According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you must eat fewer calories than you expend to lose weight. The process can be difficult for people who feel hungry because they decrease the amount of food they eat, or feel deprived because they give up their favorite foods. Dr. Barbara Rolls developed the Volumetrics Diet which focuses on maintaining the amount and variety of food, while lowering the calories.
Fruit and Vegetables
Most fruits and vegetables have a low calorie density; that is, they have a low number of calories for a large serving size of food. This makes them good candidates for the basis of a Volumetrics Diet. When choosing fruit and vegetables for this diet, avoid starchy choices like bananas and potatoes. Instead, focus on choices like tomatoes, berries, melon, greens, broccoli and cucumbers. The CDC also recommends choosing fresh over dried fruit. A cup of raisins has 434 calories, while a cup of grapes has 110 calories, making it a higher volume food.
Water and Fiber
Since water and fiber do not contribute calories, foods that are high in water and fiber are often good choices for the Volumetrics Diet. Foods that are high in water include lean proteins such as chicken breast or egg whites, low fat dairy products such as cottage cheese or fat free yogurt, and entrees such as soup or stew. Whole grains are high in fiber and are more filling per calorie than refined grains.
Substitutions
The Volumetrics Diet focuses on decreasing the number of calories and increasing the amount of food that you eat. In recipes, you can substitute foods that have low calorie density for foods that are high in calories. As an example, the CDC shows how to make macaroni and cheese the Volumetric way. The original recipe has 540 calories per cup. By substituting fat free milk for whole milk, light cream cheese for cheddar cheese, less butter, and adding some spinach or tomatoes, you can decrease the calorie count to about 315 calories per cup serving, which means you save 225 calories per serving.
Avoid
To follow a Volumetrics Diet, you should avoid foods that are high in calorie density. Foods high in fat and sugar and low in other nutrients are often high in calories. Fried foods, like French fries or fried vegetables, are high in fat and usually high in calories. Similarly, many processed foods like snack cakes, cookies, doughnuts and pastries are high in sugar or fat and calories. Other high calorie foods to avoid on the Volumetrics Diet are fatty meats like bacon or brisket, dried snack foods like chips or crackers, and full fat cheese and ice cream.
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