Portion Sizes - Men and Women Are not Created Equal

Who should be eating more and who should be eating less?

I went out for a steak dinner this weekend and like I normally do, I split an entree with my date. We ordered a 10 oz striploin steak with vegetables and a baked potato on the side and started with a soup and some of that awesome house bread that any good steak house always serves.

This one entree split between two people is more than enough food. So we always just order one entree and share it.

The interesting part is when the food actually gets served to us.

The waitress told the kitchen to split the entree in half on two plates…think about that for a second.

They served a 180lbs man the same amount of food as a 120lbs woman. Doesn’t really make sense does it?

This is one of the fundamental problems women face when eating with men…they typically get served the exact same amount of food as the man and may feel some pressure to eat more than they want (or perhaps are tempted to overeat)

This is just another example of the assumption that all people can/should eat the same amount of food as each other (which of course is false)

No matter where you are or who serves you, it’s up to you to decide how much food you will or won’t eat. If you’re the type who will eat all that is served to you, then the easiest thing to do is ask to have less food served. That way you can eat till your plate is clean and still be satisfied that you kept your calories under control.

John

Posted by johnbarban in food, Weight Loss

Tags: food, portion sizes, restaurants, Weight Loss |13 Comments

13 Responses to “Portion Sizes – Men and Women Are Not Created Equal”

Anthony Ramos Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 7:29 am
really good point. I guess it sounds bigoted to tell women they probably not ought to eat the same as a man.
Robert Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Interesting that you’ve had that experience and that the women you draw the statement from feel that they should eat more. All the women I have discussed this with, and my GF, have said that they feel pressure to NOT eat the food. Hell, my GF and I have experienced blatant pressures from waiters and waitresses for her to not eat as much as me and for me to eat everything…because, you know, guys are trash cans that eat everything…!
johnbarban Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 10:29 am
Robert,

She just cut a chunk of the portion served to her and put it on my plate.

Interestingly, some restaurants charge you a premium if you ask to share an entree (instead of ordering one each)…so they actually penalize you financially if you’re trying to control calorie intake!

JB
usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
John, was this date a cutie?
Cooper Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
There are a couple of other options for women to deal with this.

1. Make sure they compensate by eating much smaller portions or skipping a meal when they’re not eating out.

2. Ask for some of it to be boxed before it’s even served. A lot of people (myself included) eat everything on the plate because they hate to see good food being thrown in the trash. Knowing that you’ll eat it the next day can make all the difference.

Cooper
Jason Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Hi John,

Just wondering what your thoughts are on North Americans feeling guilty about “wasting food”…because isn’t running on a treadmill or taking metabolic stimulants, in an attempt to burn calories, by definition “wasting” food?
johnbarban Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Jason,

The idea of ‘wasting’ food and finishing everything on your plate is somewhat distorted because the opposite of wasting food shouldn’t be overeating.

There is only so much food a body ‘needs’ and the excess is simply stored as fat. Extra exercise that you don’t need to do (ie: cardio) is just an attempt to burn off the extra calories that you didn’t need to eat.

It’s a sad story really. More than half the world is starving to death, while a smaller portion is eating their way to death.

Ironic.

JB
Bart Says:
June 28th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
i split dinners with my wife, and if she wants eat more i always give her chunk of my part, but she does not ask that often. It is just so natural how much we eat. It all comes to this: i eat around 10-20% more and this make sense. I am 168, she is 105 and we are always both happy. Even after we done we get some sweets and coffee that we also share. Sharing is awesome!!! And funny part is we are full and no food get wasted!!!
Jay Says:
June 29th, 2010 at 2:30 am
I feel like waiters judge me if I don’t order a lot of food
John Says:
June 29th, 2010 at 8:06 am
JB,

I think you will find this blog interesting – http://www.gitbigger.com

People trying to get obese and working as hard as us do to lose weight. Human mind is amazing.
Alek Says:
June 29th, 2010 at 11:17 am
“That way you can eat till your plate is clean”

Why would you do that anyway? I think this is the number one reason for obesity in the western world. This guilt complex of not throwing away and finishing food.

I was watching this docummentary, where they did studies and found that children always eat the same amount of food (in terms of calories and roughly macro-nutrients) no matter what they were served.

Adults however, the bigger a plate you serve them, the more they eat.

In other words, its learned guilt and habit to have to eat “whole meals” and “finish meals”. Whenever a person sees me holding a hamburger and says “it has too many calories”, I say really? I snap the hamburger in too, throw half away and say “what about now?”.

I might sound kind of religious here, but I been studying how naturally skinny people eat, and I believe the whole thing about “filling foods” and “foods that don’t fill you up” is bs. I’ve found that when I really really really taste the food, I can just as filled on 100 cals of fast-food and 100 cals of “super fibre, super filling health food or whatever”.

I think this whole paradigm of setting what to eat, and then eating that, is what has untrained us from our natural calibration we have as children. Instead of feeeeling how the food fills up, we eat until an external marker is met, such as a clean plate or however calories we set per meal.

Ectomorphs are (I believe) guys who never were conditioned to use external marker. I know, since I eat like one right now, and been an endo all my life. But right now, I eat like a little girl, and feel full, sometimes I don’t feel like eating for hours on end… And that’s perfectly fine. Ectos have days when they don’t eat for 12 hours… And its not concious, they simply “don’t feel like eating”. Why? Because they’re following internal markers, and not an external marker like “its lunch time, I need to eat”.
ERV Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 10:29 pm
‘Dinner and dating’ is way too stressful.

No joke, I will actually check out the restaurants menu online before a date to plan, and usually order stuff that re-heats easily cause I know Im going to be taking half of it home as leftovers :-/

But I also dont want to look like I dont like the food or Im finicky or Im too stuck up to eat whatever/wherever we are eating, so I tell him upfront that Im taking half of it home, and say “Thank you for dinner… and lunch tomorrow!” if he pays.

The only places I can avoid this stupid dance are tapas restaurants
WaistHipsandThighs Says:
July 29th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Yeah its funny that where you eat will look at trying to make money either way so most people will order two meals. I know when I go out to eat it amazes me when I see a woman who is 5’1 120lbs get the same entree as me and I’m 6’3 190lbs. And the they wonder why I am not gaining weight when they are. Are you kidding me? My favorite is when they say I have a high metabolism.

-Thomas

Portion Sizes – Men and Women Are Not Created Equal

13 Responses to “Portion Sizes – Men and Women Are Not Created Equal”

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