Portion Control or Not?

So its been tried and tested...has it worked?  Chris Shugart points out in a recent article something that we've been asking ourselves for what seems like forever: if its impossible to implement, is it helping?  Moderation in most things tends to be a pretty good rule to follow for most people.  Extreme eating and dieting only helps if you both know what you're doing and really have the desire, time, and energy to do it.

"Oh don't get me wrong, the idea of portion control sounds great. Eat what you want, just in small quantities. Problem is, like a lot of ideas that sound good on paper — socialism, welfare, a sitcom featuring those Geiko cavemen — it just doesn't work."

What do you do, then, if you just plain don't have time?  Or aren't ready to commit to a bodybuilder's pre-show diet?  Check out this article on Portion Control.  Chris basiclaly pointed out some of our questions and then went about answering them from his own experience. 

"So if low-fat diets suck, and low-carb diets are often short-sighted, and portion control has a 95% failure rate, then what's the best nutrition plan for shedding excess body fat so you can have sex with the lights on again?

"Well, here's a big part of the answer: volumetrics.

"Volumetrics simply means eating "low-calorie-dense" or "high-volume foods." Zucchini for example has only 26 calories per cup. Compare that to one tiny tablespoon of vegetable oil at 120 calories! Food sources like that are calorically dense — very little food, not filling at all, but jam-packed with calories."

And if you're interrested in his recipie for that amazing looking zucchini bread? Here it is:

Shugart's Volumized Zucchini Bread

3 1/4 cups whole wheat or whole grain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups Splenda
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup egg whites
1/3 cup water
4 cups grated zucchini (Note how I doubled this, adding nutrition and "bulk" but hardly any calories.)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a big bowl, combine whole wheat flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon, and Splenda.

In a separate bowl, combine apple sauce, egg whites, water, zucchini, and lemon juice.

Mix wet ingredients into dry, add walnuts and fold in, or add walnuts to the top after pouring into loaf pans. Bake in two standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the loaf.

Now, keep in mind our theme here: volumization. This version of the recipe is not only healthier, but a loaf of my zucchini bread is exactly the same size as the diet-wrecking original version. Your stomach doesn't know the difference. You'll be just as satiated and satisfied with less than half the calories.

The Nsupps Team

Sources:

Chris Shugart, "Volumize Your Diet: Eat Large, Stay Lean!"

Chris Shugart, "The Volumized Cheese Burger."