PETEGAWTRYThe HandPortioning Guide
Perfect portions at every meal using the four tools on the end of your arms — palm, fist, cupped hand and thumb. No scales, no apps, no calorie counting.
Download Free Guide See How It Works
Ditch the scales, keep the results
Weighing food works — right up until real life turns up. A holiday, a restaurant, a mad week at work, and the whole system collapses. This guide replaces the scales with something you can never leave at home: your own hand.
Portion size is the quiet reason most diets fail. Not the food itself — the amount. Hand portioning fixes it with a measuring kit that's calibrated to your body size (bigger person, bigger hand, bigger portions — it self-adjusts), works on any plate in any country, and takes about sixty seconds to use.
- No weighing, no logging, no maths — the system does it for you.
- Your hand scales portions to your body automatically.
- Works at home, in restaurants, on holiday — anywhere there's a plate.
- Exact per-meal targets for fat loss, muscle gain or maintenance.
What's inside
Twenty-two pages that turn your hand into a complete nutrition system. Here's the tour.
The Four Tools
Everything you eat fits one of four food groups — and each group has its own measuring tool, permanently attached to your arm.
Palm — Protein
Your flat palm (fingers off) measures meat, fish, eggs, tofu and other protein. Protein goes on the plate first, every meal.
e.g. a chicken breast · a salmon fillet · a tin of tunaFist — Vegetables
Your closed fist measures veg and salad. Big volume, big nutrients, tiny calories — the more colourful the better.
e.g. broccoli · mixed salad · roasted peppersCupped Hand — Carbs
One cupped hand measures rice, pasta, potato, oats and bread. The lever you adjust most — more on training days, less on rest days.
e.g. cooked rice · pasta · a medium potatoThumb — Fats
Tip to base of your thumb measures oils, butter, nut butter, cheese and dressings. Small tool for a reason — fats are the easiest thing to accidentally double.
e.g. olive oil · peanut butter · mayoTargets For Your Goal
Knowing the tools is half the job — the guide then gives you the per-meal targets: how many palms, fists, cupped hands and thumbs to eat at each meal for fat loss, muscle gain or maintenance, with adjustments for men, women and activity levels.
Protein and veg at every meal, carbs matched to how active your day is, fats kept honest. Hit your hand targets and the calories take care of themselves — no counting required.
Build A Plate In 60 Seconds
The guide's plate-building method, in the order that makes it foolproof: protein down first, fist of veg beside it, carbs to match your day, thumb of fats to finish. Real meals decoded too — from a full English to a stir-fry to a meal deal.
There's a free Hand Portioning Meal Builder on this site — pick your goal, and it walks you through building your exact plate, tool by tool, in about a minute. The guide and the builder are made for each other.
Eating Out & Awkward Days
The best part of a system with no scales: it goes to the restaurant with you. The guide covers portioning when someone else is cooking — restaurant plates, takeaways, buffets and holidays — plus what to add when you're still hungry, and the common mistakes that quietly stack up calories.
How to get started
- Download the guide and give it ten minutes — it's 22 pages with pictures, not a textbook.
- Portion tonight's dinner with your hand. Don't change the food yet — just notice the amounts.
- Pick your goal targets (fat loss, muscle or maintenance) and follow them for a week.
- Use the meal builder whenever a plate has you second-guessing.
- Be consistent, not perfect. One over-portioned meal changes nothing — the week is what counts.
Get The Hand Portioning Guide
Grab the full 22-page PDF to keep — the four tools, your goal targets and the plate-building method. Want the short email series that helps you nail it? Pop in your email too.
Download the Free GuideWant a plan built around you?
Personalised nutrition and training from a Leeds PT — fat loss done properly, with food you actually enjoy. In person or online across the UK.
Portioning questions, answered
Is the guide really free?
Is hand portioning accurate enough to lose weight?
Do bigger people get bigger portions then?
What if I have a big appetite and I'm still hungry?
Does it work for muscle gain or just fat loss?
Who's behind this
Created by Pete Gawtry
Pete is an award-winning personal trainer and nutrition coach in North Leeds, helping people lose fat and feel stronger with real food and honest coaching. Hand portioning is the exact method he teaches his 1-2-1 clients — shared free so more people eat well without the faff. More about Pete
Fat loss with food you actually enjoy
Personalised meal plans and coaching from Pete — built around your life, your tastes and your goals.
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