How to Find and Measure Serving Size

Using the proper serving sizes is a crucial part of eating healthier. Get some easy tips to find and measure serving size!

Portion control is a method that many people use to eat less food. One way to control your portion size is by checking the serving size.  

Eating a serving size is helpful, but it’s especially useful if you’re eating too many portions of the wrong food. Cutting back to just one serving of cake or brownie or one handful (serving) of those delicious salty chips is good for your body.

In addition, keeping aware of serving sizes can also help you make healthier food choices, measure calories, reduce sodium, and even lose weight. Careful monitoring of serving sizes may be required for health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, or kidney disease.

That said, recently, within the last 5 years, the FDA mandated that food companies must list serving sizes that were closer to the portion sizes of what people are actually eating.

They changed the law(s) to ensure consumers had access to standardized serving sizes and get more clarity on the number of calories they would consume if they ate that serving.

So now, the serving sizes that you find on the Nutrition Facts label DOES NOT reflect recommended serving sizes.

This is important to note because you can continue to reduce your calories by eating less than the noted serving sizes and still feel satisfied.

Yes, it can be confusing at times.

Here are some tips to make things a lot easier. 

1. Definition of Serving Size
2. What to Use to Measure Serving Size
3. Serving Size of Ice Cream and Cookies
4. Serving Size of Fruit and Vegetables
5. Find and Measure Serving Size Found on Food Labels
6. How to Calculate Serving Size
7. A Note on Measuring Sodium
8. Find and Measure Serving Size Found on Websites
9. Find and Measure Serving Size Found in Calorie Counter Apps
10. How Do You Calculate Serving Size for a Recipe?

Definition of Serving Size

First, let’s talk about the definition of serving sizes.

The phrase serving size refers to the information on a Nutrition Facts label using the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration) guidelines.

In contrast to the serving size, a portion is an actual amount on your plate. A portion may be more or less than a serving size. Portions are how people ‘talk about’ the amount of food they eat.

In general, serving size may help guide you to nutritionally appropriate portion size.

Serving sizes are also meant to help you figure out how much food to eat at one time. (Note: you do not have to eat the full amount, especially if it’s not a healthy option.) That said, the labeling can be confusing for some foods.

For example: if you know you should eat a cup of yogurt but only two tablespoons of peanut butter, you can discern there are more calories per portion in peanut butter compared to yogurt.

Therefore, you can get a feel for the number of calories that are in food simply by reading the amount of food in the serving size.

Over time, when you’re deciding what to eat you’ll naturally ask yourself, “What is a typical or standard serving size?”

What to Use to Measure Serving Size

You will see volumes of tools, strategies, and tricks to measuring serving size, but measuring cups and food scales are the two most effective and inexpensive kitchen items that work the best, in my opinion, and you may already have them.

I like this 19-Piece Measuring Cup and Spoon Set (#pdlink) because it has more than just the typical 4 sites of 1/4, 1/3 and 1/2 cups.

I also use this Digital Food Scale (#pdlink) almost every day.

You may already have these in your kitchen, but if you do not please know they are worth the very small investment. The digital food scale is especially helpful with protein, nuts, and grains and is super accurate.

If you want to pre-measure your food for lunch at work or future evening meals, you might like these food standard serving containers.

Or you can use containers to pre-measure your food to simplify meal prep.

If you are trying to lose weight, measuring or weighing your food is going to give you the most accurate results and get you to your goal faster than estimating or guessing.

Let’s Keep it Simple – Serving Size of Ice Cream and Cookies!

Sometimes you’ll want to treat yourself! As I said above, you can limit your portion to make a healthy choice. So, if you find yourself asking the question ‘What is one serving of ice cream?’ or ‘How many cookies should I eat?’ over and over again – just remember two things instead:

• Serving size of ice cream = 1/2 cup – 2/3 of a cup (ice cream serving size varies depending on the flavor, brand, and the ingredients. If there is candy, chocolate, or nuts in it, the serving size will be smaller). A pro tip: use a melon baller tool (#pdlink) to scoop ice cream if you want to feel like you’re eating a ‘large’ serving of ice cream! Five small scoops look bigger than one scoop!
• Serving size of a cookie = 1-3 cookies (Cookie serving size is also going to vary depending on the size of the cookie and the ingredients.) You can expect the serving size of 1/2 dollar-sized cookies to be more than softball-sized cookies.

The bottom line is to eat realistic serving sizes when you treat yourself while you’re trying to lose weight, manage a health condition, or eat healthier. The saying, ‘everything in moderation’ is a reliable guide.

Serving Size of Fruit and Vegetables

In general, you can estimate that a serving of cup up fruit or vegetables is going to be around 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Leafy greens bounce up to 1 cup.

If you eat a whole food, you can gage the size by comparing it to the bottom of your fist to estimate a serving.

Just make it simple. You can eat quite a lot of produce and feel full, but not consume a lot of calories. On the contrary, if you eat two store bought toaster pastries, you will find them gone pretty quickly, you won’t feel full, but you’ll have consumed 400 calories.

Find and Measure Serving Size Found on Food Labels

Foods that are in a package are required to have a food label. There are many things listed on a food label, but for this article, we’ll focus only on the serving size and calories, which are typically listed at the top.

The serving size will list how many calories are in that measurement (and also tell you the measure of nutrients in the serving size).

How to Calculate Serving Size

1. Look at the Nutrition Facts label on the package.
2. Note the serving size immediately under the title ‘Nutrition Facts’
3. Also, note the number of servings in the container located under the serving size (This will tell you if the entire contents are more than one serving, i.e., a bag of chips.)
4. Some foods require adding liquid before eating. If you see the word dry after the serving size, you will need to find the liquid’s serving size (important if you’re watching calories).

A Note on Measuring Sodium

The American Heart Association recommends no more than 2,300 milligrams (mg) a day for most adults. For people with high blood pressure, an ideal limit is no more than 1,500 mg per day.

If you’re watching your blood pressure or your cholesterol you must focus on sodium on the food label. Even cutting back 1,000 mg/day has been shown to improve blood pressure and heart health.

The Salt & Sodium Connection

If you are working to lower your blood pressure (or lose weight) you need to understand how much sodium is in salt so you can make changes to control your intake. Sodium chloride or table salt is approximately 40% sodium.

• 1/4 teaspoon salt = 575 mg sodium
• 1/2 teaspoon salt = 1,150 mg sodium
• 3/4 teaspoon salt = 1,725 mg sodium
• 1 teaspoon salt = 2,300 mg sodium

On a food label, the values reported are ‘per serving’. If you eat an entire can of soup and it contains two servings, you have to double the intake listed.

Watch out for the ‘Salty 6’ – the top six common foods that add the most salt to your diet. Read food labels so you can use brands that contain the lowest sodium for these items:

• Bread and Rolls
• Pizza
• Soup
• Cold cuts and cured meats
• Poultry
• Sandwiches

At home, most sodium is consumed (up to 75%) from processed foods like soups, tomato sauce, condiment, and canned goods.

Sodium can be ‘hidden’ in some foods. These are foods we forget to consider:

• Cheeses
• Salted snacks, nuts, and seeds (buy unsalted)
• Frozen dinners and snack foods
• Condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise)
• Pickles and olives
• Seasoned salts like garlic salt, onion salt, or celery salt
• Sauces like barbeque, soy, steak, and Worcestershire

Avoiding fast food is a great way to lower sodium while dining out. Check the menu for low sodium options and you can also request your food be prepared without using salt.

Find and Measure Serving Size Found on Websites

You can search online for the number of calories in a specific food, and you will find numerous websites that can provide that information for you. Sometimes though, the data is hard to see on a big site.

Here is a website that offers a database of common foods, grocery foods, and restaurant foods. Find the search tab and enter your food to see the calories and nutritional information.

Some authors try to make it easier for you and show you ways to ‘estimate’ a serving size by comparing food to an everyday item.

The problem now, though, is that many authors have added so many things it is hard to remember the menagerie of items (tennis ball, a deck of cards, baseball, dice, cupcake liner, hockey puck, spice containers, spoons, baby food jar, and even small amphibians).

So far, my favorite is this website because it has only four things to remember. That’s more my speed.

And, here is a wallet card that may be helpful.

But, honestly, in the end, calorie apps are my favorite way to go.

Find and Measure Serving Size Found in Calorie Counter Apps

If you have a smartphone, free calorie counter apps give you the information you need right when you need it. These two offer fabulous food serving size calculator information for free. You choose the serving size and it provides calories and nutrient information. Both are great.

Lose it!

Fitness Pal

How Do You Calculate Serving Size for a Recipe?

For home cooks, and the talented ‘foodie’, you might want to know how to determine the right serving size for homemade items. Well, it’s pretty easy to learn how to figure out the serving size of a recipe.

1. Weigh the cooking container
2. Weight the food in the container
3. Determine number of servings
4. Divide the food by the number of servings (use app)
5. Find total calories
6. Find calories per serving

To begin, weigh the cooking container (empty) before you make anything. Make your recipe, and when it is finished, weigh the cooked food/entree. Subtract the container weight from the cooked weight to get the final weight of the food.

Decide how many servings you have and divide the final weight of the food by the number of servings. Now, you can find the total calories. I prefer to go back to the Lose it! or the Fitness Pal tools. These apps have a tool specifically for recipes (and it’s free).

Enter the ingredients using the recipe as a guide so you don’t forget anything. Divide this number by the number of servings. You can save this information into these apps.

And, now, if someone asks ‘why are the serving sizes so small?’, you can fix it!

In closing, it can be a challenge to find and measure serving size when you first start. But, I promise the more you do it, the easier it will become.

If you’re eating food that comes from a package, be sure to look at the food label. It does get harder to find a serving size without a food label, but you can succeed using the websites and free phone apps I suggested above.

Don’t give up; keep going, and move forward. It will get easier the more you do it!