Whenever a new 10 Pound Takedown Challenge starts, there are always new Rebels who struggle to understand why I don’t give them portion sizes.

There’s more than one reason I don’t.

For example, I want to teach people to listen to their bodies, instead of mindlessly stuffing food in their mouth when they aren’t even hungry.

One facet of doing that is to stop eating when they’re full.

Another is to take less food in the first place, because if the portion size is too big for your appetite, most people feel obligated to keep eating, even if they’re full.

But the main reason is that, in my 20+ years of experience in the weight loss industry, there’s no one size fits all when it comes to portion sizes.

Believe me, I get that there are “standard recommendations” about how much food all men and all women should eat.

Yet it doesn’t make any sense to say a 6’4″, 250-pound man in his 20s should eat the same portion sizes as a 5’6″, 150-pound man in his 70s.

The portion sizes you eat and the portion sizes I eat, or my husband eats, or your grandmother eats, may or may not be the same. There are too many factors for cookie cutter portion sizes to work for everyone.

Plus, the volume of food you eat isn’t the only factor in whether or not you lose weight.

Are you sleeping? Are you drinking water, or are you drinking 6 cans of Pepsi a day?

Are you living on cheesecake brownies, or are you eating meals comprised of meat, eggs, vegetables, nuts, seeds, seafood, and dietary fat?

See what I mean? The quantity matters, but so do the quality of foods, and so do other elements of your lifestyle.

It doesn’t mean that figuring how much you should eat is complicated.

Like I said, you listen to your body. If you’re not hungry, don’t eat. If you are hungry, stop eating when you’re full (not stuffed, just full).

If you’re someone who never feels full, use a little common sense and go from there.

By common sense, I mean that if you eat half the package of bacon, six eggs, and half a pint of heavy whipping cream for breakfast, that’s probably gonna be too much, even if you feel like you could eat more.

My custom program clients get customized numbers, including calorie amounts, but first they fill out a 31-question questionnaire so I can get to know them and their needs. It takes the guesswork out of it.

Otherwise, listen to your body, by eating when you’re hungry and stopping when you’re full.