Portions

Regulating the serving size of our food is a key to maintaining a healthy weight. You need to know how big a portion is to understand how many calories you're actually consuming. People tend to underestimate the number of calories they consume in a day. Part of that is lack of understanding of an appropriate portion size. People underestimate their calories by 20-40%. That can add up to a large amount of gained weight over the years.

Luckily, there are products out there to help people with this problem. Some of them are designed for people trying to lose weight, but they can help anyone balance their meals for optimum health.

The Balance Plate has lines to divide your plate into appropriate portion sizes. It comes in several varieties, some more technical than the one I chose to show.

Slimwear comes in several patterns that are subtle in their portion control directions. They look like normal dinner plates, but the pattern tells you how big your portions should be.

The Portion Control Plate is actually a measuring tool that can be used with any plate. Each section had 1/2 and full cup lines. This makes it easy to count calories accurately. Also would work well with Weight Watchers.

There are plenty of other options out there for portion control plates. You can use measuring cups, too. The key is just being aware of what you're eating, so you're not surprised by changes in your weight.