Good morning everyone! Brrrrr...so cold here!

I've been away from 3 fat chicks for far too long! Going into the new year I am starting a diet called The Every Other Day Diet by Krista Varady. The book will be released in less than 2 weeks, and I should receive mine by amazon on 12/24, just before Christmas! There's a lot of buzz about this one, and I predict "bestseller".

Basically you eat 500 calories one day, and you eat freely the next. This is something I feel I can do, since it's a no-brainer, and it's supposed to regulate your appetite (shrink your stomach I guess) after about a month of really sticking to it, so that you just don't overeat on your "feast" days.

Right now I'm reading an awesome little book called Easy Alternate Day Fasting by Beth Christian, a lovely little book for less than 7 bucks on amazon (I think it's 99 cents for the kindle). This sums it all up nicely in few pages.

I wish us all a healthy and happy holiday going in the new year. This is the year I lose most of my weight. How about you?

Make sure you are being careful!

500 calories a day...seems like it would be hard to get a lot of nutrition in on those days.

Good luck.

It sounds like intermittent fasting

Isn't that unhealthy for your body, though? Sort of like yo-yo dieting, where you restrict calories for a period of time and then eat "regular" and gain it all back and then diet again, each time doing damage to your body.

Good luck with it, though.

Djuna

Sounds like the JUDDD diet. It's good if you can stick to the 500 calorie days though I've heard lots of people say it's harder on the up days. I've tried it a couple of times but with no success. I might just try it again.

I tried a very similar diet in the past. I lost 5,5 pounds (2,5kg) in two weeks eating every other day 1100 and every other day 1800 calories, but I did a 45minute cardio workout on the days I ate more.

I don't think I could handle only 500 calories in one day, but I suppose that it should work too.

I've not only tried this, I've also tried the more extreme version of eating nothing every other day and even tried eating 0- 500 calories daily Monday through Friday and eating unrestricted Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday.

The first two were of no help at all. On the unrestricted days, I easily made up for fasting days' calorie deficit. The "only eat on weekends" diet was more successful, but only until I got within 15-20 lbs of a healthy weight. It also came with unpleasant side effects such as constant intense headaches, lightheadedness, vertigo, insomnia despite bone-crushing fatigue. Exercise or even normal tasks could cause my to pass out.

And this was in my teens and 20's. I'd hate to think what weekend-only eating would do to my now nearly 50-year old body.

I am trying to reduce my "eating window" (intermittent fasting), with some success, but I still struggle with my monthly out-of-control pms/pmdd eating, which in one week, tends to undo all the progress of the previous three.

I am older and really like this approach. It is not dangerous at all because over two days it evens out and you eat the same amount as you would when dieting each day. No one is going to starve with one day of low cals.

I've been doing 5:2 with additions. Some weeks 4:3. I upped it from 500 to 900. Although no matter what, I still have to calorie count on the bigger days. Even when I was broke, following 5:2 helped me lose.

Yes, the key is not going overboard on the bigger days. I don't mind the lower days because I am on the go so much during the week with my job and my commute that I don't mind not having to think about food much half the time.