Do you really know what 1 cup of food looks like?
I’ve been using FitDay to track what I’ve been eating and my calories. For certain meals, I’ve had to estimate the portion size. Now I know I eat more than the suggested servings, so I’ve been pretty generous. For example, one “normal” serving of rice is 1 cup. I know I eat more than that, so I’ve been putting down about 1.5 - 2 cups.
Well last night, while making my lunches for the rest of the week, I decided to be anal about it and measure out my portions. I measured out 1 cup of cooked white rice and, ohmygawd, it was nothing! I realized that my “normal” serving of rice is 4 cups, at least. Egads! Is this why I can’t lose this belly? That also means my calorie count has been way off.
I’m going to be paying much more attention to portion size. Plus, after yet another unhealthy work-provided lunch Monday, I am bringing in my own lunches now. And I’m not going to do what I’ve done in the past, which is eating both lunches.
I’ll be having the same thing every day. I know it sounds boring, but it’s a simple, fairly healthy meal that I like a lot:
- 1 cup of white jasmine rice
- 2.4 ounces of canned tuna, packed in water, drained and sautéed in
- extra virgin olive oil
- minced garlic
- and eaten with 3 hot Thai chilies and a dash of fish sauce
This brings the calorie count for my lunch to about 308 calories. With the office provided lunches, my calorie count were 900 - 1800 calories. What a difference!
September 29th, 2008 at 6:43 am
Once upon a time I kept a food journal. In this journal I recorded foods, serving sizes, calories, fat, carbs, and protein. I learned so much about nutrition and healthy eating by doing this. One of my biggest surprises was just how small servings of food are, as measured by nutrition labels.
A serving of meat is like a deck of cards. A serving of cereal usually fits in a coffee cup. One serving of full-fat salad dressing is usually just enough to taste, but contains like 200 calories. Good for you, for paying attention to portion sizes.