I'm going to start the Alternate - Day diet. Anyone out there tried it? I didn't have a lot of luck with the 5:2 as it was just too many days of trying not to overdo it.

Thanks Chardonnay and CoolMom for the tips on Pho. I will try to make my own later this month. Since I sub bean sprouts for noodles, it's very compatible with my eating guidance and one of my favorite foods!

Welcome, Dana. I haven't tried that specifically, but I'm a big believer at just trying out different things until you find something that works for you then sticking with it for as long as it's useful. I have plenty of experience with trying things, lol. My real problem has been finding things that can work not only to lose weight, but to live with as a permanent maintenance lifestyle. I'd really like to ditch the yoyo after decades of up and down.

Speaking of which, I've been very busy lately with stressy work stuff and at the same time, food fests for my DD's birthday. Usually, these circs might blow up a diet plan and would be a time of weight gain in maintenance. But my plan is so simple (dinnertime eating window plus some eating guidance) that I've stayed on plan and my weight has been stable. So, my WOE seems to be meeting my important criteria for being maintenance-friendly. :)

Thanks for the welcome yoyoma! I agree about keep trying till you find the one that sticks. I did lose 95 pounds on Ideal Protein, but after 8 months of that my metabolism was so shot that I found it impossible to maintain because every time I took a bite of anything not on plan I would gain a couple of pounds, no joke. It took about a 1 1/2 years to gain much of it back except for the last 35 pounds. I tried going back to IP but I can't handle the food anymore. After reading about IF and dealing with my messed up metabolism, I'm hoping I found the answer.

The IF I do is called JUDDD (Johnson Up Day Down Day Diet) It's a near-fast every other day, with eating loads of food on UpDays. Plus I also have an eating window of 8 hours. I eat my first meal around 2 PM and I'm done eating by 10 PM. It works well for me, but I also have t manage my carbs and my protein/fat ratios or else I stall.

I was doing this but found I still had to be careful on the UpDays. But I am older. JUDD is simple to follow.

Dana I sent you a PM.

I definitely still watch my calories/carbs and manage my fat/protein ratios on the UpDays. I never have an UUAD (up, up, and away day) and I am always working toward staying within 50 calories of an acceptable two day average based on the previous day's down-day calories.

For example, if I have 300 calories on my DownDay, I would then keep my UpDay right around 1700-1900 so the average is 1000-1100 calories. And I manage all my micro-nutrients to make sure I am getting all my vitamins and minerals, etc.

I also avoid carb-heavy foods. My food "guidance" includes not eating any of the whole wheat pasta or bagels we keep on hand for my daughter and keeping even the whole grain rice or lentils we cook to a minimum (I know I can generally do this in maintenance).

My guidance also includes starting my meal with a serving of nuts and a veggie, cooked or uncooked (or sometimes a less sweet fruit like melon). Then there's some protein food and usually more veggie with that. I tend to be a little light on the healthy fats, so I take a fish oil supplement. I eat more salads in the summer, so that will help. Anyway, I can eat as much as I want of veggie and/or protein foods. I allow a small treat, like two squares of dark chocolate or a carby snack which I generally eat at the end of my meal (though I can eat through more of the veg/protein foods if I want throughout my window).

So far, so good. The weight isn't melting away, but I am trending down and I'm a lot less grouchy than I usually am while dieting and also I am optimistic that I can stick with it in the long run.

Yes that is the advantage of the JUUD plan, easy to monitor over two days. And it is never too long between up days.

That's the plan I was referring to when I said althernate day dieting. I just picked up the book by Dr. Johnson that looks like he just updated. Interesting stuff and lots of science to back it up.

I've done the rapid weight loss thing and after seeing what it's done to my metabolism, I would be thrilled to just being on a program that my weight is just trending down. I think it's just more sane for your body for the long haul.

I'm not an IFer (although I'm fascinated w/ it and wish I could do it!), but years ago I tried JUDD. This is just my experience (not knocking it as everyone is different): Initially, it seemed great. I lost at least five pounds the first week, and those up days were really, really great. However after the first week or two, I started dreading those down days in a MAJOR way. Soon, they seemed too much of a sacrifice to make up for the eating freedom on the up days. So, I couldn't stick with it.


I've been maintaining for more than two years by mainly calorie counting (having a weekly total and cycling my calories). Sometimes, I just want to let loose, though, and eat a really substantial meal every day. To that end, I would love to do some version of IF in which I just eat twice a day. I find it much easier to skip breakfast, and if I could just do that, I would just eat big lunch and a big dinner. However, my retired husband is really into going out to breakfast, and I hate to deprive him that. He easily skips lunch----not because he's trying to lose weight (he has never had a weight issue), but just because he doesn't want to bother with lunch. I suppose I could try to skip breakfast on those days when we don't go out to breakfast, but it's hard to get used to not eating during those hours when I cannot do it consistently. Arrgh!

That was very close to my experience. In addition, as it got late on an up day, I found myself stuffing myself at the last minute.

Allowing myself to eat till full every day fixes this part of the mind game for me. Further, by allowing myself a 2.5 hour window, I know I don't have to stuff myself at the beginning of the window, so I'm able to eat just until I'm good and full but not overstuffed. I control the calories with my guidance (start with low calorie density foods) and make sure I get at least some healthy fats. My experience is that don't get hungry before I go to sleep, then I get the benefits of the leptin reset over night.

This is only my third day of the alternate fasting so of course way too early to tell how it's going to work in the long run, but so far so good. After my first down day the scale went down and thankfully didn't go back up after my up day. To keep my calories under 500 on the down days I just pick something for breakfast, lunch and dinner that is very low in calories and I enjoy eating. On my up day I didn't over do it, but ate what I enjoyed with out getting stuffed, just comfortable. I have decided to do my down days Monday, Wednesday and Friday as it's just not realistic that I could have a down day on the weekend. What I will do though is on Sundays just have one main meal and eat very light the rest of the day.

I am with you Dana. I did WW's for about 12.5 months and about 100lbs. I seemed to have slowed so I went to counting calories and the IF as I hear "zig-zagging" calories would kick start my weight loss again. And it has seemed to work. I have done IF for 1 month and I am down about 9-10 lbs. I Fast M-W-F only having 500-600 cals for dinner and I eat my dinner no less that 24 hours after my dinner on my up day. My up days Tues-Thurs and Weekends I may have breakfast or I may skip and save the calories for lunch and or dinner. I stayed home from work one day on a Fast day and that was horrible. I dreamed of food I was so bored and hungry. I am hoping to incorporate IF in maintenance. Keep up the good work!!!

I have been doing IF for 3 weeks and have dropped 21 lbs. I also have an eating window between 2 pm and bedtime. I really like it, and I don't find the fast days too bad. My real struggle is keeping my calories up on up days. i also find it is a bit like carb cycling because on my fast days my carbs are very low but they pop up again on my up days.

I have been wondering what to do about all the food-fueled social events that happen during the day. I had been thinking that I would probably end up making some exceptions. Today, I opted out of free pizza at work and it went well. Honestly, I'm so used to my window that I wasn't even hungry despite being surrounded by pizza. I don't think I will plan on making absolutely no exceptions, but sticking with the schedule seems like the best rule in general.

Simple is something I need, too. Counting calories (or carbs) and having to constantly decide how much/what/when to eat takes up too much of my attention. Unfortunately, even with a small eating window, I still need to be pretty careful about what I eat if I want to avoid gaining weight so I have an evolving set of eating guidelines, but it's still a lot simpler. At least I only need to think about it during my window!