How Many Servings Is That?
Is that four servings…or just one?

There have been a few suggestions submitted to the Skribit thing on the left toolbar. As of today, the following question is leading the pack with 45 votes, so I figured I’d tackle it:

portion size when eating strict paleo and the best way to ensure the proper portions are being eaten

The way I see it, there are two schools of thought regarding portion sizes:

  • Use the Zone or some other method of measuring
  • Wing it

But it’s actually a bit more involved than that in determining what is the proper amount to eat each time you eat. Here are the key factors driving the decision:

  • Your need to maintain a certain macronutrient intake daily
  • Your desired eating schedule
  • Your goals

First and foremost in determining your portion sizes is knowing how much protein, fat, and carbs you want to eat. There are any number of ways to skin this cat, from The Zone to Atkins to Weight Watchers to not worrying about hitting specific numbers and just eating high quality Paleo foods. So which one do I choose? The last one.

A long time ago, before I ventured into Paleo eating, I started with The Zone Diet. Basically everything is broken down into “blocks” and you figure out how many blocks you need each day based on your lean weight and activity level. Then you further break those blocks down into meals, so you eat a certain amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat at each meal, specifically in a 30/40/30 fashion. It’s not a bad starting point for figuring out how much you need to fuel yourself, but most people are going to need to start tinkering with it from there - more fat, more protein, more carbs, less carbs, something.

As I said, I prefer the “wing it” method. I place quality of food at a higher level than quantity. I don’t aim for a certain amount of carbs each day or a certain number of grams of protein, though most days seem to shake out about the same. I started tracking my intake in FitDay to see how my ratios came out. I’ve only tracked four days thus far, so far from being totally reliable (haven’t even had a weekend in there yet), but my fat intake is level at between 69% and 71% everyday so far, while my carbs and protein percentages fluctuate a touch. Once I get more data in there, I’ll do a post on how my ratios breakdown over the course of a week or two.

Scheduling Your Eating

Next, let’s look at your eating schedule. It should go without saying that the portions of someone eating as I do will be far different from someone following a Zone protocol. So if you only have a four- or six-hour eating window like me, your slab of steak is bigger than the 4 oz. that someone eating five times a day is eating. It’s not unusual for me to have a plate with a pound of meat and a truckload of vegetables, but then that’s the only meal of the day for me. Because I am eating pretty much until full, I can rely on my stomach to tell me when I’ve had enough to eat.

I find that the bulk from the vegetables, along with the satiation from the protein and fat in the meat keeps me from over-indulging. My main meal last night, the one that comes an hour or so after a big salad, was about a pound of beef roast, a head of cauliflower, 4 stalks of broccoli, and a can of coconut milk. Obviously if I were eating 4 or 5 times a day, I’d have to portion that out over the entire day or I’d be the size of a small house.

Portion sizes seem to be more of an issue if not eating until full because then you have to have the self-control to stop at however many grams of everything. So if you have a certain macronutrient intake that you want to hit everyday, then you have to break that out over all of your meals for the day. If you eat 5 times, you can set it up like the Zone, eating 3 meals and 2 snacks. Or you can eat 5 meals of the same size. Or 4 meals or whatever works for you. For me it’s easy. I have one salad and one meal over which I get every bit of my caloric intake, save perhaps an apple before a workout.

Set GoalsAnd finally, there are your goals to help determine how much to eat. Are you trying to gain muscle? Eat more (along with lifting heavy things). Trying to lose fat? You probably need to ditch the “wing it” method and adopt something where you are a bit more meticulous about your intake. Trying to improve athletic performance? What sport? Performing at what level? As you can see, there are lots of variables here.

To be an elite-level athlete may require more emphasis on quantity along with quality than I’m willing to invest, but for the level I desire to achieve, focusing on quality is enough. Since I’m training for a track meet, my marker is athletic performance. The way I know if I’m eating enough of the right things is by how well I perform in my workouts. For example, in my workout this past Tuesday, I felt very flat after my first three sprints. I could tell that I was depleted, probably because I only got about 11% of my calories from carbs on Monday. So that was enough to tell me I needed to bump up the carbs with a sweet potato that night to prep for my next day’s workout. After Wednesday’s workout, I went ahead with another sweet potato to top things up. Of course, my daily carbohydrate intake for those two days was still below 20%, but my workouts have felt much better.

The problem with my method is that it’s reactionary. I can’t know if I’m not getting in enough carbs or protein until workouts falter. The benefit of my method is that it’s relying almost solely on what my body is telling me. You’ll have to choose your own measurement system to determine if you’re eating the right amounts. It may be athletic performance. It may be appearance. It may be some marker of health. The key is that you’re going to have to find something measurable and keep tabs on how it is affected by changes in your diet. I’ve chosen athletic performance as my marker, so I note how I feel when trying to hit my times or add weight to my lifts.

Which brings us full-circle back to the beginning. By analyzing my progress towards a goal with the current intake, I found that I was too low on carbs and make sure to include some more fruit and sweet potatoes throughout the week. Even with a large salad and a truckload of vegetables at dinner, the carbohydrate intake is low without some starches and fruit.

In the end, my answer is “It Depends.” Intake is always a work in progress and the proper portion size is that which allows you to move towards your goals while fitting into your eating schedule. Of course, your goals may dictate your eating schedule. Every time your goals change, your diet will need to change to reflect that.

I tend to end up eating a bit over a pound of meat and other proteins a day (eggs and sardines mainly). I’ve found over the past few years that is a) what I feel and perform best at and b) tends to be what I’ll naturally eat when just free-feeding. For vegetables, I usually cook up the entire bunch/head/bag of whatever it is and then eat away at it. If I get full, I save it and add it to my meal the next day. I don’t even measure my fat intake. I tend to just pour about the same amount on my salad or meat and veggies each day, add what looks to be a good amount of nuts and olives to my salad, and eat the whole avocado when I cut into one. Someone that can moderate fat intake with an avocado is an amazingly restrained person.

The only thing that I do try to keep a watch on is my starch intake. When I get sweet potatoes, I try not to get the ones that are the size of my head, opting instead for the small- to medium-sized ones. If I cook a sweet potato, it is pretty well guaranteed that I am going to eat the whole thing. Once I douse it in coconut cream and oil, it doesn’t stand a chance.

How’s that for a rambling, winding half-answer? As you can see, I’m not exceptionally meticulous in my overall intake, focusing instead on quality and letting quantity regulate itself. How do you determine your portion sizes?


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