Good Morning Everyone:
When clients respond to my question, “What did you eat for dinner last night,” I am convinced that while they think they’ve chosen healthfully, more often than not, they are unaware of common dietary pitfalls that stifle even the most conscientious diner.
Listen people, serving sizes differ from portions!
For example, let’s say that you’re out for a night on the town with your spouse but you don’t want to break your diet and you order the following from your favorite restaurant:
Grilled Salmon
Baked Potato
Sautéed Asparagus
At first glance, a pretty innocuous meal. However, let’s take a closer look
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a serving size of Salmon is three ounces. That’s 175 calories; ten grams of fat, 19 grams of protein and no carbohydrates.
The serving size of a Potato is five ounces. That’s 110 calories; three grams of protein, 23 grams of carbohydrates and no fat.
As for the Asparagus, a serving size is one ounce (or four spears) and that’s just 16 calories (four grams of protein and four grams of carbohydrates with, of course, no fat).
Therefore, if you just ate one serving of each of the above items you would consume 301 calories. But, I think it we’d all agree that, unless you were at a high-faulting, overpriced French restaurant like Ortolon, any other restaurant would easily double those portions in order to serve it as an appropriately-sized meal. So that means TWO SERVINGS of each menu item! Right there, without their ever-so-special olive oil on the fish and veggies, you’re lookin’ at 602 calories and you haven’t even seasoned your spud, drank your bud or ordered your dessert!
So let’s do that.
We’ll be conservative here; two teaspoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for the entire meal) is 90 calories; 10 grams of fat. One small pat of butter for the tater is 36 calories; four grams of fat. Two eight ounce glasses of Chardonnay is 180 calories. For dessert, you’re gonna be good, so you order a small fruit tart and split it 50/50 with your spouse. Obviously, there are a million recipes for desserts. Most I’ve researched hover around 300 calories in total. So that’s another 150 calories for you; with 5 grams of fat, 4 grams of protein and 22 grams of carbohydrates (including sugar).
Now what’s the total? 1058 calories!
Guess what guys? That’s exactly half the amount of calories I eat a day during the week. Do you really think that’s gonna help you lose weight? Think again.
So what’s the solution?
If you ask them to just grill the salmon dry, order the veggies steamed, forgo the butter, drink one glass of wine and go for the natural fruit instead of the tart, you’ll save about 250 calories. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s equal to doing 15 minutes on the Stairmaster at level 65.
