Volume Eating and Weight Loss
Have you ever consumed a large leafy salad filled with vegetables and lean protein and felt completely satiated, while on another day you ate a bowl of ice cream and still felt hungry? Volume plays a role in how full we feel, and this can be used to support our gut health and metabolism.
What is volume eating?
Volume eating is a technique that allows people to feel full while consuming fewer calories. Volume eating essentially involves replacing dense high calorie foods with more voluminous lower calorie, nutrient dense options that keep you full. This includes high fiber vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein which take longer to digest.
Volume eating and weight loss
Volume eating is a great tool that can support weight management. One of the central tenets of weight loss is calorie balance, or taking in fewer calories than we put out. However, we do not want to feel hungry or deprived, or we will be thinking about food all day and likely end up eating beyond our needs. We need to actually feel full and satisfied from food. One of the ways this occurs is when food causes our stomachs to stretch. This stretch contributes to release of a hormone called ghrelin, which signals to our bodies that we are full. Volume eating therefore allows us to feel full while eating less calories.
Take the example of a busy afternoon where you eat a protein bar versus a salad. A protein bar may be higher in calories, but it is dense and low in volume and will not stretch your stomach. A voluminous salad on the other hand that contains various high fiber vegetables, nuts, seeds and lean protein will cause your stomach to stretch, contributing to feelings of fullness. This will prevent overeating, thereby helping with weight management.
How to incorporate volume eating into your life
While volume eating can be beneficial, it may be somewhat uncomfortable at first if your stomach is not used to large quantities. It can therefore be best to start out slowly, gradually increasing the volume over time to allow your stomach to adjust. This is especially true with fiber, which should be introduced gradually with adequate fluids to avoid stomach distress.
