Portions now are almost four times the sizes they used to be, which is just another reason that so many people are trying to figure out just how they managed to get so overweight. So how can we go about eating the right portion sizes and making sure we keep control? Well, I have some pointers that will help!

1. Measure.
When you’re at home, pull out all your measuring cups and spoons to try to see just how much a single portion of different foods looks like (for example, ½ a cup of brown rice look completely different when it’s spread onto a plate). You won’t need to do it all the time, but it’s a good idea to get a general grasp on it.

2. Downsize your dishware.
Have you ever heard the saying “your eyes are bigger than your stomach”? Well believe it or not it’s true! If you take two plates (one large, one small) and tried to dish up the same size meal on each, you wouldn’t be able to because you’d consistently put more food on the larger plate. To stop the tricks our eyes play, stick to using smaller plates, smaller narrower cups and shallow bowls. Treats like ice-cream, creamy soups or nuts can be served in ramekin dishes. Save the oversized soup bowls for soup, salad, fruit or broth and the bigger plates for celebrations only.

3. Restaurant resourcefulness.
It’s easy to overeat in a restaurant, since some of the serving sizes are big enough to feed two or three people. You could always share the meal with someone else to save on cost, or you could ask the waiter to bag up half of it for you to eat the next day for lunch.

4. Ditch the bag.
If you buy in bulk, such as crisps in large packets, divide them into smaller ones as soon as you get home so that you can actually make sure you’re not eating too much of them. If you’re eating something in front of the TV, put a single portion into a bowl and just have that with no refills. Over time, it will lead to far better habits and even possibly to weight loss as you’ll only be eating what you’re actually using.

5. Be conscious around company.
Believe it or not, there’s something called the “consumption norm”. This is the mechanism that dictates exactly how much you eat when you’re in company. If your friends or family eats a lot more than you usually do, then you will too, and if they eat less than you normally do, you will too. So keep an eye on just what you eat and why you eat it because if they can influence you, then you can influence them – maybe over time, they might stop eating as much by mimicking you without meaning to!

6. Leave the leftovers.
Pack up any leftovers before heading to the table to eat is a great way of making sure you don’t overeat because it’s literally “out of sight, out of mind”. And if you can’t see them, you won’t go back for more.

7. Visualise.
If you don’t want to weigh or measure everything you eat, there is another way of doing it. Visualising the size of everything you eat is a very good way of keeping an eye on your portions, especially if you’re comparing them to everyday objects.
1 cup = tennis ball
½ cup = standard light bulb
2 tbsp = golf ball
1 tbsp = poker chip
3oz/85g meat = deck of cards
3oz/85g fish = chequebook
1.5oz/43g cheese = 3 dice.

8. Perfect the “plate” method.
This sounds a little bit strange but it really does work! If you’re unsure of how to control your portions on the plate, then visualise filling half a normal size plate with salad, then put your protein in one quarter and your carbs in another quarter. Eat your vegetables first, then your protein and finally your carbs, and you’ll be getting in everything you need.

9. Stay on schedule.
Try to eat small, regular meals with snacks in between to prevent you getting ravenously hungry and eating much more than you actually need to. Get into the habit of preparing your meals before you need them, so they’re ready when you want them and you don’t have to find food on impulse – which also prevents you overeating!

10. Single servings.
Learn the difference between serving sizes and portion sizes – they’re not the same! A serving size is listed on the nutritional label while the portion size is what you’d actually eat at one sitting and they can be vastly different (for example, cereals list a 50g serving on their labels but you’d only actually need to eat a portion of about 30g! This can lead to weight gain over time as you’re eating almost twice as much).