If calories in-calories out is immutable...

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  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    Facts and science from here on ought to be ignored. If someone actually wanted to find successful IFers most if not all people IF every day. It is called sleep. Crazy crazy crazy
  • TheBeachgod
    TheBeachgod Posts: 825 Member
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    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.
  • tincanonastring
    tincanonastring Posts: 3,944 Member
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    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    +1
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited January 2016
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?
    She does count calories. Or do you mean how do people in general lose on that diet? They count on their 500 calorie days (which is pretty simple, given the food quantity), and eat to satisfaction on the other days.

    If you have genuine curiosity, there are books and web sites with information. But if you're here to ridicule and balk and pre-judge, this is the place! ; )

    The description of the diet says "no counting calories". I'm trying to understand how you can ensure that you're doing it properly, without counting calories.

    I'm not ridiculing, I'm trying to understand how this works because the explanation seems to go against what the primary appeal of this is for people.

    I think it's like how some low carb instead of calorie counting and find it works because they just end up eating less (at first, anyway). Whereas others use low carb as a way to make a deficit easier but also calorie count. The appeal for some people is that they don't want to calorie count and find it too burdensome or annoying, whereas others don't mind calorie counting or find they need to for the method to work, but still see benefit to the method to make the deficit easier.

    The idea with alternate day seems to be that lots of people won't overeat enough on the feast day to remove the deficit. Instead, that lots of people find that eating normally = something like 110% of the calories they need for maintenance (why people gain slowly over time) and that adding in the fast (500 cal) days lets them do this and still have a deficit (or something like that -- I haven't done the math).

    I don't think it would work for me, because I suspect that I'm someone who can easily go beyond 110% of maintenance calories without really trying that hard, especially if I'm fasting the day before. But it's possible I'm wrong even for me -- I know I racked up a huge deficit over Easter weekend the last couple of years because even eating whatever I wanted on Easter didn't end up making up for Good Friday's fast. I didn't feel like I had to eat more to make up for the low day. Not sure if that would work for me regularly, but that it does for some doesn't surprise me. On the other hand, I think it would be bad for anyone with bingeing issues or who tends to such restriction that she wouldn't eat enough on the feast days (I've seen posters who tried to keep a deficit on those days and added in fast days too, which is not how it is supposed to work).

    The biggest issue for me with trying such a plan if I felt like I needed something new is the exercise question that someone raised above.
  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?

    Plus, and I know this is beside the point, what would a 500 calorie day look like? How could it include any exercise? It sounds like punishment.

    I agree completely.

    For my 500 calorie days I'm consuming water, black coffee or hot tea until around noon. I have a 100 or 150 calorie protein shake or smoothie for lunch. When I get home from work (6pm) I have a spinach salad with tuna, 2 tbs of hummus and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (350-400 calories depending on the amount of tuna and hummus). Hot tea in between when I feel hungry.

    I haven't incorporated exercise. Yet. Unfortunately I probably won't until Feb, due to a job change to another city and my existing gym membership is geographically challenging now.
  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    WalkingAlong is the only one giving mandy318 the answers she wants to read so it is pretty futile for anyone else to post helpful information like facts and science.

    Actually many posters have offered great fact-based insight into my original question, which was why, when I'm in a calorie deficit, do I see such varying results.

    Walking Along has experienced the plan I'm on work for her and yes, I'm very interested in what she has to say that could help me make it work for me.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
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    WinoGelato wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?
    She does count calories. Or do you mean how do people in general lose on that diet? They count on their 500 calorie days (which is pretty simple, given the food quantity), and eat to satisfaction on the other days.

    If you have genuine curiosity, there are books and web sites with information. But if you're here to ridicule and balk and pre-judge, this is the place! ; )

    The description of the diet says "no counting calories". I'm trying to understand how you can ensure that you're doing it properly, without counting calories.

    I'm not ridiculing, I'm trying to understand how this works because the explanation seems to go against what the primary appeal of this is for people.

    I have nothing against IF, it works for a lot of people. The OP originally came in complaining that her method wasn't working, so people gave her alternatives, now suddenly she's defending this vehemently. I'm just trying to point out that maybe the implementation of the approach is not successful if you aren't counting, weighing, logging accurately, etc. perhaps if OP tightened that up, even still following the ADF approach, and stuck with it for longer, then she would have longer term success.

    But thanks for the insults!
    I think the point is you estimate 500 on the fast days, which is much simpler than counting all your calories all the time. Once you know some very low cal meals, you tend to repeat them and it's not really a counting game like MFP is. The author actually uses a lot of frozen meals for her fast days, which is not my thing, but I see how that isn't really 'counting calories'. You have a 200-300 calorie frozen meal for lunch and another for dinner, and no counting on the other days. You don't need an app for that, or even paper.

    I'm sorry to insult you, I just get tired of this argument- "You're not losing weight every week so you're not in a deficit so your entire approach is wrong. And by the way it sounds stupid and miserable. I don't understand it and have never tried it, but I'm sure it's stupid and miserable." And yes, I'm blending in others' responses there, and speaking with some hyperbole and broad generalization, so don't take it personally.
  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    Now how is it that I am supposed to lose weight if not through special attention, hand-holding, customized plans suited to MY unique biological needs, and lots and lots of gushing encouragement??? o:)o:)o:)
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    I know at least one person on the threads does IF during training with cycling. Some weeks it is one day, some weeks it is two days. Difficult, but doable. I think any method which someone finds a way to go toward goal is something worth trying. I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    I know at least one person on the threads does IF during training with cycling. Some weeks it is one day, some weeks it is two days. Difficult, but doable. I think any method which someone finds a way to go toward goal is something worth trying. I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

    You don't think it's possible to diet successfully without weighing food?

    I'd like to explore ways to improve and troubleshoot things I may be overlooking, but does that mean jumping to the most.intensive way to control calories in that I can think of, outside of surgery maybe?

    Fasting intermittently seems much more doable to me than weighing all of my food, all of the time.
  • blambo61
    blambo61 Posts: 4,372 Member
    edited January 2016
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    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    I know at least one person on the threads does IF during training with cycling. Some weeks it is one day, some weeks it is two days. Difficult, but doable. I think any method which someone finds a way to go toward goal is something worth trying. I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

    I do 21:3 IF and train 4xweek. Has only been hard a couple of times. In fact, I feel more like training at the end of the fast now than I did before when I ate lunch, had insulin response, ate junk to keep going and generally didn’t feel good. I'm way more consistant working out with IF than not because my blood sugar isn't all over the place and maybe due to being free from junk byproducts.

    If your losing weight, you don’t need a scale. If your not losing weight, then you might need one or at least to make estimates of calories consumed so you can make some changes. If that doesn't work, you may need a scale or need to do domething different.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    mandy318 wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?

    Plus, and I know this is beside the point, what would a 500 calorie day look like? How could it include any exercise? It sounds like punishment.

    I agree completely.

    For my 500 calorie days I'm consuming water, black coffee or hot tea until around noon. I have a 100 or 150 calorie protein shake or smoothie for lunch. When I get home from work (6pm) I have a spinach salad with tuna, 2 tbs of hummus and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (350-400 calories depending on the amount of tuna and hummus). Hot tea in between when I feel hungry.

    I haven't incorporated exercise. Yet. Unfortunately I probably won't until Feb, due to a job change to another city and my existing gym membership is geographically challenging now.

    So, over 90 days how many would be 500? And no, you don't need to weigh your food for weight loss. Have you attempted any other diets in the past?

  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    mandy318 wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?

    Plus, and I know this is beside the point, what would a 500 calorie day look like? How could it include any exercise? It sounds like punishment.

    I agree completely.

    For my 500 calorie days I'm consuming water, black coffee or hot tea until around noon. I have a 100 or 150 calorie protein shake or smoothie for lunch. When I get home from work (6pm) I have a spinach salad with tuna, 2 tbs of hummus and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (350-400 calories depending on the amount of tuna and hummus). Hot tea in between when I feel hungry.

    I haven't incorporated exercise. Yet. Unfortunately I probably won't until Feb, due to a job change to another city and my existing gym membership is geographically challenging now.

    So, over 90 days how many would be 500? And no, you don't need to weigh your food for weight loss. Have you attempted any other diets in the past?

    Well, half--45, as long as I stick with it.
  • mandy318
    mandy318 Posts: 25 Member
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    mandy318 wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    mandy318 wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?

    Plus, and I know this is beside the point, what would a 500 calorie day look like? How could it include any exercise? It sounds like punishment.

    I agree completely.

    For my 500 calorie days I'm consuming water, black coffee or hot tea until around noon. I have a 100 or 150 calorie protein shake or smoothie for lunch. When I get home from work (6pm) I have a spinach salad with tuna, 2 tbs of hummus and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (350-400 calories depending on the amount of tuna and hummus). Hot tea in between when I feel hungry.

    I haven't incorporated exercise. Yet. Unfortunately I probably won't until Feb, due to a job change to another city and my existing gym membership is geographically challenging now.

    So, over 90 days how many would be 500? And no, you don't need to weigh your food for weight loss. Have you attempted any other diets in the past?

    Well, half--45, as long as I stick with it.

    I've logged in MFP, but nothing as structured as this. I worked with a pt for about three months last year and he had me restrict/ease up on restriction on and off.
  • elite_nal
    elite_nal Posts: 127 Member
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    mandy318 wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'm not even against IF, just woo and special snowflakeism about doing everything right and not losing weight.

    I know at least one person on the threads does IF during training with cycling. Some weeks it is one day, some weeks it is two days. Difficult, but doable. I think any method which someone finds a way to go toward goal is something worth trying. I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

    You don't think it's possible to diet successfully without weighing food?

    I'd like to explore ways to improve and troubleshoot things I may be overlooking, but does that mean jumping to the most.intensive way to control calories in that I can think of, outside of surgery maybe?

    Fasting intermittently seems much more doable to me than weighing all of my food, all of the time.

    If you’re truly serious about transforming your body in the fastest and most efficient way possible, proper dietary tracking is key. This will ensure that you're maintaining a proper calorie deficit that lands in the proper range based on your goal, as well as an effective macronutrient breakdown to optimize body composition.

    Although you don't have to count calories or track macronutrients in order to get into impressive shape, it's definitely going to be the most effective route. "Winging" your fat burning diet simply leaves too large a margin for error.

    However, if you are going to begin doing this, you need to learn how to count calories and how to count macros properly in order to ensure that you're being accurate with your daily totals. In almost all cases this requires the use of a food scale. This is the only way to know for sure that you’re truly getting the calorie and macronutrient amounts that you're aiming for.

    Using a food scale is actually very easy and really doesn’t require any more time or hassle above and beyond using regular measuring cups.

    It certainly is still possible to achieve significant results without precisely measuring your food out every day as long as you’re able to estimate with decent accuracy. However, your margin for error will increase by quite a bit, and it’s far more likely that you’ll end up out of your optimal calorie and macronutrient ranges.

    So, the specific level of tracking that you decide to employ is up to you and depends on how serious you are about your results.

    One thing is for certain though, and that is that if you want to optimize your results and transform your body as quickly and efficiently as possible, then properly tracking your food intake is a must, and using a food scale is the best way to go about it.



  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    mandy318 wrote: »
    JaneiR36 wrote: »
    aggelikik wrote: »
    mandy318 wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    It doesn't.

    Many books have been written on it, and many more scholarly articles. But what people don't understand they fear and deride. Diets, especially.

    Plus there's something in the human mind that convinces people that their diet is the one and only good diet. I think whoever named the tv show "My Diet is Better Than Your Diet" knew that.

    I was intrigued by this diet after reading the studies. I think it's interesting that she didn't set out to discover a marketable diet plan, she just noticed a particular behavior and then replicated it in human trials.

    I would have to eat a little over 3300 cal on my off day to eat back my deficit. I COULD eat that much, but I don't. I've been logging on my feast days and I'm not close to that.

    It seems like the mantra on these boards is "CI/CO over time and how you get there is personal preference". But when you explain how you're getting to your deficit...watch out, man! It's going to be the wrong way!

    You started a thread about how so far your dieting approaches fail. You were given several tips by several posters on what to do. You are defending your non-working approach with a passion. What ws the purpose of this thread? To tell you that you are cursed and will never see results? To tell you that you are some aline lifeform and the basic principles of CICO do nto apply to you? To get recommendation for a magical pill/drink/herb that will help? Honestly, why start a thread complaining you cannot reach your goal and then refuse to listen to people who have managed to do what you cannot?

    I think that's pretty much where we're at, yup.

    Instead of hearing 'sustainable deficit, sustainable diet, accurate calorie control', OP hears: Y'all hate IF'ers.

    Exactly. What do you mean "explain how you're getting to your deficit", OP? You're not there, not consistently, anyway. You keep white knuckling it with all these strange approaches and then quit six weeks in. You came here for help and are getting feedback on the fact that you're basically doing it all over again.

    Spend the 20 bucks. Get a food scale. Log your food with no more than 1 lb deficit per week to start. Rinse, repeat. Discipline, consistency, trust the process

    What white knuckling with strange approaches exactly am I doing?

    Fair point. I suppose your only references to other approaches would be eating "1100" calories while working with a trainer for 3 months, and your comment about whenever you select a diet plan, from which I concluded there were others.

    Generally speaking, you're making things out to be harder than they are. A food scale is not hard to use. There's a tare button that zeroes anything on it, add food, record weight and add to log. However I suppose if ADF is really easy and pretty much auto pilot for you, not to mention some sort of guaranteed deficit, then rinse repeat for 6 months to a year and you should get the results you desire
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    I'm also doing every other day diet, except I count on my normal days to practice maintenance because that's one of the most important reasons I use this strategy. I weigh myself daily and the difference can be as much as 5 pounds from day to day. It's very possible to mask up to a month's loss if you happen to weigh in at different glycogen/sodium levels every week.

    @lemurcat12 You mentioned binging. For me personally I find myself extremely less likely to binge when I use this strategy. Probably has to do with being allowed almost everything in nicely sized portions which de-glamorises certain foods as special treats that need to be carefully worked into a calorie budget, making eating them in large quantities as if the world ends tomorrow not an attractive choice.

    OP, I strongly encourage you to weigh yourself every day and use an app that shows trend weight such as https://trendweight.com. I also encourage you to log your high calorie days because not learning what normal maintenance portions look like makes this approach yet another short-sighted temporary diet.
  • _Terrapin_
    _Terrapin_ Posts: 4,301 Member
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    mandy318 wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    mandy318 wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    vivmom2014 wrote: »
    The Krista Varady plan:

    But in the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll find only one rule: eat no more than 500 calories on Diet Day, eat anything you want and as much as you want on Feast Day, and alternate those two days. That’s it! No counting calories, carbs, fat or protein. No avoiding any particular food; all foods are allowed. There are no complex meal preparations and plans.

    In the Every-Other-Day Diet, you’ll unlock the secret to rapid and sustained weight loss and never endure every dieter’s nightmare: daily deprivation. Alternating between “Feast” days in which you eat whatever you want, and “Diet” day in which you eat 500 calories, you’ll lose: pounds, belly fat—and improve your health. Without giving up the foods you love.


    I don't understand how this diet would work. (?)

    I don't understand how, if you don't count calories, you know that you're only taking in 500 on your fast days, and how you know you aren't wiping out your deficit on the non fast days?

    Plus, and I know this is beside the point, what would a 500 calorie day look like? How could it include any exercise? It sounds like punishment.

    I agree completely.

    For my 500 calorie days I'm consuming water, black coffee or hot tea until around noon. I have a 100 or 150 calorie protein shake or smoothie for lunch. When I get home from work (6pm) I have a spinach salad with tuna, 2 tbs of hummus and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar (350-400 calories depending on the amount of tuna and hummus). Hot tea in between when I feel hungry.

    I haven't incorporated exercise. Yet. Unfortunately I probably won't until Feb, due to a job change to another city and my existing gym membership is geographically challenging now.

    So, over 90 days how many would be 500? And no, you don't need to weigh your food for weight loss. Have you attempted any other diets in the past?

    Well, half--45, as long as I stick with it.

    Well, if I had 1500 every other day I'd fail. I'd easily fail. If you aren't exercising maybe it would be doable. I was attempting 1500 once a week and it was tough. My average day is 2500-2800 depending on activity. Any other diets you've attempted since you've been on MFP?

  • neohdiver
    neohdiver Posts: 738 Member
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    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

    Using a food scale is helpful for many people, and essential for anyone who does not understand how to measure food accurately and/or is lousy at estimating.

    But I am not a fan of people insisting that doing it right requires a food scale. I have just lost 31 lbs. The first 27 were lost over a period of about 3 months with fewer than 6 items actually weighed. I have now switched to using a scale (obtained because it makes life simpler when I want to prepare a dish that will be eaten by many people and/or over a number of days). My rate of loss has not changed (around .3 lbs/day), and my measurements and/or estimates are spot on. I've checked them against the actual weights. As a specific example, my estimates of a variety of nut servings (28 - 31 grams) is off by no more than .5 grams. For the smallest serving of nuts (where being .5 gram off is the largest error), that is less than a 2% error. So no, doing it right does not require a scale, and I do know my calories are accurate.

    That said, in the past, I have lost at about the same rate without even counting calories - but that is a very different discussion.

  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    neohdiver wrote: »
    _Terrapin_ wrote: »
    I'm not a fan of people claiming they are doing it right and really aren't even weighing their food. No food scale =/= I am doing it right and know my calories are accurate.

    Using a food scale is helpful for many people, and essential for anyone who does not understand how to measure food accurately and/or is lousy at estimating.

    But I am not a fan of people insisting that doing it right requires a food scale. I have just lost 31 lbs. The first 27 were lost over a period of about 3 months with fewer than 6 items actually weighed. I have now switched to using a scale (obtained because it makes life simpler when I want to prepare a dish that will be eaten by many people and/or over a number of days). My rate of loss has not changed (around .3 lbs/day), and my measurements and/or estimates are spot on. I've checked them against the actual weights. As a specific example, my estimates of a variety of nut servings (28 - 31 grams) is off by no more than .5 grams. For the smallest serving of nuts (where being .5 gram off is the largest error), that is less than a 2% error. So no, doing it right does not require a scale, and I do know my calories are accurate.

    That said, in the past, I have lost at about the same rate without even counting calories - but that is a very different discussion.

    Who would look at someone successfully losing weight and tell them to get a food scale? The advice is usually given (repeatedly) to someone asking for help losing weight because whatever they've been doing has not worked over any appreciable period. PS: Two weeks is NOT