i am really struggling with making my portion size smaller. i'm 5'0, aiming for 1500 calories a day. i eat healthy foods and during the day, i have no problem eating reasonable portions, but at night, i sabotage myself by eating huuuge portions for dinner. like tonight, i housed a bowl of whole wheat pasta with veggies that was easily 1000 calories. its not an issue of me not stopping when i'm full... i really just want that much food. i am also trying to be more active too and i feel like thats making this even harder!

i would really appreciate any advice you guys have, since i know a lot of you have been there! i feel like every day i meet a new obstacle to my weight loss... i guess i'm just trying to figure them all out one at a time.

Get a smaller plate/bowl. It is extremely effective. Simply load it up as you would a larger size. You'll consume less, but feel like you've eaten enough. As long as you don't go back for seconds.

Also, I measure my food. I'm talking ridiculous measurements. If a serving size is one cup, that's exactly what I put on my plate.

I also read somewhere that blue serves as an appetite suppressant. I've never tried it, but it mentioned putting your food on a blue plate and watch how much less you consume.

Are you sure you're eating enough calories? Depending on your age and exactly how active you are, 1500 might be lower than you need to go to lose weight.

Are you eating enough protein and fat? The dinner you described sounds healthy but carby. Are most of your meals like that? I tend to feel much fuller when I eat meals that contain substantial amounts of protein and (healthy!) fats.

A good tip I heard once was eat a smaller serving size, wait 30 minutes that way your brain can get the full signal and then if you're still hungry eat a little bit of something else. Another thing that I read in a magazine from a woman who lost 100+ pounds was when she gets cravings she would wait 30 minutes for it to be gone, during that 30 minutes she would give herself a manicure because you can't fix food with wet nails!!! Good luck!

Typically, the more highly-processed carbs you eat (in this case, whole wheat pasta), the hungrier you will be. When you adjust your food intake to include less of these things and more "clean food", your cravings should (doesn't work for everyone) decrease, thereby encouraging you to eat less.

I agree with the advice about checking to see WHAT you are eating that is making up those 1500 calories. Make sure you are getting protein not only for dinner, but throughout the day. This way you won't get to dinnertime and feel so ravenous.

Dinner is the hardest meal for me as well. I think it's partly boredom that makes me want to just keep eating. One thing I do is I have a huge portion of whatever vegetable I'm having that night. If I'm doing broccoli, then you will see a huuuuuge portion of broccoli on my plate. You really can't take in that many calories with just veggies, but you will have the feeling of eating a ton of food.