Portion Size and Meal Timing for weight loss success

Portion sizes are most important even when choosing the right types of food to eat. If you eat too much of anything, you will gain weight or not be able to lose it.

The size of the meals and snacks that we eat and are served today is ridiculous. How many times a week do you say "oh I am so full?" This needs to stop. We need to retrain ourselves to stop eating when we are satisfied and not a second later.

You need to get honest with yourself. Most of us say that our diets aren't too bad and we dont eat too much rubbish. If you really think about it or better yet record what you eat for a few days, you will find this is not really the case. It's also confusing about what is and isn't healthy anyway. Get real and decide that you will take the steps needed. Just do it and lose the excuses and reasons why you cant succeed. It is up to you and you only. Take responsibilty for yourself and your choices.

One way to make this a lot easier is to make the most of better meal timing. We should be eating no sooner than 2 hours after our last meal and no longer than 3 hours since. This will take some planning especially at first when you will often here yourself saying "is it time to eat again already?" If you are not at home, you will need to plan ahead. Pack suitable snacks and meals so that you have no excuse to make bad food choices.

Eating this way will mean you are having 5 or 6 'meals' per day. It is not grazing which has become a popular saying lately. Grazing to me means constantly eating. How on earth would you keep track of quantities if you were eating continuously?

Meal timing is just that, timing your meals in correct portion sizes and sticking to the plan. Eat every 2-3 hours!

A good nutrition plan for weight loss will start with including a serve of protein with each and every meal or snack. A portion of protein is around 100g of lean chicken, beef, lamb, salmon or pork or 130g of white fish. Eggs are also great and you should include them a few times per week at least.

Up to two meals per day could also include a small portion of starchy carbohydrates OR yoghurt. A small portion means just that. One slice of wholemeal or multigrain bread or 1/2 cup old fashioned oats for instance. Or try a medium sized potato or piece of sweet potato. A serve of yoghurt is 100-150g of full fat yoghurt, but remember to check the sugar content.

Last but definately not least, be sure to include fibrous vegetables or fruit with every snack or meal to make sure you are not hungry. But dont go overboard, being stuffed full in not the same as eating till satisfied. Try to eat a variety of vegetables and fruits to make the most of the many nutrients that they provide.

Check out the list of healthy food choices and the list of foods to avoid to help with your food choices. On these lists I advise against eating processed foods especially grain products, but if you only include them once or twice per day at the very most and in the small portion sizes above, you shouldn't go wrong. One of the reasons I advise against eating them, is because we eat them in such large portion sizes which displaces much healthier food options from out diets. They also cause bloating and our bodies just can't process them properly. Even if you don't notice the symptoms, they are there. I avoid grain products whenever possible, but that's a bit extreme for most at least in the beginning.

So you can see this is going to take some committment. Just like your training program, you will have to be consistent and dedicated. You must adopt a no excuses attitude if you want to succeed. Plan out your meals each day and you will soon find that if becomes second nature to pack something without even thinking about it.

To get more specific advice for you regarding portion sizes. meal timing and food choices go to personalised nutrition plans page.