Average (11-Inch) Dinner Plate
Want an easy diet tip? Downsize your plate! You’ve probably heard this tip before, but did you ever try it?
Using a smaller plate means you’ll eat less food and still feel satisfied. Why? Because we eat with our eyes! We like to see a full plate, whether the plate is big or small. In fact, research shows that we eat more when we eat from larger dishes even when we’re not that hungry. Many times, it’s not your appetite controlling how much you eat, but your visual perception of how much you need to eat to feel full, and that gets skewed by plate or bowl size.
At home, I use an 8-inch salad plate for all my meals. It’s the perfect size for the amount of food most people should be eating. And it fills up the plate so I don’t feel deprived. But when I put the same amount of food on my 11-inch dinner plates, it doesn’t look like much.
How big are your dinner plates? If you’re not sure, grab a ruler or tape measure and check. Most of us have 10-12 inch dinner plates because that’s what’s sold in most stores today. Restaurants use even bigger plates.
If your dinner plates are too big, go buy smaller ones. Or if you have salad plates, start using those at meals instead of dinner plates. After a while, you’ll get used to eating off the smaller plates and won’t believe how big those old dinner plates seem!
