8 ISSA Professional Nutrition Coach Hand Sized Portion Guide Client

Hand-Sized Portion Guide
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Your palm determines Your fist determines Your cupped hand Your thumb determines
your protein portions your veggie portions determines your carb your fat portions
portions
This works well for many reasons.

First, hands are portable. They come with you to work lunches, restaurants, social gatherings, etc.
Second, hands are scaled to the individual. Bigger people need more food, and tend to have bigger hands, therefore getting larger
portions. Smaller people need less food, and tend to have smaller hands, therefore getting smaller portions.
Third, it provides reasonable amounts of nutrient dense foods and their specific macronutrients (thus preventing deficiencies). It will help
you meet your protein, vegetable, carb, fat, and calorie needs without having to count a gram or weigh a food.
Assuming you’re active and eat about 4 meals per day, this is what we find to be a great starting point:
For each meal, men might begin by eating:
• 2 palms of protein dense foods; • 1 cupped handful of carb dense foods; and
• 2 fists of vegetables; • 1 thumb of fat dense foods.
• 2 cupped handfuls of carb dense foods; and It’s important to note a few things here.
• 2 thumbs of fat dense foods.
To start, men don’t need twice as much food as women. And
women don’t need half as much food as men. These per-meal
And for each meal, women might begin by eating:
numbers simply make it very easy to appropriately portion out a
• 1 palm of protein dense foods; meal. But they don’t necessarily provide perfect total daily intakes
• 1 fist of vegetables; for everyone.
© 2019 ISSA issaonline.edu

Hand-Sized Portion Guide (cont’d)
When you do out the math, our hand-size portion guidelines come out to 8 daily servings of each food group for men (2 servings of
each per meal x 4 meals). And 4 daily servings of each food group for women (1 serving of each per meal x 4 meals).
Some men need less calories than the 8 daily servings of each food group provided by the per-meal template, and some women need
more calories than the 4 daily servings of each food group provided by the per-meal template.
In reality, most active men likely need a total daily intake like this:
• 6-8 palms of protein dense foods
• 6-8 fists of vegetables
• 6-8 cupped handfuls of carb dense foods
• 6-8 thumbs of fat dense foods
And most active women likely need a total daily intake you more easily meet their protein, vegetable, carb, fat, and
like this: calorie needs without having to do kitchen math. But they aren’t
immutable.
• 4-6 palms of protein dense foods
• 4-6 fists of vegetables You should adjust actual portion sizes up or down, depending on
your unique needs and goals. For example:
• 4-6 cupped handfuls of carb dense foods
• 4-6 thumbs of fat dense foods Men who want to gain lean mass or with very high activity levels
might need to add 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbs and / or
It is important that you be aware of this. And to always keep in
1-2 thumbs of fats to a few meals.
mind that even these are just starting points. They are to help
Women who want to gain lean mass or with very high activity levels might need to add 1/2-1 cupped handfuls of carbs and / or 1/2-1
thumbs of fats to a few meals.
Men who want to lose body fat or with very low activity levels might need to remove 1-2 cupped handfuls of carbs and / or
1-2 thumbs of fats from a few meals.
Women who want to lose body fat or with very low activity levels might need to remove 1/2-1 cupped handfuls of carbs and / or 1/2-1
thumbs of fats from a few meals.
Of course, just like any other form of nutrition planning – this meal template is just a starting point. So stay flexible and “steer
dynamically”.
Adjust portions based on hunger, fullness, preferences, goals, overall activity level, and most importantly, results. Start with the basic
template and then adjust portions at any time using outcome-based decision-making.
© 2019 ISSA issaonline.edu

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Hand-Sized Portion Guide

This works well for many reasons.

For each meal, men might begin by eating:

© 2019 ISSA issaonline.edu

© 2019 ISSA issaonline.edu

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