Hi guys!

My husband is on this weight loss journey and is trying to make healthy choices and exercise.

I am the one that cooks so I have control over what he eats (for the most part), but his issue is with portion sizes. I like to eat for taste, he likes to eat for volume. How can I "nicely" help him with portions without constantly nagging?

I will serve him what I think is a normal portion, and often he goes back for seconds and ends up eating twice as much. Or he'll snack later. He's having trouble losing weight, and I think it's all about the portions.

Any recommendations?

Gosh, I think you only choice is to cook a smaller quantity or make recipes that are extremely low cal. I am sorry you are having this issue! Ultimately though, you can't help him--only support him.

My husband has the same problem. He lost 25 lbs in six months and then started gaining back because he quit paying attention to portion sizes. If I made burritos he would eat 5!

I started cooking the meal before he got home and set aside our portions for dinner and then immediately put the rest in tupperware to be frozen or put aside for the next days lunch.

I always have salad available, so if he's still hungry he can eat that.

It's helped my husband; he's back to losing weight. It's helped me too to not have pots and pans full of food left over to nibble on.

Cook a reasonable portion of the higher-cal things, then a LOT of the low-cal stuff (like veggies). I'm a volume eater, too, in a lot of ways, so just eating LESS never did much for me...I had to eat DIFFERENTLY. So I eat a small portion of grain, a small portion of lean protein, and a HEAPING PILE of veggies. If he's still hungry after eating his "normal" dinner portion, he can fill himself up on veggies.

This works best if the veggies are a delicious, well-prepared component of the meal, not an afterthought like they are to a lot of people. Roast, steam, grill, add flavor with garlic, lemon, and herbs, and experiment with different salad combos.

This is what I do, for both of us.

I make 4 portions of food, there are only 2 of us. 1 portion immediately goes into my husbands lunch container, and one goes into my lunch container. I like mandalinn always have extra veggies if we need them to feel full, and have the extra calories for them.

We both had that problem at first. The trick is to only cook enough for one serving each, (actually I usually cook 2.5 servings so I have one and he gets 1.5 because he needs more calories than I do). After a while his tummy will shrink and he won't be able to eat as much.

Our husband's must be twins. Or maybe it's a man thing all together? Hmm.

Anyways, what I've found is because my hubby is counting calories like I am, I can make him a plate and tell him the total calories for his plate. It puts it into perspective for him when I tell him, for example: You're eating 650 calories. If you go back it will now be 1300 calories for dinner.

That's usually all it takes I will add that if you try and "correct" or give advice to your husband too much about his eating habits he will consider it nagging and stop listening. Men really truly are the sensitive ones

Hubbies...gotta love 'em! I use the tricks posted by the others. I have several different veggies along with the main item and make sure it looks like a HUGE amount on his plate (spread them out a bit rather than big piles). We usually have salad or soup before too. If he still wants more food after the meal there is more salad & soup (or veggies) if he wants more of those. He usually doesn't.

I also "lighten up" the main dish recipe whenever possible and add more veggies to it when I can so he can have a bigger portion of that.

Another tip. We use smaller plates. We used to use our large dinner plates, now we use our medium size lunch plates. Honestly sometimes it looks like the food is overflowing. Its psychological help yes, but it does help.

My husband and I have issues with portion control, too. We made a choice to do something about it together. Bertolli's and Stouffer's have some really good meal in a bag options that are 500 calories or lower. The bag only serves too people and leaves us both without the option to eat more. I think tonight is the first night since we started that I was starving after dinner and that he's heating something else up to eat right now, but he skipped lunch today and I don't know what my problem is. It seems to be working well for us, and I know my appetite has gotten smaller.

That's what I do for me & it works great. Tried it with DH & he pouted like a little kid.

Love the tips! I'm sure I'll restate a bunch but here goes:

Smaller plates!
Bulk up with veggies -- like spaghetti sauce: add TONS of mushrooms and grated carrot, or chili: add tons of green peppers and tomatoes.
Make 4 portions, serve 1 each, package the leftovers right away.
Serve multiple food items: spaghetti with a BIG side of salad: chili with a baked potato: a side of green beans with pretty much anything.

You need to bulk up everything to satisfy the VOLUME eater in him. Cut back on the calorie-filled stuff and bulk up on the veggies...

Good luck!

Kira

The idea of volumetrics would really help here. Also if he tends to eat while "distracted" (tv, reading, talking) it would be a good idea for him to just pay attention to eating, its suprising how much faster the full signal goes off when you are paying attention.

Feed him green beans with everything! Broccoli works too, or cauliflower, many of the green veggies are way low on calories (I calorie count) I have a few recipes that work as well (lots on my blog if you want to check it out its in the sig. Fish is pretty low for the amount that you get as well and water melon works for me too.

it really boils down to whether the food tastes better than thin feels though (to me at least) he has to realize for himself that he is eating too much or it won't matter what he eats, it will always be too much.

Just an opinion but worth the price paid I think

As Ever
Me

i agree with mandalinn. Im like that as well. Im all abotu volume so tend to pile on the vegetables when i make my meals otherwise i would want more or would want to snack later on