How Important Is Portion Size, And How Do I Know What Portions Are Right For Me?

February 1, 2009 -- Question: How important is portion size, and how do I know what portions are right for me?

Answer: There are three things important in thinking about a diet. One is how often you eat. People who successfully lose weight eat three meals a day. People that are overweight tend to eat a very large amount of their food in the evenings. Secondly the amount of food that you eat. There are tricks to reducing the size of the portions, for example eating in smaller plates. And the third is what type of foods are you actually eating. Fruits and vegetables have much less calories per size than do foods with lots of fat like meat. So it's much more important that you increase the amount of fruits and vegetables and decrease the amount of high fat foods.