Portions

A portion of food is an amount that that satiates your hunger as well as well as satisfies your nutritional needs. Everybody's portions should be different depending on your weight, goals and metabolic type. Read the below article to help work out how much a portion is for you.

Which diet is best for me?

Race, age, gender and physical activity levels all affect how you should eat. How much energy in total you should you eat per day, the ratio of carbs to protein to fat and how many meals a day are all important questions to ask when choosing an eating plan. Which one diet will suit you best though and why?

As there are countless numbers of different diets and methods of eating in this world, it has certainly taught us that ONE DIET DOES NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE! You may have tried Atkins, the Zone, South Beach Diet, Fit for Life or Body For Life and had limited success, but then seen a friend try the same thing and have sensational success and still be able to maintain it. Why? Had you not stuck to it for long enough? We're you not strict enough? The latest research shows we are all capable of having differing metabolic types at different times of our lives. We all process different foods at different speeds and in different ways which in turn affect the health and shape of our body. The Metabolic Typing Diet book explains this very well. Buy this book, fill out the 65 questions to determine whether you are a protein type, mixed type or carbohydrate type. If you have be interested in nutrition, then you would have heard countless times by now, that eating small regular meals over the day in approximately 3-4 HOUR intervals is the best way to eat to stay lean and maintain high energy. This is regardless of what type of diet you are eating. If you eat 3 meals or 6 meals per day though, it is important to know how much energy you need to eat each day and what that looks like in your hand or on your plate each meal. Everyone in the family shouldn't be served the same amount of food each night! Regardless of what your metabolic type is, it is important to be eating carbohydrate. All carbohydrates are different and affect your body differently. The GLYCEMIC INDEX proves this. An apple and boiled potato are made of completely different types of carbohydrate and therefore affect your body differently. Eating smaller portions of the good carbohydrates (low GI carbs under 55) is the key rather than omitting the foods altogether.

How much should I be eating of what each day?

FOOD PER DAY = BODY WEIGHT x ENERGY EXPEDITURE GOAL x % based on Metabolic Type

(Consult a personal trainer on how to calculate this)

FOOD PER MEAL= ENERGY PER DAY / NUMBER OF MEALS YOU WANT TO EAT

If using metabolic typing %'s, your macronutrient breakdown would look like this:

Goal Carbs Protein and Fat

1/ Protein Type

30%

70%

2/ Mixed Type
50%

50%

3/ Carbohydrate Type
60%

40%

*% of food substrates (carbohydrate, protein and fat) needed to be
consumed with each meal each day, depending on your Metabolic Type.
Fat and protein usually tend to compliment each other so are grouped together.

NOTE: Gaining Muscle
More carbohydrate consumption per meal (particularly your first three meals) has been shown to be very important for those trying to increase muscle size. If you are a protein type and you are training specifically for muscle growth, try eating a little more carbohydrate each meal when you are training hard.

Portion Size - EASY METHOD

YOUR FIST SIZE (round foods; apple, sweet potato)
or
PALM SIZE (flat foods; meat) or HANDFUL (small or loose objects; rice)

Bigger person = Bigger hand = bigger portion of food. Males are generally eating bigger portions.

Portion Size - LONGER MORE ACCURATE METHOD

Unfortunately, as convenient as it may be, a FIST SIZE, PALM SIZE and HANDFUL of a lot of similar foods have totally different amounts of carbohydrate, protein and fat as well as a varying glycemic index. Therefore if you are serious about your training and nutrition, it is important to be able to recognise what foods contain. It is well known that no two pieces of the food have the exact same amount of nutrients in them, but should you be fastidious and need some maths behind what you are putting in your mouth, then read below. A handy thing to do would be to make up your own

Nutrition Book

where you can write down anything nutrition related for yourself. As you can see in the below cereal example, the carbohydrate content varies considerably. This is where you simply can't always just use the hand, fist or palm rule for your food all the time.

EG: cereal (in grams per 100gm of food product)

Cereal Carbohydrate Protein Fat GI

Lowan Multibran
38.8

13.8

5.2

Low (below 55)

Vogels Soy and Linseed Wheat Bran Cereal
72.4

16

1.6

Low (below 55)

Sanitarium Weetbix
67

12gm

1.3gm

100

Say if you are aiming at eating 25 grams of carbohydrate with each meal then look at the back of the nutritional panel to work out how much of that food you need to eat and if there is a short fall or protein or carbs that you need to make up this meal or next. You can also print off the GLYCEMIC INDEX BOOKLET which lists the amount of carbohydrate per 100gm for a lot of foods, should you not have a nutrition panel to consult (usually the case with things like vegetables). eg from above table: To get 25gm of carbohydrate from Vogels Soy and Linseed Cereal 100gm / 72.4 (gm of carbs) = 1.38 1.38 x 25gm (amount of carbs you want) = 34.53gm of cereal Therefore, 35gm of Soy and Linseed cereal will give you your required amount of carbohydrates needed. You'll be able to eat a greater volume of a cereal or any food when it has a lower carbohydrate count. You've then still got to consider the carbs and protein in the milk as well, you would add but for now just concentrate on getting your carbohydrates correct with the cereal.

In general the majority of foods are going to have more carbohydrates in them, so work out how much of the food you should get carbohydrate wise, then think about what extra protein source you will add next.

Summary

- Determine your Metabolic Type and associated percentage or amount of each macronutrient you should be aiming to eat each meal. - Use your hand as your guide to portion size. When in doubt eat less. If you are serious about your training and nutrition, take the longer route as mentioned above to determine portions of your favourite foods. - Print off the glycemic Index list and take note of the foods which have lower G.I. ratings and amount of carbohydrates per 100gm for your favourite foods. If your favourite foods look bad, then look nearby on the list for a better alternative. - Learn to appreciate cooking more and take note of what you are putting in your mouth!