A Big Duh
Here’s a duh. If you’re overweight, you probably eat and drink too much.
If you’re at all like me—that is, you have a big appetite, you like to eat, you like to drink your favorite beverages—the chances are good you overeat and over-drink.
This sounds like a duh, especially to people who don’t have a weight problem. “Fat people eat too much,” they simply say. But things have gotten so extreme in this whole area that it’s easy to miss what’s obviously going on. It’s not that big a duh. It’s subtle.
The average person has no idea what a recommended serving size of food actually is. Our vision is warped—we’ve become used to super size meals and over-the-top servings in restaurants, family meals, oversize packages of food, beverages, etc. Overabundance is the norm.
That recommended serving size for many foods is one cup. If you have one, take out a measuring cup and check out much one cup is.
When I carefully explored this, I was surprised. An example was my usual pasta meal, without meat sauce, cheese or other high fats, just tomato sauce and veggies. I’d eat four, five, six cups—a platter, a big bowlful of that delicious pasta. I’m just talking an oversized serving size here, understand, not the fact that most pastas are a refined flour product, typically served with high-fat meat, cheese, etc.—in sum, a high-fat, true junk food—that’s a whole other article.
Same thing with beans, rice, breakfast cereals, potatoes, whole grains—one-half to one cup is the recommended size. Same thing with beverages—eight ounces is a cup.
It’s easy to overeat and over-drink. And be fat as a result.
You can connect the dots with other foods and many other factors in this whole area. Like the recommended few ounces of animal flesh versus six-eight ounces
breaded, deep fired chicken nuggets dipped in a sugar-filled sauce. Washed down with 18 to 38 ounces of soda. One cup is eight ounces, not 18, or 38 or 48. Side of fries, anyone?
Now connect all these things up with our incredibly sedentary lifestyles, and it’s clear most of us overeat, big-time.
What to do? If you’re interested in losing weight and/or maintaining a healthy weight, here are five easy tactics.
- Check how much you’re really eating. Take a real look. Check out a cup that measures just one cup.
- Include in your survey “throwaway” mindless eating, like munching salty junk snacks. Bet you can’t eat just one.
- Your drinking habits—if pure, filtered water isn’t your main beverage, start moving toward that now.
- Without obsessing and counting every grape, start to cut back.
- Get into the habit of only eating until you’re about three-quarters full. You can easily do these things.
It’s very easy to overeat, yet I hear repeatedly from folks who are overweight that they don’t eat that much. Chances are, they do. I know I do, unless I’m really watching my “feed limit.”
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For more go to TheMauiDiet.com
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