ;-)

Or maybe I'm overthinking this!