If you’re looking for a diet to support your weight loss/maintenance or healthy eating goals, I cannot emphasize enough that you should find one with science to back it up, preferably created by someone who does nutritional research. Perhaps that sounds obvious, but most diets are not created based off scientific evaluation (though they will try to trick you into believing otherwise). Or maybe it sounds biased and that I’m trying to gain support for my lifestyle, but let me assure you that it’s not biased, and this isn’t a self-serving recommendation. First, I have no plans to create my own diet, so by making this recommendation I’m only supporting those in my field. Secondly, this should just be common sense. You will never find a diet with published evidence in peer-reviewed journals that is wacky. For example, there is no data to support the Paleo diet or the Fast Metabolism Diet. Because they’re bat shit crazy.
So why should you care about science? Because you should treat that wonderful vessel that is your body with respect, for starters. Diets that are rooted in science have been tested repeatedly on a wide array of people, making it more likely that it will be safe and effective for you. Diets based on science are also more likely to be conservative and require real, sustained behavior change from you, which is the sign of something good. They don’t promise short-term impressive results (lose 20 pounds in two weeks!), but you WILL be healthier if you follow them. The only two diets that I’ve followed this year that were tested a priori (meaning that they were derived from theoretical deduction, not just observation) before they hit the market are the DASH diet (completed in June) and this month’s diet “The Volumetrics Diet.” (The Mediterannean Diet has science to support it, but it wasn’t a diet designed by scientists for health. Weight Watchers now has science to support it and was designed based off science for weight loss, though the actual evidence for the Weight Watchers program itself didn’t come until after it was developed.)
The Volumetrics Diet
This is a diet developed by Barbara Rolls, PhD, a woman that is sort of a celebrity in my eyes. She has been studying Nutritional Science at Penn State for decades, she has published over 250 peer-reviewed research articles, and she has been the president of The Obesity Society. This isn’t all pomp and circumstance. The lady knows what she’s talking about, and what she likes to talk about it is human ingestive behaviors. Dr. Rolls runs a lab that observes people’s eating behaviors and then tests different ways to prepare food that are more healthful and less energy dense.
Energy equilibrium (thus, weight stability) is achieved when energy intake equates to energy output. If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you consume. The crux of the issue is that people get hungry when they try to reduce their energy intake because they simply reduce portion size. A potentially more sustainable and effective approach (as outlined by Rolls) is to reduce the caloric density (CD) of your food.
Rolls’ research indicates that people typically eat the same volume of food, regardless of what the food is. She has tested this by feeding people a serving of food, say lasagna, and they eat x volume. On another day, she feeds them the same size serving of lasagna, but this time the lasagna has a lower CD because she has added in vegetables (typically low CD foods) and taken away some meat (typically high CD foods due to fat content), and people eat the same volume (x). Thus, the whole premise of the Volumetrics Diet is to eat either the same or larger volume of food compared to what you would typically eat, but decrease the caloric density of the meal. In doing so, you eat fewer calories but feel more full. SCIENCE.
How To Do It
Reduce caloric density (CD) of the foods you consume. How? Check out the nutrition label and calculate:
Calories per serving/grams per serving = CD
| Category |
Calorie Density |
How to Eat |
Examples |
|
1
|
<0.6
|
“Free” foods to eat anytime
|
Almost all fruits and non-starchy veggies, broth based soups
|
|
2
|
0.6-1.5
|
Eat reasonable portions
|
Whole grains, lean protein, legumes, and low fat dairy
|
|
3
|
1.6-3.9
|
Manage your portions
|
Breads, desserts, non-fat baked snacks, cheeses, higher-fat meats
|
|
4
|
4.0-9.0
|
Carefully manage portions and frequency of eating
|
Fried snacks, candy, cookies, nuts, fats
|
This becomes almost fool proof once you get used to where foods lie in the given categories.
Throughout this year, I have found that I get really sick of tracking my diet or spending a lot of time figuring out what to eat based on specific nutritional attributes (how many grams of fat/protein/carbs, type of fat, type of carb, etc). These are extremely beneficial and perhaps even necessary practices when you start a weight loss plan because you HAVE to learn what healthy foods look like. For me, I just got bored with it and it became tedious. The Volumetrics Diet simplifies and streamlines things, which I really appreciate. In addition to changing the CD of the foods you eat, the plan promotes physical activity (working up to at least 10,000 steps per day), and becoming more mindful of how you eat, why you eat, and how you can change your attitude to promote a healthier lifestyle. I won’t go into all of that, but Rolls’ book The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet is an amazing resource.
To make it easy on myself, here are a few things I did to stick to my “volumetrics” plan.
1) Drink a big glass of water before every meal. This activates the stretch receptors in your stomach and sends a signal to your brain that you’re about to start eating. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register feelings of satiety (fullness), so it’s good to give it a head start by stretching the stomach a bit. This will help to prevent overeating.
2) Eat fruits/veggies as a starter. This means that if you make a salad to go with dinner, eat it first. If you bring an apple to go with your lunch, eat it before you eat the rest of the meal. This works similarly to the water thing, except you’re getting some calories and lots of nutrients, which is extremely important.
3) Change up the snack routine. Most of my snacking typically involves fruit, nonfat/lowfat yogurt, and nuts. I can easily overeat nuts because I love them so…and they’re small, which makes it feel like you’re not eating much when you’re actually getting A LOT of calories. I switched it up by incorporating “popped” foods instead of nuts (and saved nuts as meal ingredients instead of snacks). Popped foods include popcorn (duh) and rice cakes. I like to eat crackers, but they tend to have an incredibly high caloric density so you can only eat a few (which I never do) if you’re trying to control intake. Popcorn and rice cakes (cinnamon was my favorite flavor) allowed me to get my starch fix without even really think about portion control.
**I also don’t eat microwave popcorn. I either make my own or buy different flavors of the already popped stuff to cut down on fat and all the freaky chemicals that are in microwave popcorn.
4) Controlling my sweet tooth. I just can’t get enough. I love sweets, everyday. This is probably my most unhealthy habit. Delusional people (or those with extreme will power or who don’t care for sweet foods) will give you stupid advice like, “Just eat a piece of fruit.” Get real. So, I had to figure a way around this. One way to get my chocolate fix was to buy popcorn with chocolate drizzled over it (got it at Sprouts). I especially love salty and sweet, so this was a great snack. I could just grab a handful and not worry about the calories because a handful was enough volume to give me the fix without a ton of calories. When I want something more than that, my go to is always ice cream. So instead I switched to frozen yogurt, which I love just as much, and just used portion control. This brought the CD down from 2.16 (for chocolate ice cream) to 1.13 (for chocolate frozen yogurt).
5) When you aren’t eating something healthy, don’t eat as much of it. This is seemingly obvious, but I think a lot of us forget this and just go all out when we eat unhealthy, convincing ourselves that we’ll “go back to eating healthy tomorrow.” This is why it’s so easy to fall off the healthy eating wagon. Just allow yourself to eat these things occasionally and just don’t eat as much of it. That way, you never “fall off the wagon.” This is one of the most important things that you can learn from reasonable diets. There is much less of a struggle to stick to a diet when you’re granted the freedom to eat what you want. Learning portion sizes and implementing portion control would be my number one recommendation for anyone who wants to eat healthier.
Stats
| |
Goal/Normal |
DASH |
Low Fat |
Sustainability |
FMD |
October |
November |
| Weight |
121-60 |
123.5 |
123 |
123 |
125.5 |
127.5 |
123.5 |
| BMI |
18.5-24.9 |
19.5 |
19.25 |
19.25 |
19.7 |
20 |
19.5 |
| PBF |
21-32 |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
? |
| WC |
<35 |
? |
26.5 |
27 |
27 |
27.5 |
26.5 |
| HC |
|
? |
36.5 |
37 |
37.5 |
38 |
38 |
| W:H Ratio |
<0.8 |
? |
0.73 |
0.73 |
0.72 |
0.72 |
0.7 |
| Blood Pressure |
<120/80 |
91/68 |
103/66 |
103/68 |
95/65 |
102/73 |
105/72 |
| Diet |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total kcal |
2000-2200 |
1865 |
1780 |
1905 |
925-1688 |
1920 |
1820 |
| Protein (%) |
13058 |
15 |
22 |
19 |
15-61 |
16 |
18 |
| CHO (%) |
49-52 |
52 |
60 |
52 |
28-77 |
46 |
54 |
| Fiber (g) |
at least 25 |
30 |
23 |
25 |
30-52 |
28 |
31 |
| Fat (%) |
20-35 |
33 |
18 |
29 |
10-46 |
38 |
28 |
| Sat Fat (%) |
<10 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
3-7 |
7 |
7 |
| Sodium (mg) |
2300 |
2147 |
2315 |
2282 |
1250-1740 |
2127 |
1975 |
| Potassium (mg) |
4700 |
3874 |
3143 |
3746 |
4014-4624 |
3826 |
3906 |
| Fruit/Veg (servings) |
5-9 |
7-9 |
4-6 |
5-7 |
8-12 |
6-9 |
6-11 |
| Cost |
|
127.32 |
145.2 |
254.45 |
195.14 |
204.3 |
128.5 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By following the Volumetrics Diet, I lost the weight that I had gained on FMD and the MedDiet. I wasn’t really intending to, but I found myself getting full on fewer calories…exactly as the plan is laid out. I also didn’t spend much money this month, but I think that was mostly because I had a lot of food left over from MedDiet. However, I really don’t think Volumetrics is an expensive way to eat. There are no special ingredients to buy – just lots and lots of produce.
Final Thoughts
This diet was my favorite when considering the diets that I’ve tried this year that are designed for weight loss/maintenance (Weight Watchers, Low Fat). It was the most intuitive out of all of them for me and I wasn’t required to track my intake, so it wasn’t nearly as cumbersome as the others. Weight Watchers really uses the same premise as Volumetrics by promoting fruit and vegetable intake; they are just two different approaches and they will each work well for different people. Perhaps the most important thing I gained from this month, though, was the skill to start listening to my hunger and satiety cues. I was somewhat doubtful that I’d actually feel full simply by drinking more water and eating more fruits and vegetables, so I had to pay close attention to how hungry/full I felt. Turns out that I felt full a lot faster when I was following the Volumetrics approach to eating. This is perhaps the most important skill you can learn when trying to eat healthier – listen to your body. She will not lie to you.
And now…only one month left in this year long experiment! Join me at the end of 2013 (more likely the beginning of 2014) as I review my experience with Mindful Eating, the only “program” where I won’t really be paying any attention to WHAT I eat but HOW and WHY I eat.
2013, With a Grain of Salt 