Are you over-tracking your calories via My Fitness Pal?

Maybe tracking your nutrition is something you’ve had zero experience with?

Are you wanting a simple, effective, portable way to achieve your nutritional goals?

Today, we’re diving into a straightforward yet powerful tool for managing your diet—using nothing but your own hands. Say goodbye to scales, measuring cups, and My Fitness Pal!

Our hand-portion method offers a personal, practical, and proportionate way to manage what you eat, no matter where you are.

The Basics of Hand Portions

Have you ever wondered how you can keep your diet in check with minimal effort? Your hand is your personal, portable portioning tool.

Here’s how it works:

Proteins (Palm): The size of your palm determines a serving of protein—this includes meat, tofu, or a scoop of protein powder.

Vegetables (Fist): Your closed fist is the guide for a serving of vegetables.

Carbohydrates (Cupped Hand): Cup your hand and that’s your serving size for carbs, like rice or pasta.

Fats (Thumb): Your thumb is the measure for fats, such as oils, nuts, and seeds.

Check out this great graphic (credit: Precision Nutrition):

These measures ensure that your portions are proportionate to your body size, making it an incredibly tailored way to manage your diet. So now we know how to measure easily…

How Many Hand Portions Should I Eat Each Day?

The short answer, it depends.

A one-size-fits-all recommendation here is difficult as your exercise and physique goals are individual. However, for ease and to provide some guidelines:

• Eat 3 – 5 meals per day, depending on exercise and physique goals.
• 1-2 palms of protein-dense foods at each meal
• 1-2 fists of vegetables at each meal
• 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbohydrates at most meals
• 1-2 thumbs of fat-dense foods at most meals

The guidelines allow for movement within based on your goals but provide an extremely effective, simple framework.

Hand Portions Vs Calorie Tracking

Hand portions are about 95% as accurate as using scales and counting calories, with far less effort.

See, calorie tracking is not 100% accurate no matter how good you are. This method streamlines meal preparation and eating out, eliminating the hassle of tracking every detail.

It SUPER Simple

What’s easier, measuring out your breakfast eggs and oats, tracking them with an app, and resetting the scales all the blllahhhhhhhhhh.

Or

A palm of scrambled eggs and a fist of spinach served with a thumb of avocado. Plus a cupped hand of oatmeal with mixed berries.

It’s balanced, simple, and quick to measure.

This Method Fits ANY & ALL Way Of Eating

Hand portions flexibly adapt to the diet you follow—Paleo, keto, or vegan.

Adjust your portions to fit your dietary needs, such as increasing your palms of protein on a high-protein diet or adjusting your thumbs of fats for keto.

Adjusting Based on Your Goals

If you’re not seeing the desired results, adjust your portions slightly. 

For weight loss: try reducing a cupped hand of carbs.

For muscle gain: Add an extra palm of protein to your day or an extra thumb of fats.

Tweaking this method to suit your goals requires little effort!

We encourage you all to try this method for two weeks!

Use your hands to measure your meals and note how it fits into your lifestyle. Share your experiences with us – what worked, what didn’t, and how you feel on Instagram @flowperformance_

Using hand portions is a simple, adaptable, and effective way to control your diet without the burden of scales, apps, and barcodes. It keeps meal management easy and aligned with your goals.

Embrace this method and see how it can transform your approach to eating—less stress, more satisfaction.

We look forward to hearing your stories and insights over @flowperformance_

Much Love,

Coach Tom xoxo