Volumetrics Diet
For those of you that love to eat but wish you could lose weight, the Volumetrics diet may be just what you have been seeking.
The Volumetrics diet is based on the principal that people love to eat. And given the choice between eating more or less, people will choose to eat more almost every time. Rather than limit the amount of food that you can eat, the Volumetrics diet enables dieters to eat as much as they want of certain foods while still losing weight. The diet’s creator, Barbara Rolls, figures that people who are on a diet that limits the choices and amount of food they can eat will just become unhappy and unsatisfied and revert back to their old, unhealthy ways. By allowing people to eat a large amount of food while still losing weight, Rolls feels that dieters will become less discouraged with their diet and stick with what is working for them.
What can I eat while on the Volumetrics diet?
While the Volumetrics diet does not limit the type of food people can eat, it does encourage dieters to evaluate food based on its energy density. In simple terms, energy density is the number of calories in a specific amount of food. Some foods are very energy dense, and therefore have a high amount of calories. Fats are a good example of a high energy dense food, while water is a perfect example of a low energy density food. The basis behind the Volumetrics diet is that if you focus on eating low energy density foods you can eat more and get fewer calories while doing so. Below are some more examples of low and high energy density foods:
Low energy density foods:
- Non-starchy vegetables
- Nonfat milk
- Soup broths
High energy density foods:
- Crackers
- Chips
- Cookies
- Chocolate
- Nuts
- Butter
- Oils
The Volumetrics diet encourages you to eat foods that have high water content such as fruit. These types of foods will help fill you up without eating a high number of calories.
How does it work?
The Volumetrics diet is one of the easier diet plans to follow. With its modest goals, the Volumetrics diet is not for those people looking to lose 10 pounds in a week. Rather this diet plan is for people looking to lose 1 to 2 pounds of fat per week while developing a long term healthy lifestyle.
To help you be successful with the Volumetrics diet, Rolls suggests eating foods with low energy density. Rather than counting calories, which can be difficult for most people, focusing solely on eating foods that are low in calories will help jump start your weight loss goals. Rolls also suggests keeping records so that you know where to make changes in your daily routine. Tracking the foods that you eat as well as the physical exercise that you get will help you see which parts of your daily routine need to be altered so that you can actually lose weight. Keeping records of your diet and exercise habits from the start is the only way to truly know what is and is not working with your diet.
