Do you know the difference between a portion and a serving? by Hilary Keeley

February 4, 2014

If you are trying to lose weight or maintain weight, then being aware of the number of calories you are consuming is critical.

A portion is the amount of food you choose to eat. There is no standard portion size. It is whatever amount of food you put on your plate.
A serving is a standard amount used to help give advice about how much to eat or to identify how many calories and nutrients are in a food. (i.e. a cup, a ½ cup, 1 banana)

If you are eating food with a nutrition label, make sure to look at both the serving size and the servings per container. Foods that you might think of as healthy may actually be very high in calories. You can also you use your hand when you are eating food without labels or you can look up your favorite foods in advance on free websites like www.myfitnesspal.com or www.calorieking.com. If you unsure about how many calories you should be consuming in a day then use the USDA’s supertracker to set up a free online profile- https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx.

Diets4Life.org is a free online resource providing you with access to three meal plans, a fitness program and healthy tips through social media. Like us on Facebook & follow us @diets4lifeLLC on twitter.

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