Ultimate volumetrics diet book helps people lose weight, manage hunger

"There is no magic way to get around the fact that to lose weight you must reduce the calories you consume to below the number you burn," Rolls said. "However, cutting calories doesn't have to leave you feeling hungry. You can carefully choose the foods you eat so that you feel full and satisfied on fewer calories."

Rolls' new book is based on her decades of research on diet and nutrition, which shows that lowering the calorie density -- or calories per bite -- of food can help people feel full while eating fewer calories. For example, in one study, she and her colleagues found that by using Volumetrics principles to reduce calories per bite by 30 percent and serving size by 25 percent, participants ate 800 calories less per day and never missed them.

The new book contains a 12-week diet plan with chapters on "Building Your Meal Around Fruits and Vegetables," "Managing Fat and Sugar," "Eating Away From Home," and "Maintaining Your Volumetrics Lifestyle." For example, the chapter on "Building Your Meal Around Fruits and Vegetables" includes advice on how to boost vegetable intake by sneaking them into favorite foods. Rolls' research has shown that preschool children consume nearly twice as many vegetables and 11 percent fewer calories over the course of a day when pureed vegetables are added to their favorite foods.

In addition to a 12-week diet plan, the book also contains over 100 nutritionally balanced recipes that she and her staff -- and even family members -- created. Recipes include Greek Frittata, Caribbean Bean and Squash Soup, Zesty Roast Beef and Veggie Pocket, Pasta with Exploding Tomatoes and Arugula, and Alex's Three-Layer Carrot Cake. Full-color photographs illustrate many of the recipes.

The new book builds upon Rolls' two previous books about Volumetrics principles, one of which topped the New York Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List in 2007.

Provided by Pennsylvania State University