Use smaller plates. When you're trying to get a handle on portion sizes, your dinner can drown on those 12-inch plates. Suddenly, those healthy helpings can look smaller than ever. Trick your brain by enjoying sensible servings on a smaller platter. It will be difficult to "overdo" it when there's no room on your plate for extra helpings. Just remember going back for seconds defeats the purpose. Not only will you feel like you're getting more, but you'll also quickly get accustomed to proper portion sizes. Portion distortion isn't just a cute phrase; there's truth to the idea that we've grown accustomed to gargantuan portions on our plates. Even our plates have fallen victim. Twenty years ago, dinner plates were 10 inches in diameter.
Today, they're 12 inches across. A bagel used to be the size of a hockey puck and contained about 140 calories. Now bagels are up to six inches in diameter and house a whopping 350 calories - and that's before cream cheese. When McDonald's began serving hamburgers, the patty weighed about two ounces. Since then, it's more than quadrupled in size for the largest offering. Pancakes can take up the entire plate these days; in reality, one should be about the size of a CD. The size of food has been indirectly related to the size of Americans' waistlines. There are double the amount of people whose BMI qualifies as "obese" than there were 20 years ago. Pass on the supersizes in place of proper portions.