Every Other Day Diet

rhiawiz57

MyFitnessPal isn't really set up to handle this diet (low calories one day and high the next) but I'm doing it, it's working great for me, it's changing my relationship with food, it's the first ray of hope i've had in over 20 years, and I am seeking others doing this plan or a variant of it for encouragement, advice, successes, etc!

StaciMarie1974

I've seen posts about a 5/2 diet which is a similar idea. Some days eating very low, other days eating higher. Or look for calorie cycling.

ashliedelgado

Intermittent fasting is a variant that isn't very low then very high. Don't eat 16 hours a day, eat 8, something to that effect. I'm in the middle of experimenting with IF myself, and am encouraged by the results.

Be careful not to endorse VLCD, that's against community TOS.

How do you feel this is changing your relationship with food in a way that a modest calorie count every day cannot?And is this something that you feel you can do forever?

Chef_Barbell

I believe MFP premium allows you to adjust your calories by the day.

rhiawiz57

ashliedelgado wrote: »

Intermittent fasting is a variant that isn't very low then very high. Don't eat 16 hours a day, eat 8, something to that effect. I'm in the middle of experimenting with IF myself, and am encouraged by the results.

Be careful not to endorse VLCD, that's against community TOS.

How do you feel this is changing your relationship with food in a way that a modest calorie count every day cannot?And is this something that you feel you can do forever?

I tried IF 16/8, but I found that I was still not able to lose any weight. 16/8 was pretty much my normal pattern anyway so I just maintained my weight by doing this. I have heard that works for a LOT of people though, so that's awesome that you're encouraged!! I know a married couple doing IF and low carb and they're both dropping weight pretty well.

I've done IF, low carb, low fat, low sodium, paleo, vegetarian, South Beach, 1200 cal/day, but none of them worked for me longer than about a month or two tops. i know everyone's different but it has been extremely frustrating to do 1200/day (with food measuring and weighing!) and workout and not see the scale budge.

FOr the record, I'm NOT advocating very low cal diets (thanks for the caution there too, i appreciate it). i'm simply averaging my caloric intake over two days instead of one. My body/brain is responding to this much better than watching "every day".

My biggest issue is the diet/restrict then binge/free eat cycle where i'd lose and gain the same 30-40lbs over and over and over. The real shift for me has been that even though i'm watching my calories very carefully one day, TOMORROW i can have pizza! A happy hour margarita! I don't have to trudge through months and months of low calorie days looking forward to real food and a few libations (which then results in re-gaining the weight, because I don't know how to maintain a low weight very well, since the diets don't teach me that).

And, best yet, on my "free eating" days, where i can have what i want, i'm often choosing healthier food because it SOUNDS good to me. I don't want crap, precisely because i'm technically ALLOWED to have it! And, because of the lower cal days, I'm getting the benefit of a shrinking stomach capacity and i just can't binge and gorge as much as I could before.

I've been on it 3 weeks and I wish i could guarantee you that i'll be able to maintain it, but i feel SUPER hopeful, best i've felt in 20 years on any plan, and i feel a high degree of confidence that I will lose weight all year long on this plan!

rhiawiz57

ashliedelgado wrote: »

And is this something that you feel you can do forever?

Also, once you reach your goal, your lower calorie days increase by double the cals for "maintenance" so that makes it seem like yes, i can do it forever! I seriously want to!

staticsplit

I tend to do a bit lower during the week days and then higher on the weekends because social stuff/life. It doesn't fluctuate massively though. Like 1400-1800 during the week and maybe up to 2500-2800 max on weekends. I also let myself eat whatever as long as it fits in my macros, but make sure most of it's fairly nutritious.

Sassifrass76

Hey op, just wanted to lend my support and adf is what I have been doing as well. It is the only thing that I have found that works for ME. I have pcos and had tried everything under the sun from weight watchers, 1200 a day, intermittent fasting, low carb, low fat, all of it. Nothing else worked. There isn't a lot of support for it here, so I basically plug away at it alone. I do keep track of calories on both fast and feast days, if I didn't I would definitely go over on my feast days. I had an emotional eating problem and this way of eating has helped me to control that so much. My relationship with food is so much better. It definitely isn't for everyone, and it isn't easy, but if it works, it works. Everyone has to find their own path to health and no two paths are the same. I didn't count feast days in the beginning either, just to get the hang of it, but eventually it may become necessary to keep a downward trend. Search for "up day down day calculator" it will be there somewhere. Best wishes on your journey. Your biggest cheerleader is YOU.

rhiawiz57

Thanks, it sounds like our experiences are quite similar. I am still logging as well because I know that a 3000 cal day can undo the lower day efforts. It is nice to know that someone out there is doing this even though in this community, it's not very prevalent. Thank you so much for sharing, it brightened my day. I too have been an emotional eater for much of my life, although I was also in denial about that for most of that time. I used to say "I just love food" but that really wasn't answering the mail. We absolutely have to do what works for us individually, but I find it is good to know there are others out there doing the same plan. Have an awesome weekend.

ahoy_m8

Is there an "alternate day fasting " group on mfp? I know many commenters lost the bulk of their weight successfully that way. Try searching "adf". best to you, OP!

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I tried this once, except I didn't buy the book and I later realized I was doing it wrong because of some of those details. It was at a time when I was in a true plateau (i.e. I was actually eating at a deficit and not losing weight). I was so frustrated and was about to give up because I have a really big appetite. I was willing to accept that I was going to feel like I'm starving all the time as long as I was still losing at least some amount of weight. When that stopped, I was not willing to feel hangry constantly. The compromise was to do this so I would be hangry every other day and I would be satisfied with food on the feast days because I had no restrictions and could actually satisfy my enormous appetite.

After 2 months of a plateau, I chose this over giving up on weight loss entirely. But my misunderstanding was that I was supposed to eat 500 calories on fast days and as much as I wanted on feast days. Later, I realized that men are supposed to eat 600 calories on fast days and it looks like the intent is to eat at maintenance on feast days. Anyway, I would eat 500 calories every other day and around 10K calories on the feast days. After 6 weeks of doing this and not losing or gaining any weight (because I was in a true plateau, I wasn't going to gain weight despite eating at a big surplus), I returned to a small daily deficit and considered that the lack of gains confirms I'm in a real plateau.

During the 6 weeks I spent doing this diet, day-to-day fluctuations increased despite no true overall change. Typically, you know how your weight goes up or down 2-3 lbs. from one day to the next? Sometimes increases, sometimes decreases... but over several weeks, it should decrease if you are in a deficit. While doing this diet, the scale hovered around the same number, but fluctuations went as high as 9 lbs. Rather than staying within a 3 lb. range, the range became larger. The base number remained the same, but the high and low end from day to day increased.

After quitting this diet and returning to a normal daily deficit, I spent another 2 months in a plateau before finally experiencing a permanent loss of around 7-9 lbs. in less than 1 week.

rouhnaz

I definitely know about this method and have tried to do it a few times! Personally it was so good sounding in theory, but in practice I couldn't stay consistent. Always wanted to make it work, but somehow I would find an excuse to break plan and try something different or "start tomorrow."

So it's back to a boring old regular daily calorie deficit for me. I do, however, try to fast well into the day. I do that because of health benefits and because it allows for a larger meal in one or two sittings rather than frequent small meals.

Good luck to you, though! If it's working out, that's cool. Krista Varady (author of the book on EOD) said it's usually about finding something that you can stick to in the long run. I've watched a few of her interviews and read her book. She's all about seeing ppl do something they can live with down the line.

jelleigh

Hey OP. I've been doing 5:2 for a bit but have been conaidering switching over to ADF like you are talking about. Im like you - it's so much easier for me to stay strict for a day, knowing that tomorrow I can have that treat (within reason of course - I'm still eating at or slightly under maintenance on my "feed" days). Learning to look at my weekly nutritional goal instead of daily has really helped me put food more into perspective and to eat in a more balanced way. Because of being more mindfull, I think it will be easy to maintain once I hit my goal. Best of luck to you!

TimothyFish

I suppose you could say I'm on the high calories every day diet. I burn about 1,000 calories per day riding a bicycle to make up for it.

crb426

So do you still count your calories on your off days? Or is it a free for all? I'd worry about undoing your hard work from the day before.

rhiawiz57

crb426 wrote: »

So do you still count your calories on your off days? Or is it a free for all? I'd worry about undoing your hard work from the day before.

Yes, I use myfitnesspal every day. What I have ended up doing so far is eating really light most of the day on my free days, and then having one indulgent meal if I choose. I definitely don't pig out all day- i start with a sandwich on sprouted grain bread or high fiber cereal for meal 1. I find myself craving healthful foods anyway even on my free days. This isn't anything I'm forcing. I am listening to what my body wants. I havent been craving stuff like donuts, but I had a half a slice of birthday cake yesterday and I actually didn't even want to finish it because it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. I did have a milkshake, burger and fries on Thursday evening though (and it was delicious, but I only had cereal, an apple, and 10 almonds earlier that day). I am not going unlimited with cals that's for sure. That wouldn't work to lose weight as a poster above shared!

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rhiawiz57

Some people do fast on those days, but per the Every Other Day diet book, I'm just low calorie every other day.

jenbeck18

I do that, I have wed and saturday as my high calorie and the rest are low calorie(about 900 calories). The two high calorie days usually are a high calorie dinner.

rhiawiz57

jenbeck18 wrote: »

I do that, I have wed and saturday as my high calorie and the rest are low calorie(about 900 calories). The two high calorie days usually are a high calorie dinner.

How long have you been doing this? Has it been successful for you ? Thanks for sharing.

rhiawiz57

jelleigh wrote: »

Hey OP. I've been doing 5:2 for a bit but have been conaidering switching over to ADF like you are talking about. Im like you - it's so much easier for me to stay strict for a day, knowing that tomorrow I can have that treat (within reason of course - I'm still eating at or slightly under maintenance on my "feed" days). Learning to look at my weekly nutritional goal instead of daily has really helped me put food more into perspective and to eat in a more balanced way. Because of being more mindful, I think it will be easy to maintain once I hit my goal. Best of luck to you!

That's awesome, and I agree, having the weekly perspective really helps me to understand my calorie budget better, daily is just too daunting for me. Would you switch to every other day because 5/2 isn't getting you the results you're after? I know people who do 5/2 to maintain (two of them are food critics so it's easy to imagine that a regular daily low calorie diet wouldn't work for them!), and they don't really lose much weight, but they don't gain.

davisfun5

Just started this eating plan August 1. The one side affect I love is how much energy I have on the fast day and becoming aware of how sluggish some of my eating makes me on feast day. Down 10 pounds.