Interval weight loss

vespagal

Has anyone tried this diet? Written by Dr Fuller.

Nony_Mouse

Presumably the book gives far more description on what and how much to eat. Hard to say much about it without more information, but it's just another way of creating a calorie deficit, with the added benefit of regular maintenance periods, which will help mitigate adaptive thermogenesis (basically, various hormones get whacky when we diet, because our body perceives it as a food shortage and wants to keep us alive as long as possible, regular diet breaks reset those hormones). Regular maintenance periods are also good practice for when one gets to their ideal weight, if you know how to eat to maintain before you get to your desired weight, your chances may be better at keeping the lost weight off. The stuff about set point/settling point weight has a lot of debate around it. There's no agreement that it's actually a thing, but if it is, pausing at a new lower weight every now and then would give the body time to adjust.

Cons: month on/month off is going to take a blimin' long time, especially for someone with a lot of weight to lose. Most people are just too impatient to do something like this. I only have 2 kg to lose, and even I wouldn't want to do month on/month off.

But, you can do this yourself without buying the book. Just eat at a deficit for a period, then at maintenance for a period. Rinse and repeat until desired weight is reached. I actually do something kinda sorta vaguely similar, in that I now incorporate diet breaks and refeed weekends into my plan (six weeks on, two week diet break, every weekend at maintenance with high carbs). There's a whole thread about that here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks#latest. Don't worry about the video in the first post at this stage, there's lots of explanation of the refeed concept in the thread, and diet break comes before refeeds anyway (refeeds are more a technique for those already at a healthy weight losing the last bit).

Nony_Mouse

Okay, found this: https://www.penguin.com.au/articles/1714-five-meals-a-day

Yeah, nah. Way too many rules for me!

amusedmonkey

If you thrive on structure, and this particular structure makes dieting easier for you, then go for it. It wouldn't work for me (too many rules, nuts are very risky to my calories to have around, eating unlimited fruits and vegetables will mean overeating). Try it and see how it helps you regulate your calories. The good news is, it's not better nor worse than any other dietary approach. You can bin it all together, or change the parts you don't like.

livingleanlivingclean

I think I would get super frustrated with such slow weight loss. I am all for diet breaks (definitely read the thread @Nony_Mouse linked), but I don't think doing that every 2 weeks is necessary.