[mzKiki]

I've been calorie counting since January doing pretty well but now I am weighing my foods. I have done an extensive web search but can't find any information on the amounts I should be eating. What is a serving of Chicken or fish? I've found info on what it should look like but not the actual amount. Is a serving of chicken really 3oz? That seems really small. Is rice 2oz? I'm soooo confused!
Any help will be appreciated.

[JohnP]

Serving size seems rather arbitrary. If you're counting calories - what difference does serving size make?

I suggest a calorie goal and a protein goal. Everything else is less important.

[mzKiki]

Why does that make so much sense when you say it? LOL.

[JohnP]

We all have strengths. One of mine is simplifying data to what is relevant. With dieting - the signal to noise ratio is low unfortunately.

[kaplods]

You can't find any information on what you should be eating, because there is no one-size-fits-all amount.

Exchange plans tell you how much of each food to eat, but even so they don't tell you what a single serving is - you decide that based on your food budget.

I do like exchange plans, because they have calorie and carb counting as well as balanced nutrition built in, but even so there's a lot of different recommendations as to which are best (mostly based on personal preference and experiments. I find I do best on a relatively low-carb plan).

for example, I basically follow the 1800 calorie high-protein exchange plan as written,

or I use the 1500 calorie plan and allow myself about 300 calories to spend any way I want.


http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/foodplans.htm



Even in exchange plan dieting though, I get to choose when to eat which foods. I could eat all my protein for breakfast, or I could break it up evenly between meals and snacks.

There are no hard-and-fast rules. Try several variations and see which you like best.

[kaplods]

or LOL!

(since I didn't see John's post as I was formulating mine)

"what he said!"

[QuilterInVA]

Exchange plans do have serving sizes. It has nothing to do with your calorie budget, you are just eating more than one serving. Meat is 3 ounces, pasta and rice 2 oz. uncooked, cooked vegetables 1/2 cup, salad greens 1 cup, fruit 1/2 cup, bread 1 oz., dairy 1-1/2 oz. cheese, 1 cup milk, etc.

If you go to www.mypyramid.gov you can get complete information on what constitues a serving.

I don't subscribe to just count calories. I believe a healthy diet is essential for good nutrition.

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by QuilterInVA

Exchange plans do have serving sizes. It has nothing to do with your calorie budget, you are just eating more than one serving. Meat is 3 ounces, pasta and rice 2 oz. uncooked, cooked vegetables 1/2 cup, salad greens 1 cup, fruit 1/2 cup, bread 1 oz., dairy 1-1/2 oz. cheese, 1 cup milk, etc.

Actually, a 3 oz serving of meat would be 3 protein exchanges, not one, and 2 ounces of uncooked pasta would be almost 3 bread exchanges not 1 (because eacfh bread exchange contains 60-80 calories and 2 ounces of dry pasta has about 200 calories).

Now you can choose to look at the exchanges as serving sizes, but I don't think that makes much sense as the word serving size is generally used to mean the appropriate amount per meal. Most people do not consider one ounce of meat or 2/3 oz of pasta as a serving size of either.

Now some diabetic exchange plans DO tell you how much to eat at each meal (because some diabetics need to spreak their calories out in a specific way).
So some diabetic exchange plans may recommend 3 exchanges of meat at a meal (in which case, the serving size would be 3 ounces, but the exchange values would be 3 meat exchanges). So exchange value and serving size aren't entirely interchangeable terms.

You can choose to see them that way - in which case the 3 ounces of chicken would be 3 servings. I don't think that makes a lot of sense if you're wanting to communicate clearly with others, because if you say "I ate three servings of chicken," most people will assume you meant a lot more than 3 ounces.