The Handful Diet: Using your Hand to Control Portion Sizes

Weight loss is a difficult task for many individuals, owing to sizable costs, time, and effort to reduce body weight to a particular healthy range.  For some, weight loss means being more active and simply watching what they eat, whereas some prefer portion controlled foods.  If you are someone who struggles to maintain your body weight, this article is for you.  Listed below is a technique that may help with portion controlling when preparing meals in handful portion size.

The handful diet is not a fad nor is it something new.  The handful diet is a way to control food portion sizes so that you prevent over eating.  We all know that over eating occurs mostly at dinner time, but what if you are over eating at every meal?  This would make your attempted weight loss that much more difficult and maybe this is why you have not been regulating your weight to your full ability.  Listed are some tips on using the handful diet for controlling your portions at every meal.  Use this technique for every meal to help control how much you are taking in.

Using the Handful Diet to Control Portion Sizes

The idea of the handful diet is exactly as it sounds; your hand determines your portion sizes of a particular food source.  Depending on the protein, carbohydrate, etc., your technique with the handful diet will need to vary.  Follow these techniques below for the following food sources.

• Protein. When loading up on your protein source, make sure to select lean sources when aiming to portion control.  Your hand is the determining factor for this food source.  A four ounce serving of chicken is a typical serving, which also provides ample complete protein.  A typical four ounce portion of chick is the size of most people’s hands [1].  Similarly, four ounces of lean red meat or fish will be about the same as the size of your hand.  This technique does not use a handful plan rather it is basically the size of your hand to determine the portion size.
• Carbohydrates include your fruit, vegetables, and starches.  Each meal should have a vegetable source and it is up to you if you desire a starch.  Using a similar technique as for the protein, your hand will determine the serving size.  For vegetables, you should aim to have at least one handful with every meal [2].  This is the only food source you should try to have more than one handful per meal, but aim for at least one handful.  For starches such as pasta, scoop one handful (dry) for a reasonably sized portion.  Fruit are similar to vegetables; aim to have one handful per serving throughout the day, preferably as a snack.
• Nuts and Fats. You may be a little surprised to see a section with fats, but fats are an essential part of your diet and they are needed in the body to perform basic human functions [3].  Nuts are easy for the handful diet, one handful for a snack throughout the day will work wonders on your blood sugar levels.  Also, foods such as yogurt or cottage cheese are hard to measure with a handful, so these foods will require a measuring cup.  One cup of each will suffice as a serving of essential fat for the diet.

What to Avoid

While this diet plan does not have many restrictions, there is one important rule to the diet.  Stick to the true handful, avoid having seconds or thirds, and avoid eating more dessert because you ate a reasonably portioned meal.  Your first couple weeks may require a little behavioral adjustment, but once your body adjusts, you will be well on your way to portioning foods adequately.  If you are looking to lose weight, talk over your goals with a personal trainer so you can have a well-planned program in front of you.  Sometimes losing weight is easier when a plan is constructed.

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