Portion Control

It seems like everybody is on some type of diet or another, but none of them seem to work very well. But there might be an easier way to lose weight.

It's simple, easy and cheap but something most of us don't do---portion control. And the big tip here is to change the size of your plates.

Do me a big favor, go measure the size of your dinner plates. Chances are they are 10 or 12 inches across. And in a restaurant, they are most likely 12 to 14 inches wide. If your parents or grandparents have any plates left over from the 1960's they'll probably measure 8 to 10 inches. The point is that plate size has increased over the years and that means portion size has gone up as well. That increase in portion sizes is what's helping pack on the pounds. So by simply changing out to smaller 8 inch plates you'll lose weight.

Here's why. We tend to stop eating based on what are called external factors---in other words, we eat until our plate is clean when we should only be eating until we start to feel full. And researchers have found that we'll do the same with smaller plates but since the portion sizes are smaller we tend to eat less. It's a cheap way to trick our brains into cutting back on how much we eat and a great way to start shedding pounds.