What Is the Volumetrics Diet and What Does it Involve?

With the Volumetrics diet, you can reduce your body weight without having to go hungry. You can even increase the amount of food you eat! We'll tell you all about it in this article.

The Volumetrics diet is a dietary plan that proposes increasing the volume of the food you eat so you can lose weight. Does that sound contradictory? Well, it’s possible to follow by choosing foods with a low calorie density and high levels of nutrients.

It’s fitting to point out that one of the basic principles of a healthy diet is balance. That is, it should provide the calories you need; not too much and not too little. However, some diets can be difficult for many people to follow since the diets make them feel hungry all the time. The Volumetrics diet solves this problem.

Characteristics of the Volumetrics diet

As we mentioned above, the Volumetrics diet emphasizes consuming lots of low calorie foods, such as fruit and vegetables. These also have a high content of micronutrients and antioxidants. Foods such as these are essential in preventing the development of complex diseases, as this study shows.

Also, these foods don’t contain any additives that can cause damage to your body over the medium term. Some common additives are artificial colorings, preservatives, and nitrates. Fresh fruit and vegetables also have very low amounts of trans fats, which is another benefit.

Along similar lines, the Volumetrics diet also highlights getting extra fiber from vegetables. That’s a crucial step in avoiding digestive system related diseases. According to a study published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, the regular consumption of fiber is directly related to a reduced risk of constipation.

Lastly, another important aspect of the Volumetrics diet is that you drink large quantities of water. This has a purifying effect on the body, and the goal is to drink about three liters of water daily.

Meat and the Volumetrics diet

This dietary plan dramatically limits the meat you can eat. That includes fatty meats and fish, while it promotes limited consumption of lean meats. This really reduces your intake of fatty acids, especially Omega-3 acids, which you can mainly get from oily fish.

Many people associate eating lipids with putting on weight, since these nutrients give you more energy than other kinds of food. However, that isn’t strictly true; the key is to include them in your diet in the right amounts.

Disadvantages

Despite the many benefits you can get from the Volumetrics diet, such as losing weight and avoiding digestive or other disorders, all that glitters is not gold. This dietary plan unfortunately lacks certain essential nutrients. For instance, sufficient protein and fats are necessary to maintain good health.

Proteins, above all animal-based proteins, are vital for maintaining muscle function and for the tissue-repairing functions in your body. At the same time, lipids guarantee many complex processes involved in homeostasis (your body’s internal stability). Lipids also ensure your body’s hormone system is working properly.

When you’re planning a balanced diet, or one where you want to lose weight, what should you take into account? It’s indispensable to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients you need, such as the ones we mentioned above. If not, the diet could be damaging to your health over the medium term.

Exercise and the Volumetrics diet

Apart from providing a dietary plan, this diet also recommends regular physical exercise, especially aerobic exercise. Of course, research has proved that the most beneficial training plan to reduce body fat is a mix of aerobic activities and strength training.

Strength training helps you to build muscle. It also increases your body’s resting energy expenditure – the rate at which you burn calories when you’re finished exercising and you’re resting. This is an added benefit of doing regular exercise in conjunction with a balanced diet.

A diet with some benefits but also disadvantages

This diet can be effective for some who want to lose weight. However, experts don’t recommend following extremely restrictive diets. The lack of important nutrients such as proteins and healthy fats can negatively affect your body’s systems over the medium or long term and cause problems later on.

At the same time, reducing your intake of oils or oily fish isn’t sustainable over the long term, since these contain many essential nutrients for good health. They’re also a nutritious and delicious part of many people’s normal diets. Of course, it’s always a good idea to increase the amount of vegetables you eat, but without neglecting other important foods.