How to use Hand-Portions To Help You Lose Weight.
Today we are going to talk about using Hand Portion and other tricks to help you be less overwhelmed about nutrition, and more CALM.
Today as you are reading through, I would like to challenge you to gain a new perspective – a new view when it comes to nutrition. And Instead of viewing nutrition as hard to maintain, too overwhelming to balance & difficult to even talk about, I want to challenge you to become calmer about it, to see nutrition as a skillset that you can learn & master.
Just as you spend hours & hours of practice to refine your fitness skills, you can also do the same to refine your nutrition skills. Later on, this skill will help you develop a better relationship with food, a quicker recovery for your body, the look you’ve been desiring & a more energetic you.
Sounds dreamy, right?
Well, if you’re an avid reader of my blogs, you’d know that this is not the 1st time I’ve talked about nutrition. I’ve shared a couple of times how learning to match energy intake to one’s needs & goals is the key to mastering the nutrition skill – and this can only be done by keeping track of what food we eat & when.
I understand how that can be a little complicated for some.
BUT, today, the goal is to make it less complicated for you!
Awareness Comes First
This is what I have found in order to change anything in our habits and life. We have to track it, because through the practice of tracking, observing and reflecting we become aware of where we can do better.
Portion sizes and the "normal meal" is vastly different for everyone, for one person small portion or rice is a half of a large dinner plate and a big portion is a full one. And on the flip side for some a big portion might be 2 table spoons worth of food. this is why as a nutrition coach, first thing that is needed in order to realistically evaluate calorie intake is to create some common language.
This means that in some way, to make nutrition less fluffy, less overwhelming and more concrete we have to find a mutual, easy to follow tracking method so we can start speaking the same language.
But its not for everyone to weighout and measure every single gram of chicken they eat. luckily there are other ways. Let’s talk about hand portioning!
What is Hand Portion?
Basically, hand portion is making use of your own hands as a personalized & portable portioning tool for food. Take note, you are not measuring your food, but rather using your hand to gauge the proper portion size.
Often, it goes like this – a serving of protein should equal to 1 palm, a serving of veggies should equal to 1 fist, a serving of carbs should equal to 1 cupped hand and a serving of fat should only equal to 1 thumb.
Simple, right?
The Advantages of Using Hand Portions
#1 Your hands are with you wherever you go.
You don’t need a measuring cup, a food scale & whatnot. You just need your hand! And the best part is, it’s with you wherever you go. At work & outside work, at your friend’s house, at a party & at buffet restaurants, it’s with you! So, wherever you go, you can be mindful with the portion of your food intake.
#2 Your hands are proportional to your body & always the same size.
And this is why it is quite a reliable reference point for food portions. It’s proportional to YOUR body. It’s almost as if it’s customized & built especially for YOU.
I know what else you might be thinking – is this really accurate? Just using your own hands to measure portions?
Studies have proven that hand portions are about 95% as accurate as measuring your food with cups & scales.
The tool commonly used to track calories & macros can actually be off by 20% and the 5% difference is mostly negligible. Even more, as each hand portion correlates to a certain amount of protein or carbs or fat, doing this method can actually count the calories & macros for you.
How many hand portion should I use each day?
Now, I also understand that this might be a question. A little disclaimer though, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in here. It always depends on what works best for your body & your goals.
But for starters, most people would go with this framework:
1-2 palms of protein at each meal
1-2 fists of veggies at each meal
1-2 fists of cupped hands of carbs at most meal
1-2 thumbs of fat-dense food at most meal
Yet this will all boil down to your goals, so you may need to adjust.
How to go from here?
I would totally get it if this may still be a little overwhelming for you and that’s okay! That’s where the help comes in.
I am a Precision Nutrition Certified Coach and I am confident that I can give you just the help you need. If you’re interested, you can sign up at the Alioth Nutrition Course and I’ll be there with you DAILY for 30 days to guide you every step of the way to calculate your nutrition requirements and to build the habit.
You can also book for a FREE 20-minute consultation with me if you’d like to test the waters.
Whatever would help boost your nutrition, I’m all for it!
Thank you so much for tuning in, and reading this far - if you know a friend that might benefit form this post make sure to share it with them.
