Question about plate size and gender
Moderators: Soprano, automatedeating
Question about plate size and gender
I'm a fairly small female with a pretty good appetite. I'm not overweight, but do not want to gain and would love to lose about 5 pounds. If I'm eating 3 plates a day and 170 pound males are too, will I end up at 170 pounds? I'm actually a little bit terrified that I might gain some weight!
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maslowjenkins
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- Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 7:33 pm
- Location: Tulsa, Ok
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stevecooper
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Thu Jan 26, 2006 2:56 pm
I think two things should help you keep on track;
1) if you're eating enough to get to 170lb, then you'll be able to see it on the plate. Just leave off that seventh bratwurst. You probably don't need it.
2) With only three opportunities to stuff yourself, you'll feel bloated by that amount of food. If you were eating, say, 3,000 calories a day, you'd have to stack 1,000 calories on your plate at every meal. It'll feel like too much.
Basically, I think it should be obvious to your eye and your stomach if you're eating too much.
1) if you're eating enough to get to 170lb, then you'll be able to see it on the plate. Just leave off that seventh bratwurst. You probably don't need it.
2) With only three opportunities to stuff yourself, you'll feel bloated by that amount of food. If you were eating, say, 3,000 calories a day, you'd have to stack 1,000 calories on your plate at every meal. It'll feel like too much.
Basically, I think it should be obvious to your eye and your stomach if you're eating too much.
I remember that my Mum always filled my Dad's plate a bit more than hers (and they both always kept a good weight) but this meant my Mum had a decent sized full plate and my Dad had a mountainous plate LOL
I generally fill DH's plate a little more than mine as I figure that he is 50% heavier than me and needs more calories, but I still eat a good sized full plate myself (I just don't have seconds like he does most days!).
I generally fill DH's plate a little more than mine as I figure that he is 50% heavier than me and needs more calories, but I still eat a good sized full plate myself (I just don't have seconds like he does most days!).
Most of our plates today are too large -- which is why men and women are having issues with weight. Dinner plates used to be 9-10 inches in diameter -- now 11-12 aren't uncommon. Cereal and soup bowls used to hold about a cup, maybe a little more. Now they hold 2-3 cups. If you put a suggested serving size of soup or cereal into that large bowl, it looks skimpy.
I'm not sure if the manufacturer's of dinnerware are working in tandem with the food industry to get us to eat more. Bu t seek out dinnerware that has smaller plates.
I used to have a set of dishes that had smaller soup/cereal bowls and in addition to a dinner plate had a lunch plate that was slightly smaller.
I'm not sure if the manufacturer's of dinnerware are working in tandem with the food industry to get us to eat more. Bu t seek out dinnerware that has smaller plates.
I used to have a set of dishes that had smaller soup/cereal bowls and in addition to a dinner plate had a lunch plate that was slightly smaller.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
Remember, the goal of the one plate rule [edit: actually there is no such rule, it's only a way to say "no seconds"] is that you have all your food in front of you at once, partly so that you are shamed if you have really too much, and partly so that you can learn to associate the visual perception of quantity with the stomach feeling. It does not mean you need to eat a full plate. It means: I will eat no more than this during this meal. No seconds.
If you try to eat the same plateful as a physically bigger person, you will feel bloated while they will not. That's normal. You have a smaller stomach. You need to learn how to fill your own plate. So you need to experiment and check that you do not feel bloated or nauseous after the meal and you do not suffer from low blood sugar etc.
Eating more slowly helps. When you eat too fast, you may not realize immediately that you ate too much... so you get uncomfortable only once you've left the table...
I believe checking that you get enough vegetables also helps. I like visually checking the composition of my meal in the plate, so that I get some kind of meat, some vegetables and/or fruit, and some kind of bread/rice/pasta...
Also having plates that have a large border may be helpful, when no-essers of different sizes eat together. Smaller persons might fill only the hollow of the plate, while bigger persons might stack food higher and on the border of the plate...
It is true that, when I am distracted or stressed and at the canteen, I eat from a plate which was filled by someone else without checking it, and quickly. So I end up overeating, because that particular plateful would have been appropriate for someone twice my size. Live and learn. The next day at any rate I remember to check the quantity of food beforehand and separate the extra food in my plate so I don't eat it out of distraction.
One last thing. I am not medically overweight anymore thanks to noS. But I am not thin either. Perhaps I would like to lose more weight and become a little less plump. Let's say 5 pounds, like yourself. I don't anticipate that happening quickly... if at all. I would need to be much more mindful of what I eat for that to happen. It doesn't mean another no-S-er would not do it. No-S is so simple and at the same time so adaptable, no two people do it the exact same way.
If you try to eat the same plateful as a physically bigger person, you will feel bloated while they will not. That's normal. You have a smaller stomach. You need to learn how to fill your own plate. So you need to experiment and check that you do not feel bloated or nauseous after the meal and you do not suffer from low blood sugar etc.
Eating more slowly helps. When you eat too fast, you may not realize immediately that you ate too much... so you get uncomfortable only once you've left the table...
I believe checking that you get enough vegetables also helps. I like visually checking the composition of my meal in the plate, so that I get some kind of meat, some vegetables and/or fruit, and some kind of bread/rice/pasta...
Also having plates that have a large border may be helpful, when no-essers of different sizes eat together. Smaller persons might fill only the hollow of the plate, while bigger persons might stack food higher and on the border of the plate...
It is true that, when I am distracted or stressed and at the canteen, I eat from a plate which was filled by someone else without checking it, and quickly. So I end up overeating, because that particular plateful would have been appropriate for someone twice my size. Live and learn. The next day at any rate I remember to check the quantity of food beforehand and separate the extra food in my plate so I don't eat it out of distraction.
One last thing. I am not medically overweight anymore thanks to noS. But I am not thin either. Perhaps I would like to lose more weight and become a little less plump. Let's say 5 pounds, like yourself. I don't anticipate that happening quickly... if at all. I would need to be much more mindful of what I eat for that to happen. It doesn't mean another no-S-er would not do it. No-S is so simple and at the same time so adaptable, no two people do it the exact same way.
Jesseco,
Although it might help some to prefer smaller plates, I don't think plate size matters that much. Because the most important function of the plate is not as a limiting container, but as a presenting stage, so you can see how much you're eating. When you have your whole meal in front of you at once, a lot will look like a lot. And that will be an uncomfortable, perhaps even embarrassing sight. The next time you fill up a plate you'll probably put a little less on.
This principle of "making excess visible" scales with body size. It takes more food to look like "a lot" for a big dude than for a little lady.
This won't always work every singly time, but it will work often enough so that over the long haul you eat substantially less. Plus it's dead easy.
Reinhard
Although it might help some to prefer smaller plates, I don't think plate size matters that much. Because the most important function of the plate is not as a limiting container, but as a presenting stage, so you can see how much you're eating. When you have your whole meal in front of you at once, a lot will look like a lot. And that will be an uncomfortable, perhaps even embarrassing sight. The next time you fill up a plate you'll probably put a little less on.
This principle of "making excess visible" scales with body size. It takes more food to look like "a lot" for a big dude than for a little lady.
This won't always work every singly time, but it will work often enough so that over the long haul you eat substantially less. Plus it's dead easy.
Reinhard