When you’re on a diet, you can drive yourself crazy with measuring cups, food scales and calorie counting. Portion control is an integral part of most any diet, be it keto, calorie restrictions anything else. Even if you aren’t on a diet, it’s essential to stay healthy with balanced meals. There may be a much simpler way to eat. And, you’ll never need a scale or a cup to check your measurements: you’ll always have your tools at “hand.”

The system is simple. Whether you want to do a basic balanced diet or a stricter regimen, the measurements are still the same. All you need to figure out the portions is to use your hand!

If you follow a food pyramid, you can figure out a serving. As seen in the image above from Precision Nutrition, it’s simple. A serving of protein is the size of your palm. Your fist is the size of a serving of vegetables. A cupped hand is a serving of carbs. A serving of fat is the size of your thumb. From there, you can build your meal as you see fit!

If you prefer knowing amounts over servings, your hand can still be the unit of measurement! Runtastic has made this great visual guide that breaks it down. A fist is a cup. The front of your knuckles is half a cup. The palm of your hand is about 100 grams of meat. A tablespoon is a thumb. A teaspoon, the smallest hand measurement is a fingertip. This is great if you are using portions for calorie counting or something more complicated than just a balanced meal!

What we love about these systems of measurement is that it takes some of the pressure off of dieting. Instead of counting calories, knowing servings can be more intuitive and involve scientifically less mental math to keep track of throughout the day! These rough guidelines can help you if you aren’t dieting. You can plan a balanced, great meal without either overeating or unfairly restricting yourself. We hope these cheat sheets help you maintain a healthy diet with a lot less effort!