[pattygirl63]

I know that I noticed a while back some who were following Volumetrics way of eating. I checked it out and now I'm reading the book The Volumetrics Weight-control plan by Barbara Rolls, PH.D and Robert A. Barnett. I basically do Intuitive Eating, but the volumetric theory makes a lot of sense to me and I think it would be easy to follow even intuitively. In fact, years ago I had a Prevention diet called the No Diet that was similar to this but now that I've read most of the book it makes sense to me what that the No Diet was the easiest diet I ever followed. I lost the book and had forgotten about it until I read about how soups along with other foods work on the program. I am just wondering how it is working for those of you who are doing it? And is there a support group here for Volumetric dieters?

Thanks in advance.

[kaplods]

I read Volumetrics, and was inspired by it, but rather than change my WOE, I adopted the principles to the plan I'm most comfortable with (an exchange plan). When I found that lower carb works for me, I found a lower carb exchange plan (on the hillbillyhousewife website) and adapted it. When I read the South Beach diet, and several ancestor diets (like Neanderthin and the Paleolithic Prescription), I did much the same, trying to make more of my food choices from whole foods and low glycemic foods.

I think the exchange plan is one of the easiest plans to adapt. "Intuitive" eating doesn't work very well for me, because I can't trust my food intuition - it's too unreliable. On a higher carb diet, I'm hungry all of the time, and on a very low carb diet I'm never hungry at all. It's difficult for me to tell between "true" hunger and appetite or cravings. What I choose to eat plays a big role in how much I can trust my signials, but even when I'm eating "clean," I can still overeat if I don't have a calorie control of some type. If I can "spend" my calories on anything I want, I can make very poor choices, or even just somewant unbalanced ones - the exchange plan helps me eat from all of the food groups.

Still Volumetrics was a big influence, because it's so easy to incorporate into any other food plan.

[pattygirl63]

Thanks Kaplods for sharing and the advice. I surf the threads (lurking mostly) and I really have enjoyed your posts and I've learned a lot from you. Do you just eat what you want and count calories or do you try to keep things more balanced? I am trying IE right now because I'm so bored and tired of counting calories, points and carbs. Been there and done all of them. I am trying to stick to the Volumetrics plan but keep the calories reasonable. I may have to finally go back to counting calories or WW pts eventually. I am amazed at how satisfied I am just following the plan. I'm eating healthy and eating less.

Thanks again.

[kaplods]

All exchange plans are variations on the same theme - you get a certain number of servings (and the servings are fairly similar in calorie count for each group - so all fruit servings are going to be about 6o calories - all dairy servings are going to be about 90 calories....). Most exchange plans are based on a plan developed for diabetics in the 1950's, and the exchanges themselves haven't changed much in 50 years, so almost all exchange plan recipes are interchangeable -for example, I have cookbooks with publication dates from 1960 to the present written or published by the American Diabetes Association, Weight Watcher's (before they made the switch to points), Richard Simmons, and Joanne Lund (Healthy Exchanges).

I found a lower carb exchange plan on the hillbillyhousewife and adapted it (when I was on WW's exchange plan, I liked the "flexible" exchanges they included). I get 2 fruit exchanges, 2 starch exchanges, 10 protein exchanges, 4 fat exchanges, 2 dairy exchanges, 4 vegetable exchanges and 8 flexible exchanges that I don't have to use, but if I do I can use them on fruit, starch, protein or dairy exchanges).

If I don't eat any of my optional exchanges, my calorie count is about 1400 to 1500 calories. If I eat all of my allowed exchanges, the calories are abougt 1900 -2000. I average around 1800 calories, most days.

Just like calorie counting, most foods can be categorized into exchanges. Not always perfectly, but if you know the fiber, fat, calorie, protein, and carbohydrate count, you can do the calculations yourself or look them up in a book or online resource. I use diabetic resource sites, the hillbilly housewife set and a book I bought from amazon called "exchanges for all occasions."

I try to eat mostly whole foods, not only because they're better choices, but because they're easiest to count. A fruit for example is one medium orange, a half of a large apple, half of most bananas.....

Because all of the foods in any category have a pretty similar calorie count, most exchange plans are identified by their calorie count. Different exchange plans may distribute the calories slightly differently -

This link goes to three different basic plans for 4 different calorie levels. You'll see my choices are a little different, because I made room for optional exchanges, for flexibility. I did well on Weight Watcher's when they were an exchange plan, and I really liked the idea of having some flexibility. So I patterned my optional flexible exchanges after what I remember of WW's old program.


http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/foodplans.htm

[pattygirl63]

Thanks for the website and info. Yes, I loved the old WW exchange plan and I lost weight on it really well. I thought there was a website where you could still get it, but couldn't find it and can't remember what it was. The exchange plans do make it so much simpler. I found a lowfat exchange and another one, but I don't know the calorie count on them. I might could take your info and figure it out. I really appreciate your help. I noticed another place where you wrote when people were discussing shifting their calories. Do you do that? Or do you just kind of go with how you feel like eating each day with a limited low and high range? I read a lot and I noticed that you have researched things even more than I have. So I appreciate you in put.

[kaplods]

Mostly, I let my hunger be my guide as to how many of my optional exchanges I use. I don't cycle intentionally, it just works out that way. Some days I don't even get my minimum in - but those are exceedingly rare (and it's usually the dairy servings I struggle with getting in. If I'm not feeling so hot, dairy just doesn't appeal to me. I take a calcium supplement, just in case). The more exercise I get, the more likely I am that day to eat all of my optional exchanges.