Volumetrics Eating Plan and Counting Calories

Ask any health or fitness expert for the essential principles of a safe but effective diet plan, and all of them will tell you to lower intake of the bad stuff like foods high in calories, fats, and sugar while increasing intake of the good stuff like fruits and vegetables. Repackage that into a mathematical formula which allows you to eat more and you’ll get the Volumetrics Eating Plan.

The Beginnings of a New Diet
Volumetrics is a concept spawned from mostly laboratory research conducted by Dr. Barbara Rolls, director of Pennsylvania State University’s Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior and a professor on nutrition.

She first introduced the theory of Volumetrics in her 2000 The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan together with her co-writer Robert A. Barnett. A more detailed explanation followed in 2005 when she came up with The Volumetrics Eating Plan, a book that not only included background explanations for the theory but practical home recipes as well to help users adhere to the rules of Volumetrics.

Understanding the Volumetrics Eating Plan
Energy density is the primary factor in the Volumetric Eating Plan, and it’s what you use to determine which you should and shouldn’t eat more of not just to lose weight but to stay healthy as well.

Energy density is simply another name for the amount of calories found within a specific serving size. You can eat more of foods with lower density because they allow you to eat a lot of something without increasing your intake of calories too much.

The Volumetric Eating Plan doesn’t separate foods into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories – which has a positive psychological effect for some because it prevents them from being pressured to eat too much of the good things and avoid the bad stuff like it’s the plague – but simply categorize them according to which has high or low energy density.

How to Calculate Energy Density
Don’t worry because you don’t really need a scientific calculator to compute the energy density of any given food. All you have to do is measure the food by grams and determining how much calories it has in it. Divide the latter with the former and the difference is your energy density.

As usual, remember that lower energy density always mean you can eat more of that food and vice versa.

High and Low
Coincidentally enough – but it’s really not – fruits and vegetables, which are considered as the main staples of healthy living, exemplify low energy density foods. To be more specific, fruits with lots of water in it and non-starchy vegetables are especially effective because water tends to make you experience satiation quickly and it would also last for a longer period of time.

Not surprisingly, foods rich in butter, oils, and sweets are included in the high energy food list. What you may however not expect is to find crackers – those slim holed sheets you like to munch on once in a while – part of the list as well.

The Good Side of the Volumetric Eating Plan
Besides the possible positive psychological effect brought about by the absence of good and bad foods, there are other benefits you can enjoy with the Volumetric Eating Plan.

Safety – The Volumetric Eating Plan doesn’t make any unrealistic demands from you. It doesn’t ban you from eating anything but simply asks to eat the allowable amount of each food type only. Weight loss is also done in a gradual manner rather than make you drop a good number of pounds immediately.

Indulgence – This is one of the diet plans that actually encourage you to eat more – just as long as it’s something with low energy density. And unlike other diet plans, those with low energy density are not entirely boring to eat.

The Bad Side of the Volumetric Eating Plan
However easy and encouraging it sounds, this diet is not perfect. It has its share of flaws as well.

Firstly, Rolls’ approach to diet is more suited for people who simply eat because they’re hungry. Eating foods with low energy density prevent you from eating more because you feel full far longer than usual. But what about people who eat for other reasons like habit or comfort? Feeling full won’t stop them from eating, and that’s one issue that the Volumetric Eating Plan has yet to address.

As long as your trouble with weight loss is primarily due to feeling hungry more frequently than others, you have a more than a good chance of attaining your goals with the Volumetric Eating Plan. Good luck on getting fit!

Tags: volumetrics diet, volumetrics