How To Use Service Size To Plan Number Of People

On this page:

What is the difference betwixt a portion and a serving?
How have recommended serving sizes changed?
How much should I eat?
How tin the Nutrition Facts food label assist me?
How can I keep rail of how much I swallow?
How can I manage food portions at abode?
How tin can I manage portions when eating out?
How can I manage portions and swallow well when money is tight?
Clinical Trials for Weight Management

To attain or stay at a healthy weight, how much y'all eat is just as important as what you eat. Practise you know how much food is enough for you? Exercise you lot understand the difference between a portion and a serving? The information below explains portions and servings, and information technology provides tips to help yous swallow just enough for you.

Bowl of whole-grain cereal in milk with fresh strawberries, raspberries, bananas, and raisins, with a glass of orange juice to the side. To reach or stay at a salubrious weight, how much you eat is just every bit important equally what you consume.

What is the divergence betwixt a portion and a serving?

A portion is how much food you choose to swallow at one time, whether in a restaurant, from a bundle, or at home. A serving, or serving size, is the amount of food listed on a product'south Nutrition Facts label, or food characterization (run across Figure one below).

Dissimilar products have different serving sizes. Sizes can be measured in cups, ounces, grams, pieces, slices, or numbers—such as iii crackers. Depending on how much you choose to eat, your portion size may or may not match the serving size.

To encounter how many servings a container has, look at the height of the label. "Servings per container" is listed correct in a higher place "Serving size." In the case below, a frozen lasagna serving size is one loving cup. Only the container has four servings. If y'all want to eat two cups—or one-half the package—you'd be eating two servings.

Do a lilliputian math to find out how many calories y'all would really be getting.

1 serving = 280 calories
2 servings = 280 × ii = 560 calories

In this case, eating two servings would mean getting twice the calories—and other nutrients—that are listed on the food label.

Effigy i. Nutrition Facts label

A Nutrition Facts label for a four-serving container of frozen lasagna. The label includes information on the number of servings; serving size; and the total amount of calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, protein, and various vitamins and minerals per serving, as well as the percentage of the Daily Value of each of the nutrients per one serving. Arrows point to the sections of the Nutrition Facts label related to serving information, calories, nutrients, and percent Daily Value. — Sample Nutrition Facts label for frozen lasagna

How have recommended serving sizes inverse?

The U.S. Food and Drug Assistants (FDA) changed some food and beverage serving sizes so the labels more closely lucifer how much nosotros typically consume and drink. As a upshot of recent updates to the Nutrition Facts characterization, some serving sizes on food labels may exist larger or smaller than they were earlier (see Effigy 2 beneath). For instance, a serving size of ice cream used to exist ane/2 cup. Now it'south 2/3 loving cup. A serving size of yogurt used to be 8 ounces. At present it's 6 ounces.

Remember: The serving size on a label is non a recommendation of how much you should eat or drink.

Figure 2. FDA serving size changes

Graphic comparing old and new serving sizes for ice cream containers and soda bottles. — Some serving sizes on food labels may exist larger or smaller than they were earlier.

How much should I consume?

The serving size on a food label may be more or less than the amount you should eat. That's because how many calories y'all need each twenty-four hours to maintain your weight or lose weight may depend on

your age
your current weight and height
your metabolism
whether y'all're male or female
how active you are

For instance, if you're a 150-pound woman whose main physical activity is a short walk once a week, you'll demand fewer calories than a woman nigh your size who engages in intense physical activeness, such equally running, several times a week.

To help you lot figure out how many calories are simply enough for y'all, bank check out the following resource.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025 can give you an idea of how many calories you may demand each twenty-four hour period based on your age, sex activity, and physical activity level.
The Body Weight Planner tool helps you lot make your own calorie and concrete activity plans to reach and maintain your goal weight.
The MyPlate Plan helps you grade a healthy eating plan with the amounts of nutrient and beverages that are right for you.

A man comparing milk cartons in a grocery store How many calories you demand each day depends on your age, weight, metabolism, sex, and physical activeness level.

How tin can the Nutrition Facts food label assistance me?

The FDA'southward Diet Facts food label is printed on well-nigh packaged foods. The food characterization tells you how many calories and how much fat, protein, carbohydrates, and other nutrients are in one nutrient serving. Many packaged foods contain more a unmarried serving. The updated nutrient label lists the number of calories in one serving size using larger print than before, so it is easier to read.

Other helpful facts on the food label

The food label has other useful information about what is in one food serving, such every bit

full fat. For example, one serving of the food particular shown in Figure iii below has 1 gram of saturated fat and 0 grams of trans fat.
added sugars. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025 recommends that less than 10% of your total daily calories should come from added sugars.
sodium. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020–2025 recommends limiting sodium to ii,300 milligrams per twenty-four hour period, or even less for children younger than age xiv.
other nutrients. Americans don't always get enough vitamin D and potassium. That's why the updated food label in Figure 3 includes serving information for both these nutrients. Because virtually Americans generally exercise get enough vitamin A and vitamin C, these nutrients are no longer included on the food label. Yet, nutrient makers may include them if they choose.

Figure three. Side-by-side comparison of original and new Nutrition Facts labels

Side-by-side display of the original and new Nutrition Facts labels, which include information on the number of servings; serving size; and the total amount of calories, fats, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, sugars, protein, and various vitamins and minerals per serving, as well as the percentage Daily Value of each of the nutrients per one serving. A numbered list on the side of the labels points to the changes made to the new label for the sections on serving size, calories, and percentage Daily Values, as well as new information added to the label such as added sugars, vitamin D, and potassium. — Current Diet Facts characterization (left) and updated label (right)

Another mode to use the Nutrition Facts label

Ane way to get healthier now and in the future is to use the Nutrition Facts characterization together with the MyPlate Programme that helps you figure out how many calories you demand each day. Using the ii together, as shown in Figure 4 beneath, can help you figure out how many vegetables, fruits, grains, poly peptide foods, and dairy products your body needs.

Figure four. Nutrition Facts label and MyPlate.gov

View full-sized paradigm The new Nutrition Facts label and the MyPlate.gov logo.

Become healthier by using the Nutrition Facts label together with the MyPlate app.

How tin can I go along track of how much I eat?

Checking food labels for calories per serving is one step toward managing your food portions. It's also of import to go on rails of

what you eat
when you eat
where you eat
why you consume
how much you eat

Create a food tracker on your cellphone, calendar, or computer to record the data. Or you can download apps available for mobile devices to help you track how much you eat—and how much physical action y'all get—each day. For example, the First Simple with MyPlate
app tells yous how to get started and is free to download and use.

The sample food tracker in Figure five below shows what a ane-day page of a food tracker might look like. In the example, the person chose fairly healthy portions for breakfast and lunch to satisfy hunger. The person also ate five cookies in the afternoon out of colorlessness rather than hunger.

By 8 p.m., the person was very hungry and ate large portions of loftier-fatty, loftier-calorie food at a social upshot. An early evening snack of a piece of fruit and 4 ounces of fatty-free or low-fat yogurt might have prevented overeating less healthy nutrient subsequently. The number of calories for the day totaled ii,916—more than well-nigh people need. Taking in besides many calories may lead to weight gain over fourth dimension.

Figure 5. Sample nutrient tracker

Thursday

Time	Food	Amount	Estimated Calories	Place	Hunger/Reason
8 a.thousand.	Java, Black	half-dozen fl. oz.	2	Dwelling house	Slightly hungry
	Banana	1 medium	105
	Depression-fat yogurt	1 loving cup	250
1 p.m.	Grilled cheese sandwich		281	Piece of work	Hungry
	Apple	1 medium	72
	Potato chips	Single-serving bag, ane ounce	152
	Water	16 fl. oz.	0
three p.grand.	Chocolate-chip cookies	5 medium-sized	345	Work	Not hungry/bored
viii p.m.	Mini chicken drumsticks with hot pepper sauce	4	312	Eating place, while out with friends	Very hungry
	Taco salad	3 cups in fried flour tortilla with beans and cheese	586
	Chocolate cheesecake	1 piece, ane/12 of 9-inch cake	479
	Soft drink	12 fl. oz.	136
	Latte	Espresso coffee with whole milk, 16 ounces	196
Total Calories =			ii,916

If you detect that you consume even when you're not hungry, like the person in the nutrient tracker case, endeavor distracting yourself from food by doing something else instead. For instance,

call or visit a friend
if at work, take a interruption and walk around the block, if your work and schedule permit
try a healthier option, such equally a piece of fruit, a scattering of nuts, or carrot sticks and hummus

Using your tracker, yous may become aware of when and why you swallow less salubrious foods and drinks. This data may assist you make unlike choices in the future.

How can I manage nutrient portions at home?

You don't need to measure and count everything yous consume or drink for the rest of your life. You may simply want to do so long enough to learn typical serving and portion sizes. Try these tips to control portions at domicile.

Take one serving according to the food characterization and eat it off a plate instead of directly out of the box or bag.
Avoid eating in front of the Boob tube, while driving or walking, or while yous are busy with other activities.
Focus on what you are eating, chew your food well, and fully enjoy the smell and taste of your food.
Eat slowly then your brain has time to realize your stomach is total, which may take at to the lowest degree fifteen minutes.
Use smaller dishes, bowls, and spectacles so you consume and drink less.
Eat fewer high-fat, high-calorie foods, such equally desserts, chips, sauces, and prepackaged snacks.
Freeze nutrient yous won't serve or swallow correct away if y'all make too much. That way, you won't be tempted to end the whole batch. If you freeze leftovers in single- or family unit-sized servings, you'll have ready-made meals for another day.
Eat meals at regular times. Delaying meals or skipping meals birthday may crusade you to overeat later in the day.
Buy snacks, such equally fruit or unmarried-serving prepackaged foods that are lower in calories. If yous purchase bigger numberless or boxes of snacks, divide the items into unmarried-serving packages right away so you aren't tempted to overeat.

A man, woman, and two children sharing a meal around a dinner table. Avert eating while in front of the TV, while driving or walking, or while you are decorated with other activities.

How tin can I manage portions when eating out?

Although it may be easier to manage your portions when y'all cook and swallow at habitation, most people eat out from fourth dimension to time—and some people swallow out often. Endeavour these tips to keep your food portions in bank check when you're abroad from domicile.

Share a meal with a friend or take half your meal dwelling house.
Avoid all-yous-tin-consume buffets. Instead, choose restaurants that offer some healthy nutrient choices in controlled portions.
Order one or ii healthy appetizers or side dishes instead of a whole meal. Options include steamed or grilled—instead of fried—seafood or chicken, a salad with dressing on the side, or roasted vegetables.
Ask to have the basket of bread or fries removed from the table.
If y'all have a option, choice the small-sized—rather than large-sized—drink, salad, or frozen yogurt.
Look for calorie information next to nutrient and drink items on menus and menu boards to understand how many calories are in a standard restaurant portion.
Finish eating and drinking when y'all're full. Put downwards your fork and glass. Focus on enjoying the setting and visitor for the rest of the meal.

A plate of tabbouleh salad with bulgur, quinoa, tomato, cucumber, and parsley in a bowl. Order an appetizer such as a salad instead of a whole meal.

Is getting more food for your money e'er a good value?

Have you lot noticed that it costs only a few cents more to get the large chips or soda instead of the regular or small size? Although getting the super-sized meal for a little extra coin may seem similar a expert bargain, you end up with more than calories than you need for your body to stay healthy. Before y'all buy your side by side "value meal combo," be sure you lot are making the best choice for your wallet and your health.

How tin can I manage portions and eat well when coin is tight?

Eating healthier doesn't have to cost a lot of money. For case,

Buy fresh fruit and vegetables when they are in flavor. Check out a local farmers marketplace for fresh, local produce if there is one in your community. Be sure to compare prices, as produce at some farmers markets cost more than the grocery store. Purchase but as much equally you will employ to avoid throwing abroad spoiled food.
Lucifer portion sizes to serving sizes. To go the most from the coin you spend on packaged foods, attempt eating no more than the serving sizes listed on food labels. Eating no more than a serving size may also help y'all better manage your fat, carbohydrate, salt, and calories.
When eating in a eating place, ask for meals to be served "family manner." You lot can order three meals to serve five people, and anybody can taste a portion of each dish.

Clinical Trials for Weight Management

The NIDDK conducts and supports clinical trials in many diseases and conditions, including weight direction. The trials look to find new ways to prevent, detect, or care for disease and amend quality of life.

What are clinical trials for weight direction?

Clinical trials—and other types of clinical studies—are function of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical written report, you help doctors and researchers learn more about affliction and improve health care for people in the future.

Find out if clinical studies are correct for you lot.

Watch a video of NIDDK Manager Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers explaining the importance of participating in clinical trials.

What clinical studies for weight management are looking for participants?

Yous can find clinical studies on weight management at www.ClinicalTrials.gov. In addition to searching for federally funded studies, you lot tin can expand or narrow your search to include clinical studies from manufacture, universities, and individuals; still, the National Institutes of Health does not review these studies and cannot ensure they are safe. Always talk with your health care provider earlier yous participate in a clinical report.