You’ve always heard that pictures speak a 1000 words, but the ones you are going to see today speak … 200 calories! Wisegeek, a site that claims to provide “clear answers for common questions”, has one of the most interesting and informative pages I have seen in a long time.

Ever wondered “What Do 200 Calories Look Like?” Just take a look at the page which displays 200 calories worth of a variety of foods ranging from (platefuls of) carrots and broccoli all the way to (miniscule amounts of) peanut-butter and canola oil.

I could write reams and reams or talk till I am blue in the face about things like Calorific Density, Volumetrics and how different foods carry different calorific payloads. But along comes a simple page describing it all visually - one that will open your eyes like no other.

The whole topic of volumetric seems to be quite popular in the weight-loss circuit right now (just last month I wrote about how Energy-Density And Volumetrics Can Help You Lose Weight) and this would be a good time to familiarize yourself with the concept. In a nutshell, Volumetrics focuses on encouraging dieters to eat more lower calorie-dense foods like fruits and vegetables while avoiding higher calorie-dense foods like sweets, cookies, pastries and doughnuts. Your stomach has a fixed volume and, as the author of the concept explains, you don’t feel full once you reach your calorie intake level for the meal - you feel full when your stomach feels full!

Just look at these two examples from the 200 Calories web-site and you’ll see what I mean:

Both those plates have 200 calories, but I don’t even have to begin to tell you which of those plates will make you feel full when you eat its contents (if you can even finish all those carrots in one sitting!). If you chose the muffin, you would be looking for more to eat because your stomach is not going to signal fullness to your brain after just 72g of food; but when you finish those 570g of carrots, trust me - your brain will know and you will stop - right at 200 calories, about where you want to be for a snack!

Once you look at What 200 Calories Look Like, you can read more about Volumetrics at WebMD’s “Volumetrics Eating Plan: What It Is” or get the book “The Volumetrics Eating Plan“.

Here’s to being less (calorie) dense about food!

Technorati Tags: health, fitness, nutrition, volumetrics diet, calorific density, weight loss

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