Portion sizes
Calories aren’t king
At Strongly we don’t believe in counting calories. Doing so can be detrimental to our health. That’s because worshipping at the alter of the calorie means ignoring the nutritional value of food. It leads to crazy decisions like choosing “low calorie” products which are also highly processed and devoid of nutrients over natural nutritious foods.
It puts people of taking cod live oil tablets because they are “too high in fat” instead of seeing them as being absolutely essential for brain function. Focusing on calories also ignores how the body absorbs different nutrients like for example how fruit is high in sugar but the natural fibre contained within it dramatically slows the absorption of that sugar and reduces the spike in blood sugar which is ultimately what leads to your body storing that excess sugar and building up your fat reserves.
Counting calories is also boring AF and can lead to unhealthy obsessive behaviour.
A simple, visual approach
By far the best way to think about how much you need to eat is through simple, visual queues. This will allow you to eye up any plate of food or ingredient and quickly workout whether it looks about right as a portion. That’s why we have created the below guide to portion sizes for strength. Use the below simple guide in combination with your Can’t Go Wrong plate and guess what… you can’t go wrong!
Fruits and vegetables 1 serving of vegetables = 2 hands cupped together 1 serving of fruit = 1 handful
Starchy carbohydrates 1 serving of starchy carbohydrates = 1 fist size
Protein 1 portion of animal protein and fish = 1 palm sized serving / half your hand
Pulses 1 portion of beans and legumes = 1 cup / 1 fist size
Healthy fats 1 serving of healthy fats (nuts, seeds, avocado) = the size of two thumbs
Oils and spreads 1 serving of unsaturated oils and spreads = the size of a £1 coin
Test & learn
For most people the above guide will be perfect for their strength training and overall health. That said, we want to empower you to take charge of your own nutrition and experiment with what works for you. We recommend using the above guide as your starting point. Try it for a week and then see how you feel. If you’re finding that you’re still hungry or that you don’t have enough energy then it’s ok to experiment with increasing your portion sizes slightly for the next week and seeing how you feel then. Similarly, if you’re overfull and sluggish then reduce the portion sizes slightly.
Once you have found a balance that makes you feel good, stick to that for a month and allow your body time to begin changing. Is your strength increasing over that period? If not then you will want to look at increasing those portion sizes slightly and repeating the test.
The important thing is to have a consistent approach where you are giving you and your body enough time to adapt.