Eating With Our Eyes - How To Reduce Portion Sizes Naturally

Good morning, friends!

Here in America, portions are HUGE. We eat a lot, and I mean A LOT, and it’s become a widespread problem in our country as obesity rates are sky-high.

It’s not uncommon to go out to a restaurant and be served enough for two people in a single meal, or to find platter-sized plates at the start of a buffet line. Even our plates and bowls at home can be enormous - I know mine are!

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When we’re consistently presented with giant plates overflowing with food, it’s easy to lose track of what sensible portions really are because we only have other mammoth servings to compare them to.

However, if you see a huge plate with even a normal amount of food on it, there’s so much empty space surrounding your portion that to the eye it looks miniscule. And that sucks.

“You eat with your eyes first.” Although this saying is usually meant to illustrate how important the visual beauty and appetizing appearance of food is, it can definitely be used here as well - even if it’s just an illusion, what you see prepares your mind for what’s to come, and seeing what you perceive to be an inadequate portion of food sets you up for reduced satisfaction before you even start. By the same token, seeing what looks like a full plate, even if it’s the same amount of food as the previous example, mentally prepares you for contentment when you finish your meal because your mind perceives it to be “enough.”

So, if you’re looking to reduce your daily caloric intake, the size of the plates and bowls you choose to eat your meals from really can have an effect on the total amount of calories you consume.

Think of it this way - if you stick one chicken breast in the middle of a huge plate, it will look small in comparison to the large amount of negative space of your plate around it. However, if you put that same chicken breast in the middle of a smaller plate, it will fill up more of the plate and will appear to be larger.

There’s actually a name for this optical illusion, and it’s called the Delboeuf effect - pretty cool, right? Here’s a little illustration to give you the idea:

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The black circles in the middle are both the same size, and represent your portion of food. To me, the one on the left (your chicken breast on a big plate) looks a whole lot smaller than the one on the right (your chicken breast on a smaller plate) - but they really are the exact same size.

I like to eat big meals, as I’ve made abundantly clear throughout my posts, and I don’t like feeling overly deprived even when I’m actively working to reduce my caloric intake. I think most people would agree, as feeling satisfied is WAY more fun than feeling deprived.

I’m willing to use any tricks I can to make reaching my goals and staying on track easier, and this is such a simple one implement! I like seeing what looks like a substantial plate of food waiting for me at every meal, and if I don’t have anything to compare it to for scale, my regular (or even reduced) portion of food looks more than satisfactory when filling up my smaller plate :) Why not make less look like more?

I think the mind is an incredibly powerful tool, and any way you can try to get it to work WITH your goals, rather than against them, is worth a shot.

Smaller plate, smaller slices, less bacon... Still looks like a lot!

You might be immediately surprised by this effect, but it also might take a few days for your eyes, brain, and body to adjust to your new plating strategy - regardless, give it a fighting chance to take hold! It’s easy, it’s free, and you can start anytime!

Of course, there are other techniques you can employ to make this strategy even more successful, and make reducing your caloric intake even less noticeable. Some of my favorites are mindfully slowing down your pace of eating so you can savor every bite, eliminating distractions (TV, phone, reading, etc.) during mealtime, and drinking a large glass of water before, and one during, every meal.

It can also help to go ahead and fill up your small plate, but decide that you will not be going back for seconds - then sit down to thoroughly enjoy the fixed portion you’ve served yourself. If you take your time and enjoy your sensible yet visually satisfying meal, chances are that when you’re finished you won’t even feel the need for more food and will easily resist the urge overeat “just because it’s there.”

Using a combination of strategies is usually best when you’re learning to implement healthy lifestyle changes like portion control, because I think that more help is always better! The easier you can make it on yourself, the more likely you are to continue integrating these good habits into your life for the long haul :) and that’s what it’s all about - a long, healthy life!

Have you tried this strategy before? What techniques do you use to stick to healthy portions?

Please feel free to comment, upvote, or resteem if you found this helpful or interesting! :)