Portion Sizes When Going Out to Eat

If you’re not a bodybuilder who’s getting ready for a show and on a strict diet, you probably go out to eat once and a while. Going out is great! You don’t have to cook, there’s no cleanup, and you can just sit back and relax with maybe a drink or two. When you go out, however, you no longer have complete control over the food or portion sizes. In this post, I want to touch a little on said portion sizes. 

I’m sure you’ve noticed that when you go to a restaurant, all the portion sizes of the menu items are the same. Yes, some places offer small, medium, and large options but for a considerable amount of establishments they are relatively the same. People, however, are not all the same. This is especially true between men and women, in terms of body size and lean muscle mass. 

It’s not uncommon for a couple to have a 50 to 100-pound weight difference between them. The guy, for explanation’s sake, could weigh 200-220 pounds and the girl 100-120. I’m a little weird, so when I go out to eat I take a look around and notice portion sizes and the types of oils and stuff that are being put in the food. If you’re at a dining establishment that serves large portion sizes and you’re a guy, that’s great, but if you’re a girl who’s not trying to put on any pounds then this isn’t the best scenario. It’s especially tough sometimes to stop eating halfway through a meal when your mind is programmed to finish what’s in front of you. Think back to when your parents told you to finish what was on your plate when you were a kid. It’s literally been programed into our minds since we were little children to finish the food in front of us. Going back to the explanation above of the nice couple on their date; do you think that the girl who is half the size of the guy needs the same amount of food as he does? No, probably not. Considering the amount of lean muscle mass, she could probably get away with eating half of the plate of food, and have leftovers for the next day. Lucky her, unlucky him. He’ll have to cook for himself the next day.

These large portion sizes make it difficult, especially for women, because there is not an established portion size for either gender. It would be interesting to see a restaurant menu that had distinct portion sizes for men and women. I’m sure the women’s rights activists might be up in arms about that, but objectively speaking, it may be suitable to have varying portion sizes to account for differences between people. Customers might also gain a better understanding of the importance of portion control. 

So next time you are out for dinner, or lunch, or brunch, take a look around and see if you notice this. Sometimes it’s too easy to just set your mind on autopilot when you are out to eat and not pay much attention to what’s actually on the plate in front of you, because after all you went out in the first place to not have to worry about making your meal. That’s one of the nice perks to cooking at home; you know what exactly goes into your food and control how much of it gets served. This is just a thought to consider the next time you go out. 

Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below. 

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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One of the Hardest Things is Saying No

     Along the road to reaching your goal there are many obstacles that get in the way. Social events, busy work, unforeseen events… Basically anything that keeps you from getting to where you want to be. To get to where you want to go, there will always be sacrifices to make along the way. That is not saying that you must abandon everything else and only focus on the one thing, but you need to be able to recognize when there is a choice that will work against you and your goal, or for you.

     For example, if you are trying to perform better at your sport or lose weight, there are things that will either directly help you or hinder you from reaching your goal. Socially, friends and family will want to go out to eat, get drinks, and stay out late. These are fun things to do, but they do not benefit you whatsoever in reaching that goal! Alcohol directly has a negative effect on your performance and not getting enough sleep does the same (but those are topics for a different day). Being in an environment that isn’t beneficial to reaching those goals puts up a road block. Living on a college campus for example doesn’t give someone the best food options to eat and perform well. The ones that are available are few and far between too. But there is always a parallel.

     I’m a firm believer in creating the environment that you want to be in. Taking the small steps in the right direction, developing habits, and putting systems in place to prevent obstacles from ever presenting themselves is something that anyone can do. The biggest step for me was creating a consistent schedule (semi-consistent at the moment) that would keep me honest with the goal I had set in mind. Sticking to it the best you can makes things automatically easier, even if you do deviate from it slightly. I’ve previously written about how I format my schedule in the post “Making Time, Being Consistent, and Having a Plan”. It’s not all about being strict and never having fun. There’s plenty of room for that too, but it is about trending in the right direction. Having a set schedule that you stick to prevents many of these things from coming up and people generally figure out that you aren’t available at certain times. This can be specific times that your train, study, sleep, meal prep, or whatever you need to do to make sure you are taking steps in the right direction to get to where you want to be.  

     Learning to say no is one of the hardest things to do. It’s hard telling people you don’t want to go out because you’d rather sleep and feel good the next day so you can be productive. Delaying instant gratification for something bigger you want to accomplish in the future is much more satisfying. It’s easy to look right in front of us and get caught up in what’s going on in that instant instead of looking further ahead. Having to say no, I’ve found, is something necessary to get to where you want to go. Look further ahead, recognize the present, and make the choice that best suits your goals.