Hermann Mindy G. - The ultimate volumetrics diet : smart, simple, science-based strategies for losing weight and keeping it off

To Arabella, Cecilia, Charles, Henry, and WilliamHoping you eat your vegetables

Welcome to the Ultimate Volumetrics Diet, a scientifically backed approach to managing your weight while eating satisfying and nutritious foods. If you are a newcomer to Volumetrics, I look forward to teaching you how to put together delicious, filling, calorie-conscious meals. To those of you who are familiar with my previous books, The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet brings you new discoveries and new recipes, combined with the same solid science.

My previous books, The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan and The Volumetrics Eating Plan, adhere to the most fundamental principle of weight management, calorie control and the calorie balance equation. In order to lose weight, you have to eat fewer calories than your body uses as fuel. And to maintain weight, you have to continue to match calorie intake to calories burned. Volumetrics offers a positive approach to managing calories. You will learn how to make smart food choices that fill your day with plenty of enjoyable, healthful foods and leave you feeling full and satisfied. This involves choosing foods that pack fewer calories into each bitethat is, they are lower in calorie density.

When we published The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan in 2000, everyone was talking about fad diets and overly restrictive food plans that cut out particular foods or entire food groups. Because Volumetrics is about filling up on fewer calories without eliminating foods, you can imagine how different it was! In fact, I was told that I shouldnt write a book that was about calories because people were not interested in calorie control.

As it turned out, people did want to know how to manage their calories while still eating satisfying amounts of food. The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan was named the top diet in the country by Self magazine. Since its release in 2005, The Volumetrics Eating Plan has been rated as the best diet by The Daily Beast and a leading national consumer publication, and was cited among the best on CNN.com, fncimag.com (Fox News), and usnews.com (the website for US News & World Report, where it also was a featured cover story). Both books made the list of New York Times best sellers.

The science that was new in the year 2000 has stood the test of time. In fact, the fundamentals of choosing foods with lower calorie density are so solid that they have been incorporated into weight-loss studies, centers, and programs around the world, and have been embraced by health agencies and policy makers tackling the biggest health challenge we have ever facedthe obesity epidemic.

Have you noticed that revolutionary new diets are making the headlines less often these days? A lot has happened in the seven years between my second book and this one. My colleagues and I now agree that managing weight is about eating a variety of nutritious foods that help control calories. Forget about just cutting the fat or carbohydrates, or cutting out whole food groups. The key to success is finding positive strategies that will lead to sustainable, healthy eating and activity patterns that fit your lifestyle. The box on the following page summarizes the fundamentals not only of Volumetrics but of any sound weight management plan.

As a professor of nutritional sciences who studies eating behavior and how it affects body weight, I have a lot of information to share about the latest research on weight management. The science behind Volumetrics comes from labs around the world, as well as from my own at The Pennsylvania State University. The lab, described by US News & World Report as my quirky culinary empire, is a custom-built kitchen for developing and preparing the tasty foods that we use in our studies. My staff and students know food and love to cook, and most are dietitians. Each week they cook for and feed dozens of volunteers who agree to eat their meals at the lab so that we can study their eating behavior when we change portion size, calories, or nutrients. We work hard to serve foods that they will likeand I have included some favorites in this book.

The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet

Focuses on thinking positively about what you can eat.

Is based on sound nutritional advice widely accepted by health professionals.

Emphasizes that the only proven way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than your body uses as fuel for your activities.

Stresses that when you are managing calories, it is more important than ever to eat a good balance of food and nutrients.

Teaches you to make food choices that will help control hunger and enhance satiety.

Shows you how to fit your favorite foods into your diet.

Reinforces eating and activity patterns that you can sustain for a lifetime of achieving your own healthy weight.

Keep in mind that we are looking for ways to help people feel full, so we ask participants to rate their hunger and fullness before and after eating. They also tell us how much they enjoyed their mealafter all, taste and pleasure are the top reasons that people eat the foods they do. In order to track your own satisfaction, youll be doing much the same, keeping a Volumetrics diary for your own personal weight management plan.

In the Ultimate Volumetrics Diet, the basics are simpleyou will learn to choose foods that give you satisfying portions without overloading you with calories. This involves lowering the calorie density (CD) of foods. Foods vary in the number of calories they pack into each bite. Reduce the calories per bitethat is, the CDand you can eat the same amount of food (bites) while saving calories. Research shows that lowering the CD of foods will help you feel full while eating fewer calories. (If you followed my previous Volumetrics plans, you may be wondering if calorie density is the same as energy density, the term I used previously. They are the same; readers tell me that calorie density is an easier term to understand.)

So what will your meals look like? Your plate will be full of nutrient-rich foods, with plenty of vegetables, fruits, soups, and salads, and more modest portions of important foods such as lower-fat dairy products and meat. And I will show you how to do this without sacrificing taste! There will even be room for your favorite indulgencesin moderation.

This book is written for you, whether you are trying to lose weight or are happy where you are. The Volumetrics lessons youll learn will help you establish the habits that are associated with eating well for optimal health.

The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet is about your personal preferences. You can read the book from cover to cover, go straight to the weekly plans, jump ahead to the recipes, or read those sections that interest you most. The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet offers a lot of options to choose from:

TWELVE-WEEK DIET PROGRAM. Lasting weight loss involves developing eating habits that are nutritionally sound, satisfying, and sustainable. I have divided the basics of how to do this into a twelve-week structured plan that you can personalize to fit with your lifestyle. Each week presents the best available scientific evidence on a unique aspect of the food you eat. You will learn which types of foods give you the most satisfying portions for the calories, different ways to fill your plate, how to sneak in vegetables and fruits, and strategies to manage your food environment both at home and when eating out. Every week also includes these features: