On average, a healthy adult is expected to consume 1200 calories of food per day. But one formula can never fit all. I will try to answer the question of “how much to eat?” through this article.

Calorie Target -> Meal Plan -> Food Plating -> Portion Sizing

STEPS to get the meal proportion right

Calorie Target

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not a calorie counting fan myself. But it is good to have a starting point somewhere. A target calorie can help you plan your meals initially. Once the meals are planned, you will have a rough idea of what kind of diet you need to continue.

There are calorie calculating websites that guide with a range of calorie intakes depending on your intent. Once you enter the details like height, weight, gender, and age, the sites help you ascertain the range of calories that you can consume if you want to maintain or lose weight.

For instance, I have a BMI of 20.8. The Calorie calculator suggests the following calorie intake:

So, I can keep my intake around 2000 calories in order to maintain my weight. I do intend to tone up a little. But that means converting fat to muscle. This approach generally does not result in weight loss, though the body appears a bit more chiseled.

Meal Planning

Meal Planning Websites help you make a daily meal plan based on your calorie target. It mostly suggests western recipes but you can tune it with locally available ingredients easily. The goal is to find a balance in each meal.

Once you have your meal plan, please employ various meal prep techniques to have home-cooked food as often as possible. I use the “Easy Meal planner” app to record my weekly meal plans and purchase groceries accordingly.

Food Plating

Famous Indian celebrity nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar suggests the following ratio of nutrients in a typical meal plate. She emphasizes keeping the ratio of Grains or Millets (Carbs) to 50% of the plate. 30% could consist of meat or pulses (Proteins) and vegetables (Fibers). The rest of the 20% can be pickles, papads, and other traditional snacks. She is a huge fan of eating local, seasonal and traditional food.

Portion Size

In a book by the name “Eating at Work“, the author’s Ishi Khosla and Nina Mehta insist that there is no fixed proportion or portion size to a meal. The meal portion should not be fixed and deterministic. It depends on various factors like your activity during the day, your health condition, your allergies, the weather, the day planned ahead and so on. But one general rule that they recommend is to identify your “Peak Hunger Time” and have a filling meal at that time.

Rujuta Diwekar suggests a simple Mental Meal Plan approach to determine the portion size of each meal. She suggests serving half of the portion you need. Eat the meal mindfully taking double of your usual time. If you are still hungry, serve half of what you need again. Repeat the cycle until you feel satiated. This prevents one from overeating and the slow mindful eating supports digestion.

If these tips resonated with you, don’t forget to send me a compliment by leaving a comment below.

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