What Is A Volumetric Diet

Eating huge portions and losing weight is the cherished dream of most people struggling with excess weight . However, almost 10 years ago, a nutritionist from the United States, Barbara Rolls, successfully proved that this is indeed possible. She called her nutrition system Volumetrics Diet, which in our language received the difficult-to-understand name Volumetrics diet . At the heart of this food system is not the refusal of food, but the replacement of some products with others. If you follow the principles of the volumetric diet correctly , you can lose weight and improve your health. Let's learn how the food system works , what are its pros and cons.

What is a volumetric diet

Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., nutritionist and nutrition expert with 50 years of experience, has detailed the diet and its principles in her book, The Volumetrics Eating Plan. There she claims that the feeling of satiety comes not from the caloric content of the food eaten, but from their volume. For example, half a bar of chocolate contains 300 kcal, almost as much as a portion of Greek salad. In the first case, you are unlikely to stop at what you have eaten and feel full, while vegetables will fill your stomach and get rid of the feeling of hunger.

How to eat on a volumetric diet

The author of this nutrition system advises to simply replace high-calorie products with those that have a lower energy value, but a larger volume. The naked eye can see that a slice of white bread is inferior in size to 3 rice loaves, but both versions contain about 100 kcal.

• Food that can be eaten in any quantity and at any time. This group includes non-starchy vegetables, fruits and liquid soups.

• Foods to eat in large amounts: starchy fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, lean meats, lean fish, seafood, and low-fat dairy products.

• Foods that can be eaten in small portions: bread, meat, cheese.

• The last item includes food that should be limited: fried, sweet, nuts and fats.

The nutritionist suggests, whenever possible, to replace foods of groups 3 or 4 with food from categories 1 or 2. Following Barbara Rolls' nutrition system , you can not only lose weight , but also improve your health and appearance. The main focus in the volumetric diet is on vegetables, fruits, and whole grain products. Minimal heat treatment (for maximum preservation of water and, accordingly, volume) also contributes to the fight against excess weight . At the same time, success depends only on you: the more you follow the rules of the diet and change your eating habits, the faster you will notice the result.

The opinion of specialists

The authoritative American news magazine US News & World Report placed the volumetric diet on the 2nd place in the ranking of the most effective diets of 2018 (in the course of the study, experts evaluated 40 popular methods for losing weight ).

About diet

Let's repeat: the main principle of this nutrition system is that you need to replace foods that have a relatively small volume, but a large number of calories, with those that contain fewer calories per unit of volume. Thanks to this, you can reduce the calories you consume and lose weight .

This principle is based on the fact that we have a biphasic feeling of satiety. The first phase is formed when food enters the stomach: there are receptors that analyze how much food has arrived. At the same time, at the first stage, the body does not understand the nutritional value of this food - this analysis takes place much later, approximately 40 minutes after the start of food consumption.

If we replace high-density food with a voluminous portion of low-calorie food, then at the first stage the body does not care what it received, the very fact of receiving food is enough for it.

That is why nutritionists often recommend eating a vegetable salad before the main meal. After the food goes to the next parts of the digestive tract and is analyzed and broken down into its constituent parts, the body will understand how much protein or sugar it has received, in the second stage there will be a complete analysis related to a certain hormonal reaction, in particular, the release of insulin.