I get a lot of offers to review products, but I turn most of them down because they aren’t something that I would use. However, this one caught my eye because it is a product that encompasses things that I already do. The SlimPlate system is basically a portion control system to use at home (or out if you want). You eat 3 meals a day and 2 snacks using these cups/plates/bowls.
It comes with 13 pieces plus an instruction booklet, including the meal division plates, bowls, mugs and portion cutters. The dishware seems comparable to Corelle ware and it is dishwasher safe. There are 4 lunch/dinner plates, which have marked sections for protein (orange), veggies (green), and starches (blue).
You follow a 4 month plan with these plates. You go through the Inspired, Savvy, Master and Maintenance stages, each lasting 1 month (well, maintenance forever, right?). Basically you portion out your food into the designated wedges without having to count calories or measure foods. The plan is designed starting more lower carb with the Inspired stage. Your dinner plate is divided into 2 sections instead of 3 like the others. Here is an example of a typical Inspire meal:
As you progress each month, you use the plates with a larger blue wedge and the equally portioned plate is maintenance. Now if you have a mixed dish, say Chinese takeout, you can use a divided plate and would put the rice/noodles in the blue section and then the veggie/protein mix in the other sections, trying to keep it even. A little awkward, but it does control how much you are eating.
Women are supposed to stay on the inside of the colored lines and men can go to the outside of the colored lines. So basically – no food touching for women 😀 You all know how I feel about food touching, too.
There are 2 bowls. One is for soups/cold cereal. Personally, I think this bowl is a bit big for breakfast cereal as you can fit a lot in there. Here is an example of my normal bowl of banana custard oats in this bowl.
The small snack bowl is for fruit (as seen in the dinner photo above) or if you want a snack of something like potato chips or a scoop of ice cream, you can use this bowl.
The 2 mugs are for hot and cold beverages. You can fill these up once per day with a beverage of choice, so if you want alcohol, juice or hot cocoa, you can have them. This doesn’t work for me and my lattes – not big enough LOL! However, the milk portion of my latte actually measures out into the cold cup.
The breakfast plate has markings of where your food should fit.
For example, my banana bread breakfast pudding actually fits neatly onto one of the circles for a waffle:
The cutters are designed to portion out foods like bagels, muffins, sandwiches (because round sandwiches are fun!), pancakes or waffles.
They correspond to the circles on the breakfast plate. These cutters also can be taken out to eat. Here is an example of a Bagel Wednesday and the size of the cutters with breakfast.
The bagel is okay, probably about the size of a Lender’s bagel? The muffin cutter is really tiny. 2 inches across. You would take this cutter and push it down through the muffin pictured below.
The muffin above is not that big on its own for breakfast and cutting out that portion would be very small, like a mini muffin. Honestly, I don’t eat muffins that often (this is John’s muffin) and I wouldn’t bother with a portion this small 😀 The muffin cutter can also be used to cut a dessert portion of something, like 2 cookies.
Now the website says that people on average follow the system 70% of the time and see success. That seems a low percentage to me to see success, but who knows? I do like that you aren’t expected to be perfect.
You can also join free web classes for the SlimPlate system. They start once a month. This will give tips and advice on using the system. You can sign up for this to see if the system is something you are interested in purchasing as well. There also is an iphone app available.
What I like about this is that you eat as you normally do, but just watching portions. Of course, they do give you guidelines on how to eat better, but even just using the plates for portion sizes really is eye opening to see how much you are eating. The nice thing is that you don’t have to buy any special food and you can eat what your family eats.
The system costs $99. That’s not bad for all the items plus the web classes. Plus, the people at SlimPlate also are offering a coupon for readers. The coupon code for is FINDINGRADIANCE.This will provide $5 off for the kit (not the installment plan).
FTC disclaimer: I was provided the SlimPlate system for free to review. All opinions are my own and I was not compensated in any other way.
It would really help people to see what a portion really is! A very interesting concept.
It is helpful for portion sizes!
Ok this is super cool! Portion control was one of my biggest issues and this would have helped a lot. Currently I do my own thing and try using smaller plates and bowls to make myself control portions.
I use a lot of smaller plates and bowls a well. I do think this is a really useful product and can be used forever, really.
What a great idea!! I know that at dinner I eat way more than a normal portion size of anything – fun that the system is color coded!
I do think that 70% of the time seems low but maybe that is for people who have gone from eating absolutely anything!!!
It is a great idea and the fact that you can use these and eat the same food as your family is really helpful
I’ve always wondered what changing my plates/bowls could do for portion control. I might have to try it with some goodwill plates, but it’s a great idea 🙂
It helps because if you have a bigger plate, you will fill it up. It’s more satisfying to see a full plate of food, so the same amount in a small plate just looks like more.
That is really interesting. I actually weigh my food for portion control or measure how a cup (or whatever size the serving is). So, while I applaud the idea of this, I probably would still like better the actual weighing and measuring. But, I realize that not everyone is like I am and not everyone wants to weigh and measure everything they eat. This might be a good way to get some portion control without having to weigh everything. I also like the cutters for the bagels and muffins.
I weigh and measure as well, but I know some people hate doing that.
Interesting program, can be very useful at first if you want portion control. But if you use it without food knowledge I don’t think it will work that well. It doesn’t help to eat healthier unless you follow the plan.
I have never seen this before and don’t think there’s something like this in Holland.
I think portion control is a huge factor in weight loss, among other things. The online classes are supposed to help you learn to eat better as well so that you get the best results.
I think this system would be especially great for someone who does not want to weigh and measure everything. Automatic portion control per se. Of course, people still need to learn the green veggie line is for broccoli or green beans and not green peas or corn… guess that’s why they have the classes.
I’m sure the muffin cutter is that size because most muffins are really like a giant cupcake with no frosting. I bet you’d get 4 portions out of a Dunkin’ or grocery store bakery muffin. Or maybe they’re just trying to say that a muffin might not be the best choice and should be treated like a dessert?
I’ve used smaller plates and bowls for years. I still have a huge stack of dinner plates–probably use them once a month. And I have a couple of really big cereal/soup bowls. I end up using them for small mixing bowls. The muffin cutter is an interesting illustration to people of what size muffins used to be!
Well that is a wonderful system. I also tend to use smaller plates, or if using regular dinner plates, only one scoop of each. Protein and veggies being the larger, with a small (according to most people) portions of carbs- and they are always brown rice, sweet potato, or whole grain pasta. My in-laws would definately benefit from that and they have 100% “portion distortion”. I am sending them the info. So useful, thanks for posting it.
Linda
What a great system! For people who might be just getting started on portion control/weight loss, the slimplate system would be so helpful. I think after a while, we tend to realize what correct portion size is as well as our stomachs “shrinking” to the point where it says “enough!”.
That muffin cutter is why I don’t eat muffins anymore…they are so oversized that eating a normal portion makes me feel deprived!
Given my shared aversion to foods touching, I don’t have a problem with meals on large dinner plates. More white space is a good thing. 🙂
Thanks for the thoughtful review.
Pretty cool Lori! I think this would be great for a lot of people & help them with portion control!