November 16, 2009

Portion Size: Your Brain Is Not Your Friend



The description of this study can be read here:






Portion Size Issues Occur With All Macronutrients











Be Careful What You Put on Your Plate




Planning for the Holiday Food Orgy








When Your Crash Off Your Diet






Matt Stone said...

Long-term weight changes cannot be achieved through eating more or fewer calories, so portion size is irrelevant. If you eat small portions, your hunger will increase over time while your metabolism decreases (raising insulin resistance). If you eat large portions, your hunger will decrease as your metabolism rises (decreasing insulin resistance).

Yes, that's right, I said lower insulin resistance eating larger portions. This is one of the greatest flaws of low-carb science (the belief that raising insulin levels after meals causes the 'insulin mechanism to wear out and insulin resistance to ensue.' That's not how the body works at all).

I won't struggle through the holidays because I do not crave unhealthful foods, I no longer have addictive eating patterns, and Thanksgiving dinner isn't much different than my everyday meals.

Jenny said...


You don't have diabetes, so your experience, as useful as it is to people like you doesn't translate.

Many of us, self included have lost significant amounts of weight and maintained that weight loss for many years.

You really need to be more respectful of the needs of the diabetes community before spouting off in places like this blog where the visitors in many cases have a LOT more experience with health and diet than you do. said...

Matt and Jenny, you two are clashing because you're both True Believers and Diet Evangelists for your respective diets.

I, on the other hand, am a Diet Agnostic. As I see things, you're both right -- and you're both wrong.

Of course, even agnostics and atheists succumb to the abundant high-calorie meals of the holiday season.

country mouse said...

I've encountered attitudes like matt's before. I expressed attitudes like matt's before. I call it "one true way" syndrome.

although one thing sets off my bs detector. no unhealthy cravings? sounds unhealthy physically and mentally. dealing with it by a variety coping techniques, yes. outright denial, no.

PJNOIR said...

Between portion size of product and the choice of product in everyday life (ie/fast food, carb rich supermarket items, etc) this is why I call diabetics, a social disease. Its hard to live and eat in a different one (without education).

also- "Stop eating for the poor kids in China." Its okay to leave something behind on the plate. Mom was wrong.

Susanne said...

Matt, you simply cannot understand what it is like to have a metabolic disorder like diabetes if you don't have one. I just turned 53 years old, I am young really, and yet I am struggling for my life already.

My body fights me every step of the way. If I want blood sugars less than 120 in the morning I can eat 8 oz of protein and some non-starchy vegetables for dinner and that is it.

Portion size is hugely relevant to me. When I eat a 22 oz rib eye and a couple of cups of steamed broccoli (low carb, right?) for dinner my blood sugar will be 150 in the morning, or more. If I eat any carb with my protein in the morning, my blood sugars will rise to 180 before they slowly fall during the day.

I don't eat unheathful foods (except for the rib eyes). Trust me, I will not get lower insulin resistance with larger portions (I tried that already). I will not get less hungry with larger portions.

My high blood sugar has nothing to do with addictive eating patterns. It has everything to do with genetics. 3 out of 4 of my grandparents were diabetics, and their siblings were diabetic. My mother, aunts, cousins...all diabetic.

And to top it all off, I am allergic to wheat and most dairy. I suspect my thyroid is failing from a year of drinking low-carb and high soy protein shakes for breakfast and lunch.

I wish I could agree my problems are from low portion sizes and unhealthful cravings, but I cannot. My beta cells are dying. I will end up on insulin at some point, and no amount of eating larger portions of super healthy foods will change that.

ItsTheWooo said...

Hey Matt, are you another one of those guys who wasn't that overweight to begin with, lost about 30 pounds, and thinks he knows everything? Yea, heard it before.

Yes, hunger increases and metabolism decreases when one loses weight. If you figure out a way to prevent this UNAVOIDABLE FACT of weight loss, please do be sure to contact every prominent obesity researcher in the world, they would be interested to hear of your discovery.
I suppose the Matt Stone approach allows one to lose weight without 1) slowing down metabolism or 2) increasing hunger. ITS MAGIC. The secret is to never have been obese, and to just be a vanity dieter who loses 10 or 20 pounds of fat that only ever was gained because of truly abysmal and unnatural eating patterns.

Way too many non-overweight guys online, who were only ever fat because they ate pizza and soda like crazy, who think they understand why people like me are obese as children and get to a high weight of 300 pounds with numerous metabolic & endocrine problems before 20 yeras old. Thanks for telling me that I am all wrong about eating low carb. I'll be sure to make sure to eat lots of carbs and bigger portion sizes to avoid insulin resistance and metabolic slow down. That'll work just as good for my body... (if my goal is to become grotesquely fat, hypoglycemic, insane and afflicted with PCOS again, ha ha).
Oh but lemmie guess the secret to making this work is to do something like avoid fructose, or to exercise an hour every other day, but not cardio just weight lifting, or is the secret this time going to be megadoses of vitamin D?


Out of curiosity have you ever even had a vanity weight problem? Has your philosophy worked for anyone, ever?
I read more about your beliefs here: and you are coming across as quite the nutter.
But I can see how this message would be popular, given the fact that people generally do anything to deny the fact that eating less food/calories/carbs/often protein is typically required of not being a fatass with all sorts of health problems.

Anne said...

When I first went low carb to keep my blood sugar low, I used a scale to check portion sizes. As time went on, I figured I could eyeball how much to put on my plate. Recently I have noticed my blood glucose creeping up and I think it is due to larger servings. I have put my scale back on my kitchen counter and will see if measuring the carbs will help bring down my BG again.

I am not overweight(BMI is 21) but have T2DM controled by limiting carbs.

Thanks for posting about this Jenny.

RLL said...

I almost always bring sucrose sweetened: cranberry sauce, pumpkin cheese cake, and whipped cream. Add lots of turkey, a little stuffing and gravy, plus whatever seems to be low carb, and a few bites (like Jenny) off sweeties plate, and it is a real thanksgiving dinner. BGs do fairly OK.

Stargazey said...


Really? Do you have refereed journal articles to cite? Or are you one of those who believes that scientists are all part of a big cabal trying to keep truth from the common folk?

Boz said...

With me it's a no brainer. Smaller portion w/ less carbs means lower blood sugar. I can't speak for anyone else, but that's how my system works. And a food scale and measuring cups help a lot toward that end.

William Houser said...

I have kept a record of every meal and its corresponding BG level since I was diagnosed with T2 in April 09. The carb content and the physical volume of the meal are both very important. An oversized portion of salad with a no-carb salad dressing will in my case always cause a spike in BG levels dew the "Chinese Restaurant Effect". I have lost 40lbs.+ more or less as a side-effect
of keeping my BG levels as close to normal as I can. It is not logical to say a metabolic disorder like T2 will be unaffected by the amount or type of food you eat. There is also a big difference between insulin resistance and a lack phase one insulin response. said...

Hi Jenny
thanks for your blog.

I'm not diabetic, but my 2 brothers-in-law (Type 1) and father-in-law (Type 2) are. The eldest brother-in-law is tall and thin, the youngest is tall and b-i-i-i-g, and my father-in-law is tall and developing a pear shape that would put a mandolin to shame. The difference between all three is attributable to eating habits. The eldest eats a healthy diet with small portions, the youngest eats anything and everything with no respect for portions, and my father-in-law eats typically refined and starchy foods and complains all the time about the portion size being too small. He completely eschews wholegrain or slow-to-metabolise fresh food. And of the 3, his blood sugar levels are the most fluctuating, controlled only with ever-increasing amounts of insulin.

While this doesn't constitute a study, it certainly lends weight to your comments about portion size, blood sugar levels, and weight.

My husband and I are a pair of those nutters to which you refer (sorry! :)) ), we honestly enjoy eating stuff which is healthy for us, and we don't miss the junk food. We do eat what we like, but we're so used to fresh and home cooked that we mostly don't finish a portion of dessert if we do want it. We avoid sugar, and our consumption of sugar is in the form of fruit and vegetables. So far my husband is the only one in the family who hasn't developed diabetes, and we believe, rightly or wrongly, it is due to our diets....we are a bit slack with exercise :(

I think it is important to not worry about weight, but worry about health. If a person focuses on putting something into their body which is good for them, rather than counting calories, I think this makes the 'struggle' somewhat easier and over time this becomes a habit and pattern for life.

But then again, we could just be that type of rigid personality having other personality struggles :)