The number of food servings that you will have per meal and in a day will also vary.
But it is also helpful for you to know why your portion sizes may vary from meal to meal, so that you can listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues and feel more comfortable with your eating habits.
There are so many different factors that can influence how much you eat and if you’re not aware of these factors, it can cause you to eat portions that aren’t in alignment with your body’s needs.
Then you will be in a better position of understanding why you want to take a bigger or a smaller portion so as to take the right amount of nutrients that your body requires.
Read on to find out which tips to consider when selecting your food portions so that you can improve your understanding of how to rely on hunger and fullness cues.
Why Your Food Portions Can Change
Remember the following as you seek to identify your levels of hunger and hence the kinds of portions you should be taking.
1. What You’ve Already Eaten (or Not Eaten)
Another thing that would be useful in determining your food portions is the amount of food you have taken or have not taken and the kind of food you have taken in relation to the nutritional value of the food.
For instance if you have deliberately or accidentally overemphasized on taking less food in the day, the body will react by developing a ravenous appetite that may compel you to take large quantities of food. They are also very disadvantageous because they lead to overeating since you are so hungry at this point.
Also when you starve yourself for several days and then take in a lot of calories because you are extremely hungry this may lead to increased blood sugar levels. These can make us feel less satisfied and satiated in the end and thus we keep on going in this cycle.
On the other hand, for instance you have had a heavy meal in the evening and at the moment you would wish to have a dessert. In a way, that part of dessert will naturally be on the smaller side because you were well fed during dinner time. It is therefore possible to take a very small dinner then take more of dessert because our hunger signals were not well sated.
It’s also vital to look at how well you fed your body through the foods that you decided to take into your system and how well you did it. If you have taken your Foundational Five meal, you will not feel hungry between the meals, but if you have not taken a balanced meal, you will feel hungry after some few hours.
2Activity Levels
We also need to consider how much we are active in a given day and how much food we should be taking.
In a day that you are more active, you will probably find yourself requiring more food to feed your body for the activity you are engaged in. To this end, ensure you are taking carbohydrates and healthy fats that will enable your body to have a steady supply of energy as well as some protein to help in rebuilding of the muscles.
The only thing you should be aware of is that when you find yourself moving more than usual, you should also try to adjust your portions.
On the other hand, if you are an active person and you are having a rest or you are on a idle day, then you do not need as much food in your body and you need to watch out for changes in your hunger level.
3. Environmental Triggers
There is one more factor that can affect the portion size you consume without even realizing it and that is environmental cues. These are anything in your environment that are making you eat something or make you eat certain quantity.
Some of the environmental triggers may be quite helpful, for example, having healthier foods placed at eye level in the refrigerator instead of in the drawers at the bottom. This may help you to select larger portions of vegetables and greens because these will be the first things that come to your mind.
But, there are certain environmental triggers that may not be conducive to the kind of eating you wish to have for yourself. For instance, one of the members in our Mindful Nutrition Method™ program realized that she used to take chips or cookies in the afternoon. After some analysis she came to the conclusion that this was so because on her way to other offices or to get a cup of tea she would pass by the office kitchen and saw the snacks and just took some.
It means being aware of your eating habits and if there is a chance that the environment may affect your portion sizes and when it will happen.
There is also another factor that can affect your portion size unknowingly and this is the environmental factors. These are anything that is in your environment that is making you eat or make you eat certain quantity of food.
There are some environmental triggers that may be very helpful, for instance having healthier food choices easily visible in the fridge as opposed to stored at the bottom of the drawers. It can help you to select larger portions of vegetables and greens, because these will be at the forefront of your mind.
But, there are some environmental triggers that may not be conducive to the eating behaviours you wish to adopt. For instance, a lady who is in our Mindful Nutrition Method™ program realized that she would normally take chips or cookies in the afternoon. After some time she got to understand that this was so because she would pass by the office kitchen to attend meetings or to get tea and the snacks were just within her reach.
Awareness of your eating habits will let you know when you are likely to be influenced by your surroundings and therefore help you understand when you are likely to be serving yourself more food than you require.
4. Stress Levels
Stress can affect your food portions in two ways namely.
Smaller portions
When stress is first introduced, your appetite should decrease because your SNS triggers your body to enter the “fight or flight” mode to deal with stress. The hormonal system is activated and the brain signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline which makes the heart beat faster and pumps blood to the muscles and the heart to enable you take action and thereby suppressing the hunger signal temporarily (1). After the stressor has gone away your SNS will go back to normal.
If you are not aware that stress affects your appetite and reduce your appetite, you may realize that you are taking less food than normal. It is crucial to understand that the hunger signals which we follow may not always be accurate (for instance, in the case of stress) and hence, one should eat healthy regardless of the same.
Larger portions
The second way stress can affect your portions is when you are under long term stress. If stress is not properly dealt with or reduced then the SNS will keep on being activated to handle the stress.
This causes a release of cortisol in your body which is why it’s commonly known as the stress hormone. While adrenaline will make you ignore your hunger, cortisol will make you eat more (2). If your stress response is still on then your cortisol levels may still be high.
If you are going through this chronic stress, then you will be more likely to experience physical hunger and at the same time, you will also be more likely to have the comfort or cravings for carbohydrates or sugary foods.
Sugar can elicit dopamine — the happiness chemical, stimulating the reward pathways of the brain (3).
These stress eating will make you take larger scoops of food from those foods.
5. Distracted or Rushed Eating
Distracted or rushed eating is simply eating when you are distracted or when you eat quickly. This often includes eating while watching television, at your workplace, using your phone or any other activity that does not involve focusing on the process of eating.
Distraction or lack of time will make it very hard for one to use his or her hunger and fullness as a guide to the amount of food to take. This may make you overeat or under eat since you are not keen on your body signals to show that you have had enough.
6. Sleep Deprivation can Affect the Amount of Food You Take:
Studies have also indicated that poor quality of sleep raises the rate of food cravings especially processed or sugary foods, overeating in the day and having lower intakes of fruits and vegetables.
If you feel tired, try having meals that are rich in protein and fat so that you do not feel weak throughout the day!
7. Your Cycle:
Iron deficiency affects about 30 percent of premenopausal women, and if you’re a vegetarian or vegan or have heavy menstrual bleeding, you are more likely to be iron deficient. Also, menstruation reduces the level of iron in the body not even mentioning the long-term effects of Iron deficiency anemia (5).
That is why you may feel more tired during the menstrual cycle, which is the body’s way of telling you that it requires energy. Carbohydrates are the body’s quick source of energy, therefore you may find yourself wanting carbohydrate containing foods or needing more of it to satisfy that need.
It is advisable to take foods rich in iron especially during your menstrual period in order to support your body needs and energy.
8. How Hydrated You Are
Water is involved in all the functions in the body and this includes metabolism. When you take enough of water in a day, you keep the digestion going while at the same time boosting the metabolism, and many other functions (1)(2).
If this is the case, then you will always be thinking that you are hungry while your body is just asking for water. It will also help with maintaining accurate signals regarding the need for food in the body hence avoiding overeating.
If you think you are hungry, then have 1 glass of water and then wait for 10-15 minutes and check your hunger signal again. If you’re still hungry then you might be dealing with actual hunger, and if it goes away, then you might try drinking a little more water and it might just be that you were thirsty.
How You Can Strengthen Your Ability to Find the Right Portions
The right portions are not the easiest things to locate and this requires time and effort. For you to be able to do that, it entails that you be able to listen and learn the body and find what it feels like to be hungry and/or full and then also have the knowledge to apply this information constructively. This is what we assist our members with inside of the Mindful Nutrition Method™ program.
You can join our free guided workshop here where we guide you through an exercise to understand your hunger and fullness signals and know how to follow our Mindful Nutrition Method™.
