I read about this in a magazine and thought it sounded great, so I've bought the book. Basically, you eat 2000 calories on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and on the other days you eat 500 calories on the first 2 weeks, 750 after that, and 1000 to maintain once you've reached your goal weight.
To me, this seems like a really good plan! My problem is that I really struggle to control what I eat - just want bad stuff all the time. So I love the idea that you eat normally some days, and then really restrict on other days.
There's another thread that was around.. called the Every Other Day Diet or maybe it was UpDay/DownDay... dont remember. So, I tried it... for about 3 days. I was too hungry on the down days. I felt miserable. And on the up days I got such a taste in my mouth for certain foods that when I restricted myself the next day I couldn't stop thinking about food!
I also worry about any damage it does to your body. Such drastic calorie changes can't be good for your heart - but I'm not an expert. And what do you do about exercise on days that you're eating 500 calories? I'd burn that off in a good hour of exercise. I cant imagine having much energy the rest of the day. I dont know, just things I was thinking about.
But that other thread reported some success. Just not for me.
You may want to look into calorie cycling. Just do an internet search. I do this to some extent. I'm doing weight watchers, which gives me extra points to use during the week. On some days, i use a lot of extra points and on some days, I use little or no extra points. It's supposed to keep your metabolism up.
Yeah - Raw23 has a good point. It seems like an overly drastic change from day to day.
PLus, 500 cals is way too low. I personally think 1000 or 1200 calories is too low - even if you have a lot of weight to lose. It freaks your body out, in my experience.
It also sounds somewhat complicated. Why not just eat the same number of kcals consistently and, if needed, take 1 high calorie day a week where you meet your active metabolic rate. E.g. you're living on 1500 calories and exercising 5 days a week. On saturdays, you go up to 2000 or 2300. Just a rough example, but you get what I mean.
I have a friend doing this and she has had really good success! She swears by it, and has steadily lost about 2-2.5 lbs/wk. She does something else too, which I thought was a part of the plan, where she does a "water fast" one day a week (she normally only does this every other week though). She drinks things like black coffee, tea, and puts low-calorie powders into her water on these days.
Will you keep me posted if you end up doing this? I'm curious i anyone else has success with it.
I had a friend at work who tried this. She said she would eat basically anything she wanted one day, and the next day eat nothing but crackers and water. She went from about 200 pounds to about 145, but she is rapidly gaining it back now. I did try, and managed to stay on it for about...hm...3 days. Like the raw23 said, the day's when you are starving yourself (literally) you crave the food you had the day before SO BAD. So i said, screw this. The point of "dieting" is to create better habits for yourself in the long term, and this diet isn't going to help you do that at all.
I think this is a really bad idea. Calorie cycling is a tried and true method of losing weight, but this EXTREME version of it just can't be healthy.
Starving yourself one day and binging the next is really what it sounds like.
And I know for me, if I limited myself to 500 calories on one day, there's no way I could effectively work out on that day because I would be starving my body and my muscles.
Honestly if you're looking for a healthy balance of exercise and eating, then this diet won't work. You CANNOT exercise on 500 calories. And I'm sure as **** not willing to limit my exercising to the 3 days a week that I'm allowed to eat on this diet.
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The point of "dieting" is to create better habits for yourself in the long term, and this diet isn't going to help you do that at all.
So I love the idea that you eat normally some days, and then really restrict on other days.
I think the real issue is that to achieve and maintain weight loss, we have to change our idea of what eating "normally" is. A 2,000 calorie day isn't necessarily "normal," even if it is common in our food dysfunctional society. This plan seems like an attempt to avoid significant changes and, IMO, would be counter-productive to long-term success.
A 2,000 calorie day isn't necessarily "normal," even if it is common in our food dysfunctional society.
Not to be nitpicky ... ... but a 2000 calorie a day diet is absolutely NORMAL.
When I reach my goal weight, my maintenance calories will be (pending my figuring out what's exactly right for me) around 1800. My DH could maintain at around 2300. There is nothing wrong with a 2000 calorie maintenance diet for probably 90% of the population.
What's abnormal are the 3500-5000 a day diets that many people eat regularly w/out even thinking about it.
2000 cals a day is maintenance for many, many, many people.
Alternate-Day Diet?
