Vegetables and fruits, because of their high water content, are generally very low in calories. For example, two ¼ pound cheeseburgers contain the same amount of calories as 50 carrots or 70 tomatoes. Vegetables and fruits also contain dietary fiber, which contributes virtually no calories to your diet yet helps suppress your appetite. So, put simply, vegetables and fruits will fill you up without filling you out.

Grain foods (such as bread, rice and pasta) and legumes (beans, peas and lentils) have a lower water content than vegetables and fruits, so they contain more calories—but they're still quite low in calories and are a good source of dietary fiber. And the great thing about grains and legumes is that they're also bulky, filling and satisfying.

Fish, which is a staple food in traditional Mediterranean and Asian diets, is generally much lower in calories than the red meat that's prominent in a typical Western diet. An eight-ounce sirloin steak, for example, contains more than 400 calories. This compares to an eight-ounce tuna steak which contains only around 240 calories.

But what about all the calories in the foods such as olive oil, nuts and avocados that are recommended as part of a MediterrAsian way of eating? These higher calorie foods are actually counter-balanced by all the lower calorie, fiber-rich foods you'll be eating. So, you'll end up eating lots of delicious and filling food, but you'll only be consuming a moderate amount of calories. This is why a MediterrAsian way of eating is ideal for helping you stay in shape.

Proving that point is Australian weightlifter Dean Lukin, who won the gold medal for weightlifting in the super-heavyweight division at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. After Dean retired from competition he weighed over 300 pounds, so he made the decision to lose weight—not just for his looks, but also for his health. Dean decided to try to lose the excess weight by following a way of eating based on the diet of his healthy, lean ancestors who came from a seaside village on the Dalmatian coast (part of the Mediterranean). As part of his new Mediterranean-style of eating Dean increased his intake of plant foods such as vegetables, grains, fruits and legumes, cut down his intake of red meat and made fish his primary source of protein. In less than a year he had lost over 110 pounds, or as Dean put it: "When I got to the stage of really ripping the blubber off, the rate of progress was quite startling." Because this way of eating is so filling and satisfying it will probably come as no surprise that Dean has kept the weight off for over 10 years.