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The quality of weight loss is very dependent on the volume of the portion
Last reviewed: 26.11.2021
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People who are trying to lose weight, first of all, turn their attention to the choice of diet: there are effective diets, and there are not very. However, very few people know that the key role in losing weight is played not so much by what we eat, how much the amount of food eaten. How is it better - to eat a lot, but rarely, or little by little, but often?
American physicians in the field of physiology, representing the University of Pennsylvania, tried to answer this question. They decided to follow how the portion volume and the energy value of food affect the effectiveness of getting rid of excess kilograms.
Experts proposed to participate in the experiment two groups of women. Among them were 34 women with high weight and obesity, and 39 participants with relatively earlier experience of losing weight. In addition, the specialists formed and the third group, consisting of 29 women who do not have problems with being overweight. All groups of participants underwent weekly monitoring in the laboratory for a month. Each week they were offered the same products: the changes concerned only the portion volume and the energy value of the diet (the changes were randomly distributed).
Once a week, the diet of women changed: high-calorie foods were replaced by low-calorie, and vice versa. Each participant necessarily reported on how much food she had eaten during the week.
Experts found that if the subjects ate large amounts of low-calorie food, then in the future they wanted to eat more, and the total daily calorie content increased by 27%.
The most restrained in the food were participants from the group of experienced weight loss, who had previously successfully managed to lose weight.
The unfortunate fact was that the whole food week depended on the portion volume. That is, women who ate large portions continued to consume more food, but with more energy value.
One of the leaders of the experiment, nutritionist Barbara Rolls argues that controlling batch volume is always more successful and easier than "sitting" on strict diets. In order to determine the necessary size of a single portion, the nutritionist recommends using the "fist" method: for example, a plate of breakfast or dinner should include a volume of food equal to three own fists, and a plate for lunch - four fists.
Thus it is not necessary to forget that the daily ration should consist of protein products, vegetables, greens, mushrooms, complex carbohydrate food and fruits. Vegetable food is best eaten raw, or with minimal heat treatment. A competent combination of these products will allow a person to easily and without detriment to his health control the weight of his body.
The results of the research work were published on the pages of Appetite.