Am I Eating Too Much?

After recently explaining to everyone that the Ultimate Body Challenge involves eating 5 palm sized portions a day, I recieved the question, "Are you sure I am supposed to be eating this much?"

My answer may come as a shock to you. Are you ready...? No. No, I am not sure you are supposed to be eating this much. I have a couple comments to back up this answer-
1. Unless I follow you for 24 hours will I know whether you are over-eating.
2. Just because it fits into the palm of your hand doesn't mean it's worthy of being eatened. A palmful of guacamole is too many calories. It's good fat, but you are officially over-eating.

Basically, what I'm saying is, I can't tell if you are eating too much without seeing what it is you are actually eating. What I'm going to do is arm you with some knowledge so that you can determine whether or not your palm sized portion is too many calories. Remember this, the palm size portion rule is a very, very basic rule. We choose to use it because it's simple and easy for people to catch on to. I highly encourage everyone to take it just 1 step further.

Everyone, and I mean everyone ought to know just how big their tank (stomach) is. Remember the gas tank analogy on orientation night? Do you know how big your gas tank is in your car? If you think for 3 minutes, I bet you can figure it out. You'll divide the cost to fill it up by the price of gas and you've got it. My tank is 20 gallons:).

Now, let's determine the size of tank in our body. This involves you getting up and going to get your body composition. I'll wait...

Couldn't help reading on, could you. No worries, I'm the same way. Just make sure you do it some time soon.

Look at the Nutrient Intake section. Let's say that it says you require the following in a day:

Protein- 73 grams
Fat- 37 grams
Carbohydrates- 110 grams
note- this is for a 135 pound female with 22% bodyfat

Now, take those numbers and divide them by 5 (for 5 meals a day). It now looks like this:

Protein- 15 grams/meal
Fat- 7 grams/meal
Carbohydrates- 22 grams/meal

At this point, should you ever question your palm sized portions, simply look at the nutrition facts on your food and make sure the proteins, fat, and carbs are all within a couple grams of what you figured out.

Here is a question I bet you're wondering, "What if the food doesn't have nutrition facts?" The answer is, "Do a little research." The research you do on the food you eat will be invaluable. If you eat that particular food regulary, you're going to remember exactly how many grams are in that food and you'll know the exact portion size you ought to be consuming. Do this for a couple weeks, and I can almost guarantee you'll know how many grams of protein, fats, and carbs are in all your meals.

A good site to research foods is Nutrition Data. Check out the peanuts. According to this sites information, you can eat about 14 peanuts. Each peanut is about .5 grams of fat. 14 peanuts is 7 grams of fat. Now, you will still need more protein, since 14 peanuts is only about 2.5 grams.

If you throw in a mozzarella stick, then you're getting pretty darn close. Peanuts will put you a little under on the protein, and a little over on the fat. Is it anything to be concerned about? I don't think so, at least for a snack. To make it even closer, lose the peanuts and have pistachios instead. Now we're almost right on our mark for proteins and fat. Toss in a medium sized apple and we're at 25 carbs. That's right on, in my book!

Remember, the following example is for a 135 pound female with 22% bodyfat. To recap, her snack could be:

14 pistachios (for protein and fat)
1 mozzarella stick (for protein and fat)
1 medium sized apple (for carbs)

Happy researching!

Respectfully,

Duncan Richardson