TempoLife › Features › Portion size visual guide
Portion size guide
What one portion actually looks like, measured rather than guessed: a palm is about 85 g, a fist about 132 g, a cupped hand about 157 g and a thumb about 14 g, computed from the serving weights of thousands of foods.
Where the gram figures come from
Most portion posters print a hand next to a number and leave you to trust it. The numbers on this page are measured instead. This site carries the USDA food_portion table baked in — the recorded weight of a cup of this, a slice of that, a three-ounce serving of the other, for thousands of foods — and each hand cue below is the median of the servings that match it.
- A palm — Protein foods — meat, poultry, fish, eggs. About 85 g, the median recorded 3 oz serving across meat, poultry, fish and seafood (500 foods).
- A fist — Vegetables and salad. About 132 g, the median recorded 1 cup serving across the vegetable shelf (333 foods).
- A cupped hand — Cooked grains, pasta, rice and other starches. About 157 g, the median recorded 1 cup serving across grains and pasta (132 foods).
- A thumb — Fats — oil, butter, nut butter, dressing. About 14 g, the median recorded 1 tablespoon serving across fats and oils (79 foods).
Your own hand scales with the rest of you, which is the entire point of the method: a larger person has a larger palm and needs more food, and a rule of thumb that travels with you beats a set of scales you will not carry. It is also, unavoidably, approximate. Hands vary in shape as well as size, dense foods and airy foods fill the same fist very differently, and nothing here has been measured on you.
The plate, for when the hand is holding a fork
The plate version is coarser and easier to use in a canteen: fill half the plate with vegetables or fruit, one quarter with a protein food, one quarter with a starch, and keep added fats to about a thumb. It fixes proportions rather than grams, which is usually the part people get wrong — the classic plate is two-thirds starch and a garnish of everything else.
| Share of the plate | What goes there | Hand cue | Typical weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half the plate | Vegetables and fruit | A fist | 132 g |
| A quarter | Protein food | A palm | 85 g |
| A quarter | Starch — grains, pasta, rice, potato, bread | A cupped hand | 157 g |
| Alongside | Added fats and dressings | A thumb | 14 g |
Source: Plate proportions follow the public-health plate model published by the US Department of Agriculture · checked 2026-09-02
A page for every shelf
Each category page lists the recorded serving for the foods on that shelf, what that serving costs in calories, and a card small enough to print. Pick the shelf you actually shop from.
Fruit
294 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 155 g.
Vegetables
499 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 107 g.
Potatoes
75 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 147 g.
Eggs
50 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 54 g.
Meat & poultry
744 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 91 g.
Fish & seafood
257 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 96 g.
Grains & pasta
165 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 141 g.
Bread
450 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 34 g.
Breakfast
200 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 35 g.
Dairy
250 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 75 g.
Fats & oils
158 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 27 g.
Nuts & seeds
141 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 28 g.
Legumes
220 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 170 g.
Drinks
319 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 192 g.
Sweets
361 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 46 g.
Sauces
99 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 130 g.
Prepared foods
499 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 155 g.
Snacks
139 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 28 g.
Soups
140 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 230 g.
Spices & herbs
72 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 4 g.
Salads
15 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 100 g.
Estonian foods
90 foods. Typical recorded serving on this shelf: about 100 g.
Hand and plate cues are a rough estimating tool for general information, not a prescription and not medical advice. They say nothing about how much you personally need, which depends on body size, activity, age, pregnancy, medication and health conditions. If you are managing a condition, recovering from an eating disorder or following a prescribed diet, work with a clinician or a registered dietitian rather than a rule of thumb.
Source: USDA FoodData Central SR Legacy food_portion serving weights, baked into this site as lib/nutrition_portions.php · checked 2026-09-02
Frequently asked questions
How big is a palm portion in grams?
About 85 g of protein food. That is the median weight of a three-ounce serving across every meat, poultry, fish and seafood entry in this site's serving table, not a number from a poster.
Does the hand method work if I have small hands?
That is the design. The cue scales with your body, so a smaller person gets a smaller portion without doing any arithmetic. It is a rough tool either way — hand shape varies as much as hand size, and it has not been measured on you.
What about the plate?
Half the plate vegetables and fruit, a quarter protein food, a quarter starch, with fats as a thumb rather than a slice of the plate. It is the same idea at a different scale, and it survives contact with a canteen better than a weighing scale does.
Why do some foods show 100 g?
Because the serving table has no natural portion recorded for that entry. A blank is shown as 100 g and labelled as such rather than a portion being invented for it.
Guessing is fine until it is not
TempoLife lets you photograph the plate and adjust the portion afterwards, so the estimate gets corrected instead of repeated.