Volumetrics Diet Review

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By CANDICE GREY ConsumersCompare.org Update: Jul 11, 2024 |
The Volumetrics Diet has four separate categories each containing different “density” foods. The idea is to go heavier on certain categories and lighter on others with the idea being you learn how to eat better based on the category of foods you are consuming on a daily basis. The good news is, you are allowed to eat 3 main meals, 2 snacks, and a dessert every single night.
Category 1– This includes the “free” or anytime fruits and veggies as well as broths.
Category 2– This includes some whole grains like whole-wheat pasta and brown rice. Also allowed are beans, lean proteins, and low-fat dairy.
Category 3– This is your “small portion food category” like sweets, cheese, higher fat meats, and bread.
Category 4– Sparing foods fall into this category like nuts, fats, sugars, and fried foods.
Do Dieters Lose Weight on the Volumetrics Diet?
Like any other diet plan, the Volumetrics Diet will have a lot of success if you can stick to it. Most participants on the Volumetrics Diet do lose weight in the short term, but no more than if they simply watched what they ate and cut out junk food. In the long term, the results are not as good as the diet plan allows for too much flexibility and is an easy one to “cheat” on. The whole diet is based on low energy related foods to eat at a higher consumption. For example, if you were to take a large bowl of broth-based soup you could happily enjoy the whole thing, versus only new bites of onion rings. Take a look below at what people had to say about the Volumetrics book that Dr. Rolls wrote.
Trina* said, “A book that tells you what you already know….eat your veggies and not the fried stuff and you can eat as much as you want without getting fat. I didn’t find the magic bullet, just rehashed some of the older ones.”
C Peterson* said, “This book offered tools that were new to me that help me realize what I had suspected for a while. All calories are NOT created equal when it comes to nutrition. I read the book to learn more about making healthy food choices that would help me lose weight slowly over time maintaining good nutrition and satisfying meals.” He went onto say that he felt like the book better equipped him to pick healthier food choices long term.
Sue* said, “I only read the recipes and what you should and shouldn’t eat. A lot of common sense, but the daily menu suggestions and Ideas for eating out helped too.”
back to menu ↑Is the Volumetrics Diet Easy to Follow?
Following the Volumetrics Diet all comes down to how disciplined you are. There are two guides that need to be purchased in order to do the diet the right way and though some may attempt to do this diet without the guides, they are essential if you are to follow the four density categories that the diet is based on. There is no real support given on this diet either, which can cause this diet to be harder to follow than most out there today because it all falls onto your shoulders to stay accountable to yourself.
While the diet is more of an eating plan that is based on better nutrition, always eating all the right things can be tough. Even though the diet does allow for several meals each day, when not followed exactly the way it is spelled out, it can leave dieters hungry and unfulfilled which can then lead to going off the diet in a hurry.
Conclusion
While not an excessively expensive diet to do as you only have to pay $15.95 and $13.00 for the guides, plus your food, the guides offer little more than simple instructions and reiterate what you should already know about nutrition. The Volumetrics Diet guides also give no direction in the way of exercise other than to say walking is good for you, which again you should already know. The aim is to reach 10,000 steps a day by the end of it, but many people already are educated in this area so it seems repetitive in the book.
For the most part, the Volumetrics Diet is great if you just need to be reminded to eat better. Unfortunately, most people know this already or they wouldn’t be seeking out a diet plan in the first place.
I’m not sure what the $15.95 and $13.00 guides are. Rather than calling it “not an excessively expensive”, I would say it is “ridiculously affordable”, since you can just buy one book and there is no special food to buy. I have bought the used books online and typically pay like $5. I got turned on to this diet about 8 years ago when some internet list had it as the #4 diet (behind the top 3 commercial ones: WW, JC and Atkins). I read a bit about Volumetrics and the science behind it made sense to me. Once i got the book and got to page 4 where they show you a small, typical dinner versus the much larger portioned Volumterics version, both 500 calories … I was SOLD! The dinners they compared were: (Typical) fried chicken, mashed potatoes and cheesy broccoli versus (Volumetrics) chicken parmesan, smashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, creamy cucumber and dill salad, … and dessert of poached pear in raspberry sauce. Tell me, which meal is going to keep you full longer, and not snacking right after dinner?
I did read on and paid attention to each section’s (12 sections of recipes) highlighted comparison meals, and as others noted, they reinforce common sense:
1) add fruit/vegetables to make things more filling (like veggie-stuffed mac & cheese)
2) flavor with lower calorie option like reduced fat, low fat or herbs and spices instead of fat.
I have told several friends and folks at work about the diet and I have given several of them a copy of the book (The Volumetrics Eating Plan), with the caveat: if you like it, keep it and then you buy a copy for someone else … otherwise, if it is not for you, I’d like it back. I have never got one back 🙂