Impact of portion-control plates (PCP) on weight reduction: A systematic review and meta-analysis of intervention studies

Background: The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess whether the available research to date supports the use of portion-controlled plate (PCP) and leads to reductions in body weight and improvements in other anthropometric and biochemical parameters. The systematic review summarizes existing PCPs and their impact on anthropometric and metabolic changes.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the following databases: PubMed®, Web of Science®, Scopus®. Data were pooled using random or fixed effects meta-analysis.

Results: From 426 potentially relevant articles, 5 publications were included in this review, and 4 of which reported four different PCPs. All five studies reported a positive effect of PCP on obesity and metabolic parameters. PCP significantly reduced body weight (BW) by 2.02 kg (95% CI, -3.03 to -1.01, p < 0.0001), body mass index (BMI) by 0.87 kg m-² (95% CI, -1.28 to -0.47, p < 0.0001) and waist circumference (WC) by 2.28 cm (95% CI, -4.57 to 0.01, p = 0.05). A non-significant reduction was observed for waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) (-0.01, 95% CI, -0.03 to 0.01, p = 0.35) during the three-month intervention period. PCP significantly decreased both BW (-1.66 kg; 95% CI, -2.69 to -0.62, p = 0.002) and percentage body weight (% BW) (-1.64%; 95% CI, -2.69 to -0.58, p = 0.002) when the intervention was undertaken for a 6-month period.

Conclusions: Overall, results showed that portion control intervention significantly reduced BW, BMI and WC, along with a positive trend for WHR, plus biochemical and blood pressure reduction.