Portion sizes

Using the iPhone LoseIt app has made me more aware of my portion sizes. Calculating the calories I take in requires that I pay attention to how much of each food I am consuming. We in the US tend to think big as far as portions go, my family lives in the Netherlands and my brother-in-law was shocked the first time he came to the US and they gave him, in his words, a gallon of Coke when he up-sized his meal. So, I went online looking for ideas on "reasonable" portion sizes. One site, dietblog, had an old post with photos of reasonable portions sizes, I will copy a few of them here. Basically a day's meals.

Oatmeal - 325 Calories
1 cup oatmeal with raisins
1 cup of fruit
1 cup coffee or tea
1 banana


Soup - 350 Calories
1 bowl of soup
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water
4 saltine crackers


Chicken - 345 Calories
6 oz of chicken
1 cup of green beans
2 pats of low-fat butter
1 small tossed salad
2 tablespoons reduced fat oil and vinegar dressing
12 oz water

They all look totally do-able and leave some room for snacking during the day as well. I notice that this diet also seems to be relatively low carb.

Another interesting resource I found was a chart of relative measurements at MyPhotoDiet.com


Once again, handy to help visualize how much you are eating relative to what a normal portion should be.

EDIT: Sorry for the chart size, I cant seem to get it both big enough to read and not cut off the ends of the sentences.