On Healthy Living

It’s important to understand the difference in a portion and a serving, especially if you are trying to lose or maintain weight.

A portion is the quantity of food you choose to eat at one time. For example…a half of a pie may be a portion to you, while a slice may be a portion to someone else.

A serving is more precise and is a specific amount of food as listed on labels. This isn’t necessarily the amount suggested to eat, but a guide to let you know how many calories and nutrients are in a specific serving size.

Watching your portions is important. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know there are many more calories in a half of a pie than one slice. But, if you don’t know how many calories and nutrients are in that one slice, you could be consuming a lot more calories than you realize.

It’s important to read food labels carefully. They list the calories and nutrients per serving and most packaged foods have more than one serving. By not paying attention to what is in each serving, it’s easy to consume too many calories, fats and sodium. For those on any type of restricted diet, it’s even more important to understand what each serving contains.

If you are trying to lose or maintain weight, pay close attention to your portions, but educate yourself on servings and what each contain. It can make the difference in diet success or failure.

Kathy Dove wrote this on April 26th, 2008 and filed it under Healthy Living, Healthy Eating, Weight Loss |