Portion Distortion
Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What seem to be normal and reasonable portions are often many more calories than our bodies need, and are certainly more calories than our bodies need to lose weight. Unless you are a swimmer, biker, or other athelte who burns a lot of calories every few days, then the portions offered to you in restuarants and in some packaged foods can get in the way of you reaching your weight loss goals. For example, a large cookie (like the ones you get at sandwich shops or burrito shops), are typically around 700 calories – that’s 5 times the size and calories in a healthy serving size for a cookie. And that’s more calories than you needed in your meal alone! What about before you eat? When you go to a mexican restaurant, you are typically offered around 40 tortialla chips – that’s 4 times a healthy serving size (of 10 chips), and provides an extra 400 calories before your meal comes…and that’s not to mention the cheese dip and margarita that you have with it! Calories add up very fast when portions are to large.
Remember – all things in moderation. It just requires additional effort in moderating when we live in such a supersized culture.