How can my child be overweight? He doesn't eat much junk food.

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Almost all of my patients tell me that they don't understand why their child is heavy when he/she doesn't eat much junk food. "He has a pretty healthy diet. We almost never eat fast food. Why is he overweight?"

The answer is easy... portion sizes.

Almost everybody overestimates portion sizes. Think back to the 1950s. Most dinners consisted of meat and potatoes yet people were much thinner. Why? Because they ate much less than we eat now. One serving of a piece is chicken or meat is the size of a deck of cards or the size of the palm of your hand minus fingers. How often do you really eat that little? But back in the day, that was standard and people didn't starve to death. A serving of pasta is about one cup (depending on age). Yet when you order pasta in a restaurant, you are often served four cups or more! Even if you only eat half of your dish, you have still eaten twice as much as necessary.

We need to reset our understanding of normal serving sizes. I don't suggest you do it all at once. If you suddenly cut your servings to ideal serving sizes, you will feel starving. What I do suggest is gradually decreasing your serving sizes. If you normally eat two cups of pasta with your meal, decrease to one and a half cups for a week and then decrease to one cup. Do the same with your protein. If you are feeling hungry, add more vegetables. If you do it slowly, you won't notice the change as much. But you will notice the scale moving down!

Have a Lighter Weigh Day!