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The philosophy behind Volumetrics is that a person starving him or herself is counter-productive. If people are given a choice between eating more or eating less, obviously they are going to eat more. Even if they starve themselves temporarily and see some results they will eventually "relapse" and gain the weight back. Volumetrics does not try to halt the natural appetite of a person. Instead this diet plan helps people to find foods they can eat a lot of but still lose weight. The plan focuses on satiating a person that feeling of fullness in which the body says "I am no longer hungry." Volumetrics creator Barbara Rolls, PhD states that people feel full based on the amount of food they eat, not the total number of calories, grams of fat, carbohydrates or protein. The solution, she speculates, is to full up on foods that are not full of calories. Volumetrics offers consumers the chance to eat more and slim down. It sounds great! But how does it work and what are the results?

Dr. Rolls advises users of Volumetrics to evaluate foods on their level of energy density. She does not ban foods like most traditional diets, but suggests that food should have a low energy density, which do not contain as many calories as high energy density foods. Examples of high density foods including cookies, oils, chips and crackers (packing a lot of calories into a small bite) while low density foods include non-starch vegetables, soup broths and nonfat milk. Water has a density of 0, so naturally foods with high water content, like fruits and vegetables, are satisfying to the appetite. Drinking water on its own, however does not sate a person's hunger, only his or her thirst.

Reviews of the Volumetrics plan are mixed. Some users do report impressive weight loss and some medical experts are quick to endorse the plan's goals ("It's a slam dunk!" says the American Dietetic Association) But others are skeptical about the plan, due to its modest goals (results are not as quickly reported as with dietary supplements) and because the "full feeling" may be temporary, as water empties out your stomach for a short time but then the hunger returns more intensified. The general consensus is that Volumetrics' logic is sound, if obvious, and is not the diet for everyone perhaps not even for the population of over eaters who eat for comfort and not out of hunger.

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