Since many people do not have a scale readily available to measure the sizes of portions they consume at each meal or snack, being able to estimate how much food you are eating becomes helpful in order to make sure you are not over eating.
By using common, everyday items, such as a deck of cards, a light bulb, golf ball, or even your hand, we can begin to closely estimate the size of portions we are served.

From this, we can begin to know how many calories we are consuming at each meal and throughout the course of the day.

These techniques to measure the amount of food you are eating will assist you in either losing or maintaining your weight.
The American Dietetic Association has developed several visual estimates to assist individuals in knowing how many servings they are actually eating.

One of the easiest ways to visually estimate portion sizes is to use an everyday item that you carry around with you all the time, your hand.

Because hand sizes vary according to body, size, gender, and age, it may be easier to estimate portion sizes using some common household items.