What is Portion Control? Is it about Bites Consumed?

If you ask ChatGPT to write about Portion Control you get meaningless verbiage because they cannot tell you how much to eat. How much to put in your mouth when you are eating a meal!

For example:

Portion control is a dietary approach that focuses on managing the quantity of food you consume during meals and snacks. The goal is to eat in moderation and avoid overeating. This approach is commonly used for weight management and promoting a balanced and healthy diet. Portion control involves being mindful of the amount of food you put on your plate and listening to your body's hunger and fullness cues.

Here are some key principles of a portion control diet:

Balanced Meals: Include a variety of food groups such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and healthy fats in each meal.

Mindful Eating: Pay attention to your body's hunger and fullness signals. Eat slowly and savor each bite to give your body time to register that it is satisfied.

Smaller Servings: Use smaller plates and bowls to help control portion sizes. This can create the illusion of a fuller plate even with smaller amounts of food.

Use Measuring Tools: Initially, measuring cups, scales, or visual references (such as a deck of cards for meat servings) can be helpful to gauge appropriate portion sizes.

Avoid Distractions: Eating in front of the TV or computer can lead to mindless eating. Focus on your meal, and you're more likely to recognize when you're full.

Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues. Stop eating when you feel satisfied, not overly full.

Snack Wisely: Choose healthy snacks in appropriate portions to curb hunger between meals.

By practicing portion control, individuals can maintain a healthy weight, improve digestion, and reduce the risk of overeating-related health issues. It's important to note that the specific dietary needs and portion sizes can vary from person to person based on factors such as age, gender, activity level, and overall health goals. Consulting with a registered dietitian or healthcare professional can provide personalized guidance tailored to your specific needs.

By practicing portion control, individuals can maintain a “healthy” weight?—What is this number? Everyone is afraid to say what is a healthy weight for an average American female who is 5'4 inches tall? Or her male counterpart who is 5’91/2 inches tall. BMI gives us a 20 pound get out of fatness free for all. Thsu a 5’6'' female who weighs 185 pounds is NOT obese. While the Hamwi formula says a 5’6'' female is obese. At 160 pounds!!

Then ChatGPT goes on about how portion control improves digestion which is NOT true if the PORTIONS of ”healthy”—or low calories foods—are huge. Chat says PC reduces the risk of overeating-related health issues. NO—since binging is not covered under the portion placation. It's important to note that the specific dietary needs and portion sizes can vary from person to person—NO NO—based on factors such as age, gender, activity level, and overall health goals. Human adult stomachs—before stretching—are the same . Consulting with a registered dietitian or healthcare professional can provide personalized guidance tailored to your specific needs is just useless words.

The list of seven points above NEVER says how much to eat. The list gives tips to reduce consumption, but to what level? If you don’t know how many bites you consume each day or more importantly at each feeding then you may cut back but at what number do you stop? It's all very uncomfortable because no one wants to name the names but I will. The World Health Organization says forget BMI; of course, they don’t even mention Hamwi because the BMI was adopted in 1985 because Hamwi would have shown Americans to be so much fatter than the public numbers. They say just measure the waistline and if yours is 35 inches then you are obese!! Some say that men can go to 40 inches before they are called obese, but why? Men don’t get pregnant.

Now how is quantity measured? BY BITES. And bites don’t translate to calories. A half cup of avocado is 117 calories while a half cup of Jello is 5. Each one can be measured in bites which your sensitized stomach will count for you once you train it to chew 26 bites in a meal. And a meal has three different parts and 3-5 bites extra for dessert.

So portions are useless until you bite the bullet and understand that stomach size not calories is the goal. Thus a maximum of 80bites per day and calories are reflected in the food choices so if you want MORE calories you fatten up the bite but you do not increase the number of bites.