Alternate Day Diet?

  • Is anyone here doing this? I bought and read the book and plan to properly begin this from Monday, as over the holiday it's a bit difficult what with family and everything.

    For those who don't know, this plan involves you eating a very low calorie diet (it depends, for me it's about 500 calories) 3 days a week, with a more lenient diet (for me 1700 calories) the other 4 days. The idea behind this is that you only diet half the time, therefore even if you feel deprived one day, you can eat the foods you want the next.

    The book's very persuasive and seems to be backed by clinical trials, and the author himself lost 35lbs in like 3 months on the plan. However it sounds TOUGH but my downfall is food and in particular bingeing, and I struggle on heavy restriction plans because I miss bad foods too much, so the fact that I'd be slightly less hungry and desperate for chocolate appeals to me.

    The author recommends using meal replacement for the first couple of weeks to get you into the plan and get you used to it. So I've bought plenty of SlimFast.

    God I hope this works though, this is about the only plan I haven't tried!

    I'd love to hear from anyone who has followed this plan or one like it, and how it fared for you.
  • I don't consider bringing calories under 1100 daily for anyone healthy.
  • I beliveve this method is also called calorie shifting, although I think that 500 calories is way too low for anyone.

    I do a similar thing on WW - I just shift how many points that I am getting per day, I vary from 29 pts (about 1500 cal) to 41 pts (2000 cal). To me, it helps my body burn more consistantly, but it may not work for all!

    A safer way to do this may be to spread your calories differently - From the info you gave, you're allowed to have 8300 calories per week I would try to stagger them through week.

    Just be safe!
  • Your averaging out 8300 calories a week..which is about 1186 calories a day. That is kinda low. Low calorie diets do more harm than good. ALot of times without enough calories you can't get the daily nutrients your body needs. IN a healthy diet, it would be hard to get in enough fruits/veggire (7 or more a day), protein and whole grains into 500 calories for the day. Your body will not work at it's best if it is not fed properly. Alot of people calorie shift with great success AND their daily calorie allowance is higher than yours. I would hate for you to lose weight fast and then your body rebel against you.

    Please, look at other healthier options. There are plenty of plans that offer steady (permanent)weight lose.
  • I would think that if you have a problem with binging, ever going to 500 calories would be begging for trouble.

    I also think your body needs more consistent nutrition than that.

    Plus your average is less than 1200. Bad for binging, bad for nutrition.
  • What is calorie shifting?
    Can you explain how to do this using ww?
    Thanks
  • I've just started (5 days ago) a Calorie Shifting way of eating. This is a 5-day plan that varies not only the number of calories per day, but the number of calories per meal on the premise that your body will not become accustomed to, for instance, 300 calories every morning. I found this idea online and the daily calorie intake ranges from 1400 to 1800. Days 6 and 7 (week-end for me) allows you to eat without counting. Hopefully this will work for me. Although I choose whole grain breads and pasta and usually sweet potato instead of regular potato, I can't seem to stick to anything that restricts carbs.
  • I can't even eat 1,300 for a few days without eventually wanting to go on a binge.
  • OP, if you limit yourself to 1700 calories, 7 days a week, you are gonna do great. If you want to calorie cycle, high day then a low day, that works too--I might do 1000 one day and 2000 the next for an average of 1500 daily but wouldn't do anything more aggressive than that.
  • Not that any1 may still care...
    ...but I agree w/ you Teamup2befit. I actually read Dr. Johnson's book--that EODD mess was $40 for an eBook that's basically the same info, less the scientific stuff and any credible reviews (I bought Dr.J's book from AMZN)--so I understand what's going on behind the 500 cal day thing. I also understand the OP's worry of binging. I find myself much the same way and I currently do 1200-1300 cals a day. I've decided to try the Alt-Day/Up Day, Down Day Diet mostly because I really miss my 'normal' foods. Right now I'm doing Slim Fast's 3-2-1. While I love the shakes, Lean Cuisine meals & veggies, eating them every day gets to be a bore and after about three weeks my 'diet fatigue' hits high gear. The last time this happened it was a pizza/wings binge at which point I finally decided enough is enough.

    I know myself well enough that I can expect these binges once a month--at least--and rarely do I pick myself up the very next day and get back on the Slim Fast diet (of which I have managed to lose 12lbs in 6wks). However, the last binge I spoke of I actually did just that, and after a day of almost 4,000 cals (OUCH!) I went back down to about 1150 the next day...After a couple days, I saw the weight slipping off faster than normal. I didn't give too much thought to this, but after reading Dr. Johnson's book it's started to make sense.

    I'm going to try the Up Day, Down Day Diet for at least the two-week 'induction' period he suggests and see what happens. Worst case scenario it doesn't work and I go back to 1200-1300 a day and just deal w/ the 'diet fatigue' setbacks.

    TO THE OP: Since I'm also concerned w/ the possibility(/eventuality?) of binging, I bought one month of a trial of Sensa to sprinkle over my food on Up Days...I'm starting the Up Day Down Day tomorrow so I'll post back in a week or so after I've had a few Up Days w/ the Sensa to report whether this helped me to stop the over-eating.

    Cheers!
  • To me, this sounds like the predictable phase most alcoholics go through when they realize they have a problem with alcohol so they vow to only drink on the weekends, or only drink outside the home, or only drink beer. It's an attempt to bargain and avoid addressing the underlying issue.

    This isn't to say habitual overeating is exactly like alcoholism, but there are parallels. In the case of being overweight, the underlying issue is that one's "normal" is more than you need and will put on the weight. This sort of diet sounds appealing because you get to keep your "normal" every other day. But that isn't going to work. Eventually "every other day" will become "more days than not" and then its back to "every day" without you even noticing.

    If you are willing to give anything a try for two weeks, do as suggested above and give a strict (everything weighed and measured) 1700 calories a day a try for two weeks and see if you lose any weight. If you don't, go to 1200 calories every other day and see if that takes off the weight. If that doesn't, then try the 500. But I bet you will see results before it gets to that stage--and think how much more pleasant your life will be!