Exhibiting control over mealtime decisions often sounds attractive especially when fears of losing control are described alongside behaviors like “over”-eating or binge eating. For dancers, in particular, control means comfort. This is especially true when much of their success can feel out of immediate control— casting and auditions are left in the hands of directors while performance execution can feel unreliable. In addition to this is discipline, a trait encouraged and rewarded in dance. So where does portion control fit into this?
In this blog post, we’ll explore why traditional portion control methods might not be the best for dancers, including more strategic ways to nourish your body with the *right* amount of food.
What Is Portion Control?
Portion control involves restricting how much you eat, aiming to follow pre-set serving sizes or calorie counts. The societal connotation of portion control often comes alongside dieting techniques to manipulate your body’s weight, shape, or size.
Portion Control: A Failed Approach
More often than not, a dancer’s struggle with portions has less to do with knowing how much to eat and more to do with the body’s response to deprivation. Restrictive eating and dieting elicit a false sense of food insecurity— the feeling of not having consistent and reliable access to enough food.
Extreme measures to control portions can also lead to unnecessary caloric restrictions, laying the groundwork for nutrient deficiencies and disordered eating. Feelings of guilt and shame can follow if calculated portions are missed, a common outcome after instances of bingeing or eating past a comfortable fullness.
“Portion control,” as a mechanism constructed by diet culture, keeps us sold on the diet— we fear “losing control” and feel dependent on those external food allowances.
A Look at The Research: What’s The Right Serving Size?
Despite previous findings, a 2017 research review shows chronic dieting directly impacts food consumption. Dieters are more susceptible to marketing tactics, eating larger portions of food labeled “healthy” or “low calorie” (even if those labels are false!) In comparison, those who do not diet are more likely to rely on internal cues like fullness and satisfaction.
Fun fact: popular research used in the late 90s and early 2000s suggested people eat more when served larger portions. However, this was later debunked and the preliminary researcher, Brian Wansink, was explained to have “committed academic misconduct” including “misreporting of research data, problematic statistical techniques, failure to document and preserve research results, and inappropriate authorship.”
Should Dancers Practice Portion Control?
Generally, no. While nutritional guidelines can provide general recommendations, a calculated amount of food (ie. calorie or macro count) doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll eat the “right” amount for your metabolism and activity level. What might be “enough” for one dancer could leave another feeling sluggish or constantly hungry. All-or-nothing thinking can also spiral from dependency on measuring utensils and food scales— habits that become isolating and unsustainable.
Contrary to this, some dancers (particularly those healing from severely disordered eating) may need to use calorie awareness to eat enough, a concept I discuss here. Even in these instances, however, dancers are encouraged to work alongside a licensed dietitian.
Understanding Body Attunement
Rather than adhering to rigid portions, body attunement helps you connect with instinctual hunger and fullness. Identifying how much food will leave you feeling energized and satisfied. This is a fundamental part of The Healthy Dancer® and goes beyond simply “eating when hungry” and “stopping when full.”
No matter how delicious a food is, honoring fullness without external “portion control” is possible. Depending on a few factors, we can re-learn how to self-regulate the amount of food our body needs to feel good mentally and physically. This comes alongside the privilege of food security. The first goal is always to meet our basic human needs— fueling the body with what is accessible.
Practical Tips for Determining How Much Food Is Enough
Identifying an amount of food that leaves you feeling energized and satiated— without depending on strict portions— takes practice. Here are steps dancers can take to shift from traditional portion control to body attunement:
#1: Eat Enough
We cannot honor fullness until meeting our body’s nutritional needs. When aesthetic pressures are paired with high levels of physical activity, dancers are especially prone to under-eating. Check out this article to assess whether or not you’re eating enough.
#2: Don’t Rely on Labels
Back-of-the-package labels can be a helpful place to start, but listed servings are not always appropriate nor practical. For example, “an ounce of chips” is hardly satisfying. Similarly, a “100-calorie snack pack” isn’t enough. In fact, the FDA makes it clear that servings sizes “are based on the amount of food people typically consume, rather than how much they should consume.” In other words, serving sizes are not meant to tell you what the “right” amount to eat is.
#3: Focus on Balance
This is especially true for snack-type foods like chips, pretzels, fruit, and popcorn, which can be less filling when eaten alone. We refer to this as staying power. Ask yourself: will this food keep me feeling full and satisfied until my next meal or snack? Try pairing food sources of carbs, protein, and fat. Implementing this kind of gentle nutrition will help you construct meals and snacks with more staying power.
#4: Aim For Attunenment
When possible, make your meals and snacks the focus of your attention. Stop scrolling. Tune into your food— tastes, textures, aromas, and appearance. Learn to recognize different types of hunger (physical, emotional, taste, etc) and eat accordingly. Likewise, try to identify when you are comfortably full and whether your body is signaling that it has had enough.
#5: Practice Visualization
If you’re still a bit skeptical, then practice a few well-known visualizations to start the process. But remember: even these are arbitrary and can be impractical for an active dancer! A few examples include:
- One serving of meat, fish, poultry measures about the palm of your hand or a deck of cards
- One serving of nuts measures about a handful
- Once serving of seed or nut butter measures about the size of a golfball
- One serving of fresh fruit measures the size of a tennis ball
- Two servings of cooked vegetables measure about the size of your fist
Portion Control for Dancers: Key Takeaways
Instead of relying on rigid portion control, dancers can benefit from practices encouraging body attunement. One of the most important aspects of body attunement is permitting yourself to eat the foods you enjoy without guilt. Click here to learn more.
