Do you know the difference between serving size and portion size? If you are trying to lose weight, improve your eating habits, or change the way your body looks you need to understand how portions and servings are different. Confusing them could ruin your diet. Let me be the first to say that I was confused as to what was the correct portion or serving size that I needed to have when I first started. It took a lot of trial and errors to get this correct.
What is a serving?
Serving size is the amount of any single food that you should eat when you sit down at mealtime. The easiest way of figuring out the serving size of your food is to check the Nutrition Facts Label.
What is a Portion?
A portion size is the amount of food that you actually consume at a mealtime or at a snack time. For example, let's say you snack on Smart Popcorn low-calorie. A serving size, according to the Nutrition Facts label is 7.5 cups. But there are two servings in each full size bag. But there are two servings in each full size bag. So if you eat the whole bag, your portion size was 15 cups. Which means you just over ate!!!!
Keep in mind that portion size is the key when you record your food intake (if you keep a food journal). When you record a food that you've eaten, it's easy to write down what you ate without paying attention to serving size and portion size.
Let's say you eat Cheerios in the morning for breakfast. If you fill a large bowl, you are probably eating more than one serving, which is one cup. And often, cereal eaters (like myself) refill the bowl, which only adds to the portion size.
This is what I HIGHLY SUGGEST you invest in some measuring cups!! You can't go wrong and it teaches you to watch what you are consuming so you will get the results you were looking for at the end.
~Wendy
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