Volumetric Diet: How It Works and Builds Healthy Eating Habits

If there is one thing that people complain about the most when it comes to following diets, it is that restriction does not lead to fullness. People who are on diets are notorious for being hungry, and this observation makes perfect sense: when you restrict the types of foods you can eat, the quantity of food you can eat, and especially macronutrients like carbohydrates or fat, your body is less likely to feel as satisfied as it does when you are free to eat whatever you want in any quantity you want.

In recent years, there has been a lot of research conducted that indicates that the majority of diets, in general, have a low success rate, and that obesity by itself does not increase the risk of death for an individual.

12 Every single body is a good body, deserving of affection, and most importantly, of having a healthy diet. However, there may be moments in one’s life when it seems like the correct move to lose weight or adjust one’s diet, or when it has been determined that such a change is medically necessary. Find a plan that isn’t a crash diet, won’t put you on a yo-yo cycle, and doesn’t restrict the nutrients and vitamins your body needs to function properly. This is especially crucial for those times when you need to lose weight quickly.

It is much more beneficial for one’s health to locate a reasonable, long-term plan that will nourish them properly as opposed to going on a diet that is only for a short period of time. Diets like as the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet have been increasingly popular over the past several years for this very reason. Since of their more moderate approaches, they provide greater results because they are easier to follow, and people are able to continue with them indefinitely. This contributes to the fact that they are easier to follow.

A another illustration of a moderate, less restricted approach to dieting and eating more healthily, the Volumetrics diet is an example of this type of diet. It has a straightforward concept at its core, can be executed with relative ease, and produces reliable outcomes over the course of time. Continue reading to find out everything you need to know about what it is and how it operates.

Volume Is Key

It should come as no surprise that the Volumetrics diet is predicated on the idea that consuming more food causes one to experience feelings of satiety and fullness. The diet was developed by Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., and its primary objective is to consume the greatest number of servings of foods that have the lowest energy density, and the least number of servings of foods that have the highest density. The number of calories that can be obtained from a specific quantity of food is referred to as the food’s energy density. Because eating a large volume of food causes your stomach to physically get full, it causes the production of satiety hormones despite the fact that you have been ingesting fewer calories. This causes the method to be effective for weight loss.

Since the diet does not prohibit any items in particular, following it does not require you to give up anything that you particularly enjoy eating. The mere fact that relieving stress can lead to weight reduction is already a significant benefit of doing so. This is because cortisol, which is the primary stress hormone in our bodies, is produced when we are feeling anxious around the time that we eat, and excessive production of this hormone is linked to weight gain. 6 Because of this, the diet does not need you to cut out any significant nutrients or nutritional groups, and as a result, it is one of the diets that is widely considered to be safe.

The Four Different Types of Food

The Volumetric diet divides different types of food into four distinct groups. In order to stick to it, you should attempt to consume the most food from the first category, and the least food from the third category.

In the first category of foods, those that contain the greatest amount of water are those that have the lowest energy density. The higher the water content of a food, the greater the amount of that food that can be consumed. Fruits, non-starchy vegetables, and soups made with broth are examples of foods that contain a significant amount of water.

Group Two: The items in this category have a higher calorie density than the foods in the first category, but they also offer fiber, which helps people feel fuller for longer. Although it is recommended by the Volumetric diet that you do not consume as much of them as you do produce, they can (and should) still make up a significant component of your meals to ensure that you are obtaining the appropriate amount of nutrition. These foods include lean proteins, whole grains, legumes, and dairy products with a low fat content.

Category Three: Although you consume less of these than you do the items in category two, you may still include them in your diet as long as you do so in moderation. This category contains many of the most popular and well-liked ingredients. These include dairy products with the full fat, meats with a higher fat content, and bread.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this diet restricts your consumption of fried meals, baked goods like cake and cookies, alcoholic beverages, and sweets. You’ll also reduce the amount of candy and alcohol you consume. Nuts and seeds are the only foods that are generally agreed to be healthy enough to be included in this category of foods that one should “consume sparingly.” However, as was indicated, you can still consume them; however, you should strive to consume them in lower quantities compared to the foods in the other categories, and you should keep your daily calorie consumption within the parameters prescribed by your doctor.

How Often You Are Allowed to Eat

The Volumetrics diet does not in any way strive to restrict the number of meals you eat. In point of fact, it is extremely generous with its advice on how often you eat, suggesting that you have three complete meals and two snacks each day, in addition to some days where you should consume dessert. You will want to follow the category guidance for each meal and snack that you consume, consuming the greatest volume of food from category one and the least amount of food from category four, if any at all, so that you can stay within your daily calorie recommendations. The literature on volumetrics can be used to determine this information (or various online resources).

Calorie Limits

This diet is based on the idea that you will lose between one and two pounds each week if you cut the number of calories you consume each day by between five hundred and one thousand. This is expressed as a numerical range. This is a standard in the diet business that is based on the idea that one pound of fat in the body is equivalent to 3,500 calories. 7 In recent years, there have been some challenges to that idea, but there hasn’t been a superior one to emerge to take its place just yet.

In the end, this indicates that you have the ability to modify the number of calories you consume based on the objectives you wish to achieve and the requirements of your body. In order to adhere to the Volumetric diet’s intended moderate and long-term approach, you will need to find a balance that ensures you are adequately nourished.

The Scientific Justification

Numerous studies have demonstrated a clear connection between a person’s weight and the energy density of the food that they consume on a daily basis. According to the findings of a meta-analysis that looked at numerous research, “changing the energy density of food could be employed as a unique technique for successfully reducing body weight in clinical practice.” According to the conclusions of one more independent piece of research on the subject, “preliminary findings suggest that consuming a diet lower in ED, characterized by greater intake of vegetables and whole grains, may aid with weight loss maintenance and should be further tested in prospective randomized controlled trials.” This is not new knowledge for the majority of people, as the underlying message on healthy eating is to consume a greater quantity of fresh produce, whole grains, and lean proteins, and a smaller quantity of processed foods and added sugars. You are setting yourself up for success both in terms of maintaining your new habits and in terms of how robust and healthy you will look and feel if you adopt a balanced diet that allows you to enjoy whatever foods you love while still keeping you feeling full and energized while also allowing you to do so in moderation.

How a Day Typically Plays Out

You may find a number of books on the Volumetrics diet, each of which provides an in-depth explanation of its methodology as well as the recipes that have proven to be most successful for adherents. However, it is rather straightforward, and unless you want to take a deep dive right from the beginning, you should be able to try this out with only some simple calculations, unless you want to take a deep dive right from the beginning. The following is an illustration of what a day on this diet would look like, with the proportions depending on the amount of calories you typically consume before beginning this diet.

Breakfast options include oatmeal accompanied by a citrus fruit such as grapefruit, a vegetarian frittata accompanied by melon, or cereal accompanied by low-fat or plant-based milk that is unsweetened.

For lunch, you can choose between a salad topped with chicken breast and a slice of whole grain bread, a bowl of bean soup accompanied with a side salad, or an open-faced tuna sandwich.

Dinner will consist of poached fish served with brown rice and a variety of greens, chicken served with a variety of grains and Brussels sprouts, or a bison steak served with a veggie medley.

Snacks can consist of low-fat yogurt, fruit, or crackers made with whole grains and hummus.

Dessert options include sugar-free pudding, fruit crumble, or fresh fruit.

Important Reminder: You Cannot Do Without Fat

Because the goal of this diet is to consume the greatest possible quantity of foods that have the lowest possible density, you need to make sure that you are still consuming an adequate amount of fat. Because fat has the most calories per unit of volume of any item, you might be inclined to avoid eating it in favor of foods that have greater volume. However, you should be careful not to cut fat out of your diet entirely. You’ll want to make sure you’re getting enough healthy fats into your diet, which you can get from foods like avocados and olive oil. Adequate fat consumption is essential for a number of bodily processes, including proper brain function and the capacity of the skin to retain moisture.

How to Get Things Started

Simply reorganizing the portions of the items you eat is all that is required to get started on the Volumetrics diet. There are no meetings to go to, and you won’t need to buy any materials; all you have to do is remember to include the essentials of what you want to eat in your next trip to the grocery store, and you’ll be good to go.