Lose weight by using salad plates @ meal times?

Posts: 10,779
1/5/13 2:56 P

personally i think that about 95% of the time you can find a middle ground where you're not making two totally separate meals. granted, i grew up being that picky person being somewhat catered to, so i might have a skewed view.
i mean if you're making chicken and broccoli and mashed potatoes, that's doable for everyone. the pickies should be able to take the chicken being baked and you can add spices to your portion if you prefer. make the potatoes plain, just adding in milk or greek yogurt and a little pepper and salt. if they want bacon or butter or anything else they can add it to their portion, not the pot. steam the broccoli and if they want butter or mayo or something else, they can add it to their portion at the table.
if you're talking about a pasta dish, you could do the whole pot light to your taste, remove a portion or two for you [tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch], then add a second light portion of the heavier stuff to their tastes.
personal pizzas are as easy as a big pizza for everyone, plus everyone gets their favorite toppings. tacos, baked potatoes, burritos, all of these are good build your own foods.
and it's easy to partially offset a heavier meal with a salad.
i mean, what foods do they love that you can't have? working on lightening up those is going to make your life easier.

Posts: 14
1/5/13 2:33 P

I agree that using a smaller plate is helpful. I would love to replace my decades-old ironstone dinnerware but every time I look at new dishes I am shocked by how HUGE the plates and bowls are. I can see how it is easy to overeat trying to fill up some of these plates. So I am still using my old dishes, lol.

current weight: 173.0

205 192.5 180 167.5

155

Posts: 33,295
1/5/13 1:21 P

The small plate definitely makes people eat less. This has been studied before and it's a top dieting tip.

If you're making meals for their picky habits and just having smaller portions yourself, make sure you're getting enough nutrients. I don't know what their picky tastes involve, but to take an extreme example, if they ate nothing but fish fingers and oven chips, you could eat smaller portions of that yourself, but eating nothing but a small portion of fish fingers and chips every meal is not going to provide enough nutrition.

You can eat 1500 calories of junk or 1500 calories of real food and it won't matter to your weight, but it will make a big difference to your health.

So just remember to ensure you're eating well, even if their tastes aren't as healthful as they could be. Maybe some nights that means making two things - maybe you just don't want the cheese-laden mac and cheese they expect on Wednesdays, etc.

Posts: 2,142
1/5/13 9:47 A

I choose my plate (or bowl etc) to fit my serving. So if we're eating something where I'm going to have a smaller portion, I choose a smaller plate for myself, than DH's. OR I use the larger plate, put my small portion of the entree on it, and then fill up all the empty space with low starch vegetables.

Somehow, looking at a large plate with a lot of empty space on it, makes me feel deprived. But looking at a full plate (even if 2/3 or more of it is vegetables, or it's a smaller plate) makes me feel, oh boy, look at all that food!! Another "trick" I use is to eat all the vegetables before I start eating the more calorie dense food.

You may want to experiment a bit with the recipes your family is used to, so you can tweak them to make them healthier. That way they're still eating what they like, but you don't always have to have such a small portion.

67 Maintenance Weeks

0 20 40 60

80

Posts: 31
1/5/13 1:51 A

I have tried this and absolutely love it. It's amazing how satisfied I was even with the smaller portions. The key to me was the snacks. As long as they are very thoughtful, both in what you are eating as well as when you are eating, this should work. What I found was sometimes I'd get so busy and be late eating my afternoon snack, or I'd be extra hungry that day and eat early...bottom line is the timing of dinner would be off from when my kids were needing to eat. Especially at first it will feel like you are eating all the time. I found it useful to set alarms on my phone to remind me to eat. Another thing I really love about this approach is that because you aren't consuming tons of calories eating just a few few, you actually have the opportunity to eat much more variety throughout the day since you have extra calories to eat. There were a couple of times that i loved what we were having so much that I went back for seconds. It didn't happen often but I think its fine to do for those special occasions if you really want it. I would sit and talk with my kids while drinking some water. Then if I really wanted it, I'd track it on my log b4 I got the next plate. Sometimes seeing it in writing was enough to make me not want t9 go back. Good luck. I wish you the best.

SparkPoints: (1,135)
Fitness Minutes: (564)
Posts: 105
1/5/13 12:55 A

I know it's about calories in vs calories out. But, has anyone tried eating off a salad plate and sticking to that?
I am thinking breakfast, lunch and dinner salad plate portion of whatever. 3 snacks, 2 of those would be a fruit/veggie and the other a serving of something sweet. Maybe do this and then at the end of the day see what the calories look like?
My husband and son are ridiculously picky eaters and I am tired of having to adjust meals to meet my needs or making a whole different meal for myself all together. I know some people say, "If they don't eat what is put on the table, then they can starve or make something for themselves" This does not work in our household at all! Hubs works extremely hard all week long so I can stay at home so I would never take this attitude towards him.

So what if I make regular meals for them and just do a salad plate portion? If I am extra hungry I could have a piece of fruit or side salad maybe.

current weight: 133.6

134 132.5 131 129.5

128