A question I hear a lot about keto is whether you have to worry about how much you eat or if you can just eat as much as you want because your body is in ketosis. Wouldn’t it be great if you could eat a big 12 ounce steak and lose weight? But, that’s not how food works. You do need to think about portions on keto.
Learning About Portions on Keto
When we started keto, we were amazed at the size of a portion. A portion of meat is 3 ounces. That’s about the size of the palm of your hand. Our first investment was a food scale and we thought at first it was broken. There’s no way that was a portion! We had been eating about 3 times that amount. Hmmm, I wonder why diets never worked for us?
It is so important to measure your food. If anything, it is more important on keto. How can you track your macros if you don’t know how much food you are taking in? And we always underestimate how much we are eating. Let me give you an example. I take heavy cream in my coffee. We never measured out a tablespoon, I just poured it in. I would record the numbers for a tablespoon of heavy cream and go on my way.
It Pays to Measure
One day, Bill said, “I think that’s more than a tablespoon you put in there.” He was right. It was more like 2 tablespoons. Now, there are no carbs in the heavy cream I use, so does it matter? Yes! Because 1 tablespoon was 50 calories. That means that I was taking in double the amount of calories I thought I was. 100 calories with each cup of coffee adds up in a hurry!
Now, whether or not calories matter on a keto diet is a controversial topic. I think most people agree that calories are not the end all and be all for keto. It’s more about whether your body is in ketosis. However, I believe (from my experience) that if you take in too many calories, you will not lose weight.
I don’t obsess over the little devils like I used to before keto, but I try to stay within a healthy range. For me, I normally stay under about 2,000 calories. If I go out to eat, I know I will likely eat more than a portion of the food put in front of me and that’s ok. On a regular basis, I stick to the portions recommended.
Advantages to Portions on Keto
There are several advantages to portioning out your food on keto. One is that fat is very filling, so a portion will likely be enough. I haven’t felt hungry between meals on keto. When you make sure you have enough fat in your diet, 1 ounce of cheese is just fine.
The second big advantage is that food goes a lot further. Before we started keto, a pound of hamburger was about 2-3 of our portions. We’d put a pound in our spaghetti sauce and it would last the two of us for supper and lunch the next day for one of us. A pound of hamburger is about 16 ounces, which is about 5 portions. That difference adds up to money in your pocket and offsets the amount you spend on fresh food when we eat keto.
Portion Sizes
Portion sizes are especially important when you are eating foods that have more carbs in them. Bill and I recommend using most of your carbs to take in fresh vegetables. You still need nutrients and vitamins. But a ½ cup of green beans has 2 carbs while a cup of them would have 4 carbs. Before you know it, you’re teetering on the line of ketosis. Again, we always under-estimate how much we eat. It’s easier to do than you think.
So the short answer to the question of whether you need to worry about portion sizes on keto is, “Yes.” Well, don’t worry about it, but be aware of it. Measure your food out to know what you are putting in your body and you can accurately track your macros. If you aren’t losing weight on keto, or you hit a weight loss plateau, this could be the reason. Track your portion sizes for a week, and you may be surprised at how much you have actually been eating.
Wendy
