Understanding your portions – how to manage your intake
If you aren’t doing as much structured or intense training, plus you’re doing less incidental activity – your total energy demands may not be as high as when you’re in full training.
For athletes, it’s still important to eat balanced nutritious meals to meet your current energy demands. It might just be that you don’t need quite as much.
Approaching this doesn’t mean you need to be eating as little as possible, nor does it mean turning your whole diet on its head, cutting out whole food groups or meals to manage intake.
Sometimes you just need to take a layer off the meal you’re current having to maintain consistent intake but reducing total kilojoules.
Practice this by making some slight reductions in serves from the different components of a meal as you fill your plate.
If you wanted to take it a step further you can swap a few ingredient to have a lower kilojoule option for a similar volume or meal combination.
It might surprise you how much that extra mouthful, spoonful, slice, serve or spread makes a difference to the total energy content of your meals.
Even when meals are balanced and healthy, they could simply be too big and supplying more energy than your body needs at that time.
Counting kilojoules doesn’t always result in a healthy relationship with food or a successful diet outcome but it can help to understand food a little better.
Below are some example meals and the total kJ content in them to demonstrate how much energy can vary depending on what you put on the plate and how small shifts can add up.
Original option |
Reduced portion |
Ingredient swap to maximise volume & nutrients |
|
Breakfast |
Hot breakfast3 eggs 2 slice grain toast – thick cut 2 slice short cut bacon ½ avocado |
Hot breakfast2 eggs 2 slice grain toast – thinly sliced 1 slice short cut bacon ¼ avocado |
Hot breakfast2 eggs 1 slice grain toast – thick ½ cup baked beans ½ Grilled tomato
|
| 2606kJ | 1587kJ | 1428kJ | |
Morning tea |
Yoghurt fruit and nuts:170g tub Plain sweetened yoghurt 2 tbs whole almonds 1 banana
|
Yoghurt fruit and nuts:170g tub Plain sweetened yoghurt 1 tbs whole almonds ½ banana
|
Yoghurt fruit and nuts:170g tub natural yoghurt 1 tbs almonds 1 tsp honey 6 strawberries |
| 1792kJ | 1365kJ | 816kJ | |
Lunch |
Chicken sandwich:70g roast chicken including skin 2x slices full-fat tasty cheese 2x slices soy & linseed bread 1 tsp butter 1tsp mayonnaise 1x small tomato ½ carrot grated |
Chicken sandwich:50g roast chicken without skin 1x slices full-fat tasty cheese 2x slices soy & linseed bread 1tsp mayo 1x small tomato ½ carrot grated Handful baby spinach
|
Open chicken sandwich on vita-weats:50g grilled chicken breast 4x vita-weats 2x slices reduced-fat tasty cheese ¼ avocado 1x small tomato sliced ½ carrot grated Handful baby spinach
|
| 2659kJ | 2187kJ | 1733kJ | |
Afternoon tea |
Nibbles40g cheese 2tbs hummus 8 crackers |
Nibbles20g cheese 2tbs hummus 6 crackers |
Nibbles3tbs cottage cheese 3tbs hummus Sliced carrots |
| 1677kJ | 1200kJ | 1108kJ | |
Dinner |
Spaghetti Bolognese1.5 cups tomato-based mince sauce 1.5 cups cooked pasta ½ cup tasty grated cheese
|
Spaghetti Bolognese1 cup tomato-based mince sauce 1 cup cooked pasta ½ cup tasty grated cheese
|
Spaghetti Bolognese1 cup tomato-based mince sauce ½ cup cooked wholemeal pasta ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese Bag steamed green vegetables |
| 3704kJ | 2747kJ | 1916kJ | |
Supper |
2 scoops flavoured ice cream | 1 scoop ice cream | 1 scoop frozen yoghurt with fresh berries |
| 1040kJ | 520kJ | 400kJ |
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