Volumetrics: The Diet that Lets You Eat More, Weigh Less and Get Healthy

Volumetrics has created a lot of buzz lately because it is the newest diet plan on the block. This method, developed by Dr. Barbara Rolls a nutrition researcher at Penn State, co-author of 'The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan and author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan, is a revolutionary new way to lose weight without eating less.

Rolls discovered that many individuals, in order to satisfy hunger, will eat about the same amount or weight of food on any given day. Volumetrics takes the foods we eat and assigns a calorie or energy density to each item. The purpose of the Volumetrics diet is to eat foods with fewer calories (yet equal the same or more weight as what we are used to eating) so that you can still satisfy hunger by eating the same amount of food, but you are ingesting less calories, thus...weight loss!

There is a very simple method to Dr. Roll's madness...or should we say pure genius! Each item of food we eat contains a certain number of calories per grams and by dividing the calories per serving by the grams per serving you can discover the energy density. For instance, a single serving of Cheerios cereal has 100 calories and weighs 28 grams. Divide the calories (100) by the grams (28) and you have your energy density (3.5) Formula: 100/28 = 3.5. Now that you have the formula, you can do some research and discover the energy density for all of your favorite foods.

Dr. Rolls created a Volumetrics scale on which to measure each food item for energy density, they are separated into four different categories:

1. very low energy density: 0 - 0.5
2. low energy density: 0.6 -1.5
3. medium energy density: 1.5 - 4.0
4. high energy density: 4.0 - 9.0

Foods such as some breads, oils, bagels, pasta, chips and cookies, nuts and high fat meats will have a higher energy density while foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans, skim milk and lean meats will have lower energy density. The overall goal of Volumetrics is to cut down on (but not all together eliminate) the foods you eat daily with higher energy density and replace some of these foods with ones that have lower energy density. By doing this, you are still able to eat the same amount (or in some cases even more) food than you were before, but by ingesting less energy density you can get healthy and experience weight loss.

To see success through Volumetrics, Rolls suggests monitoring your progress while on this eating plan. Each week, keep track of the foods and amounts you are eating, as well as the amount of physical activity you are getting. While this diet can help you reduce overall energy density, regular exercise will also increase the chances of reaching your goal weight. Also keep track of your weight (Rolls suggests marking it once a week). As you progress, an increase in exercise is recommended. To maintain, continue to eat less energy dense foods and try to exercise 30 - 60 minutes on most days. Any physical activity is fine, the point is to increase your heart rate.

Volumetrics is a brilliant weight loss plan because lets face facts: people like to eat. More often than not, diets are based on minimizing food intake, but with Volumetrics, you can maintain your daily intake of food and in some cases, even increase it. Hunger (or lack of) is primarily based on the amount of food you eat, not the amount of fat or calories within the food you eat, therefore, eating more foods with less energy density will help you to lose weight without having to go hungry.

Sources:

Johns Hopkins University. "How To Eat More and Weigh Less." Health.Yahoo.Com

Kathleen M. Zelman MPH, RD, LD. "Volumetrics Eating Plan: What It Is." WebMD.com