Volumetrics Eating PlanThe basic strategy of the Volumetrics Eating Plan is to eat a satisfying volume of food while controlling calories and meeting nutrient requirements. The Volumetrics Diet get strong marks across the board and is the 5th best weight-loss diet, the 4th best diet for healthy eating, the 4th easiest diet to follow and the 6th best Diabetes diet. With a rating of 3.8 the Volumetrics diet just missed tying for third best overall diet with the Mayo Clinic Diet, the Mediterranean Diet and Weight Watchers.

Because of it’s emphasis on eating low calorie high nutrient dense foods you need to get the The Volumetrics Eating Plan book. The book has extensive lists of foods that fit into the plan plus those foods that are high calorie but low nutrient dense that you need to limit or eliminate from your diet. Examples of foods that are high in calories but low in nutrients are potato chips, sweets and fried foods.

Here are a few highlights from the US News & World Report review of the Volumetrics Diet:

Resembles these U.S. News-rated diets: Mayo Clinic Diet, Jenny Craig, Ornish Diet

The aim: Weight loss.

The claim: You’ll drop a pound or two a week.

The theory: People tend to eat the same weight, or amount, of food each day, regardless of how many calories they take in. Since some foods are less energy dense than others—that is, they have fewer calories per gram—filling your plate with more of those means you’ll be eating fewer calories without actually eating less food. Low-density foods, which are low in calories but high-volume, help you feel full and satisfied while dropping pounds. Fruits and veggies are ideal, since they’ll fill you up without breaking your calorie bank. (A pound of low-density carrots, for example, contains as many calories as an ounce of high-density peanuts.) Volumetrics is all about getting more mileage out of what you eat.

How does the Volumetrics Diet work?

Pioneered by Penn State University nutrition professor Barbara Rolls, Volumetrics is more of an approach to eating than it is a structured diet. With The Volumetrics Eating Plan and The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan as your guides, you’ll learn to decipher a food’s energy density, cut the energy density of your meals, and make choices that fight hunger. Food is divided into four groups. Category 1 (very low-density) includes non-starchy fruits and vegetables, nonfat milk, and broth-based soup. Category 2 (low-density) includes starchy fruits and veggies, grains, breakfast cereal, low-fat meat, legumes, and low-fat mixed dishes, like chili and spaghetti. Category 3 (medium-density) includes meat, cheese, pizza, French fries, salad dressing, bread, pretzels, ice cream, and cake. And Category 4 (high-density) includes crackers, chips, chocolate candies, cookies, nuts, butter, and oil. You’ll go heavy on categories 1 and 2, watch your portion sizes with category 3, and keep category 4 choices to a minimum. Each day, you’ll eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, a couple snacks, and dessert. Exactly how strictly you follow Volumetrics is up to you. Though the books contain recipes and some sample meal plans, the point is to learn the Volumetrics philosophy and apply it where you can throughout the day. See where you can replace a category 4 item (baked white potato) with a category 1 item (sweet potato), for example.

One of the great strategies promoted in the Volumetrics Eating Plan is keeping a food journal. Numerous studies have shown that those who track the foods they eat on a daily basis in a food jounral enjoy a higher success rate in reaching their weight loss goals.

As I see it the major drawback with this diet is the lack of recipe books and resources as compared with the top 5 diets. None the less the Volumetrics Eating Plan is a solid diet for those do-it-yourselfers. It has a low cost to implement and is based on sound nutritional principals. You will need to build your own support system to help you along the way.

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