switching to a new diet every 5 days? - anyone done this?
barbarajaneuk
Posts: 19 Member
I am embarking on a regime where I follow a known diet for 5 days, then switch to a completely new one! I am right at the beginning of my journey and started with the 5:2 diet (3:2 in my case!) on Friday I am switching to the Good Food's website healthy diet plan and then 5 days later I am switching to another one yet again.. I am hoping to do most of well known ones like Atkins, the Raw diet, Keto diet, Dukan etc... my aim is to do 16 diets over 80 days. I am hoping it will beat the boredom of the same type of food over and over and keep me motivated looking forward to the next one! Anyone ever done this.. I know a man did 10 diets in 50 days and lost over 30lbs so hoping for the same success!
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Replies
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Interesting. Log your food accurately, open your diary, and, just maybe, become legend.13
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Why not just eat a variety of stuff? Those diets only work so long as they help you stay in a deficit. Are you going to eat this way long term?6
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I've pretty much done this over the past ten years. I still weigh 250 pounds.
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MichelleSilverleaf wrote: »Why not just eat a variety of stuff? Those diets only work so long as they help you stay in a deficit. Are you going to eat this way long term?
I have followed a low fat diet before and got bored and at times it didn't fit in with my lifestyle, I figure this way I can pick a diet that fits in with my life that week and roll with it. I also have a fitbit and can keep an eye on calories burned v food eaten and hopefully I will stay in deficit. Long term, I hope as I go through the plans, I will find a couple that will be a good maintenance diet too and I can keep juggling these around accordingly. It is a bit of an experiment and nothing to lose in trying the different ones and the one and only person I know who has done this it was quite successful (he wrote a book about it too!)2 -
That sounds exhausting.17
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Fatty_Nuff wrote: »I've pretty much done this over the past ten years. Still weigh 250 pounds.
Aww.. sorry to hear that.. I am going to try and monitor if I stay in deficit too and also getting regular exercise in too.. only 80 days in my case to trial this and see if it works for me x0 -
I just want to point out that the 5 days of keto might not get you into ketosis. How about you arrange it so that one of the lesser carb diets is immediately preceding the keto diet?12
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »I just want to point out that the 5 days of keto might not get you into ketosis. How about you arrange it so that one of the lesser carb diets is immediately preceding the keto diet?
For most people, neither does 100 days. Actually getting into true ketosis is very difficult. Besides needing to stay incredibly low carb, you pretty much need to adjust protein every single day based explicitly on that day's activities.
https://www.popsci.com/not-in-ketosis
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I change my diet every day practically, as long as it is with in my calories.20
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Why do you feel like you need to be following some named diet?8
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JeromeBarry1 wrote: »I just want to point out that the 5 days of keto might not get you into ketosis. How about you arrange it so that one of the lesser carb diets is immediately precedingJeromeBarry1 wrote: »I just want to point out that the 5 days of keto might not get you into ketosis. How about you arrange it so that one of the lesser carb diets is immediately preceding the keto diet?
Thanks, I might have to look at that.. I have never done a low carb diet so that one will be an interesting one for me.. and as it's a bit of an experiment if I don't lose anything in the 5 days no worries and move onto the next one0 -
barbarajaneuk wrote: »I am embarking on a regime where I follow a known diet for 5 days, then switch to a completely new one! I am right at the beginning of my journey and started with the 5:2 diet (3:2 in my case!) on Friday I am switching to the Good Food's website healthy diet plan and then 5 days later I am switching to another one yet again.. I am hoping to do most of well known ones like Atkins, the Raw diet, Keto diet, Dukan etc... my aim is to do 16 diets over 80 days. I am hoping it will beat the boredom of the same type of food over and over and keep me motivated looking forward to the next one! Anyone ever done this.. I know a man did 10 diets in 50 days and lost over 30lbs so hoping for the same success!
Or you could just cook a wide variety of foods and stay in a calorie deficit. Probably less exhausting (or at the very least, less complicated logistically) while also be effective and interesting. I know when I get bored of having eating similar types of food (sometimes I'll get in a rut) I'll quickly think over what geographic areas I haven't had food from and go from there. So say I've been making a lot of Japanese food and it's getting old, I'll make Cuban food the next week.
Also 30lbs to lose over the course of 50 days is an unhealthy rate of weight loss so I'd nix that goal of over 4lbs a week.11 -
JessAndreia wrote: »Why do you feel like you need to be following some named diet?
Because it's interesting... It will keep me motivated as let's face it.. Plain calorie counting can get boring after a while and doesn't always fit in with life in general...and I am curious to try them all as you read so much about them in the media. I also want to see if I like a particular one more than others and if I absolutely hate it then it's only 5 days and I can persevere anything for 5 days. If I lose a bit of weight along the way then all is good, If I don't then all i have lost is a few weeks..9 -
barbarajaneuk wrote: »JessAndreia wrote: »Why do you feel like you need to be following some named diet?
Because it's interesting... It will keep me motivated as let's face it.. Plain calorie counting can get boring after a while and doesn't always fit in with life in general...and I am curious to try them all as you read so much about them in the media. I also want to see if I like a particular one more than others and if I absolutely hate it then it's only 5 days and I can persevere anything for 5 days. If I lose a bit of weight along the way then all is good, If I don't then all i have lost is a few weeks..
I don't see how switching diets every 5 days is any easier to fit in with life than calorie counting. Quite the opposite, in fact. This just sounds difficult and overly complicated.17 -
barbarajaneuk wrote: »I am embarking on a regime where I follow a known diet for 5 days, then switch to a completely new one! I am right at the beginning of my journey and started with the 5:2 diet (3:2 in my case!) on Friday I am switching to the Good Food's website healthy diet plan and then 5 days later I am switching to another one yet again.. I am hoping to do most of well known ones like Atkins, the Raw diet, Keto diet, Dukan etc... my aim is to do 16 diets over 80 days. I am hoping it will beat the boredom of the same type of food over and over and keep me motivated looking forward to the next one! Anyone ever done this.. I know a man did 10 diets in 50 days and lost over 30lbs so hoping for the same success!
Or you could just cook a wide variety of foods and stay in a calorie deficit. Probably less exhausting (or at the very least, less complicated logistically) while also be effective and interesting. I know when I get bored of having eating similar types of food (sometimes I'll get in a rut) I'll quickly think over what geographic areas I haven't had food from and go from there. So say I've been making a lot of Japanese food and it's getting old, I'll make Cuban food the next week.
Also 30lbs to lose over the course of 50 days is an unhealthy rate of weight loss so I'd nix that goal of over 4lbs a week.
Don't get me wrong, I know cal counting works as do other diets..I lost over 48lbs a few years ago and kept a good chunk of it off doing a diet by slimming world where there is no calorie counting. I am not aiming to lose that amount and he was a large male who lost a lot initially then settled down to a more regular loss with each diet. I am a good cook and do recipes from all over the world, but sometimes I don't want to cook and plan, I just want to follow a set diet and that is where named ones come in.. like I said it's only a few weeks out my life so hardly going to impact me in the long term..1 -
I don't think 5 days is long enough to tell if a diet would work for you long term, and if your carb level is going up and down, you're going to see some pretty scary water weight swings too, so you'll never really know what to attribute your results to.
If it sounds like fun for you, I guess it will be interesting at least! But eventually you need to figure out how to eat and be active at the right calorie level for the rest of your life, or else you'll always be "on a diet". Have fun, but no, I've never thought of doing that, it would make me miserable. I just ate the foods I liked and logged consistently, but I'm a data geek so that helped. Good luck!22 -
I don't think 5 days is long enough to tell if a diet would work for you long term, and if your carb level is going up and down, you're going to see some pretty scary water weight swings too, so you'll never really know what to attribute your results to.
If it sounds like fun for you, I guess it will be interesting at least! But eventually you need to figure out how to eat and be active at the right calorie level for the rest of your life, or else you'll always be "on a diet". Have fun, but no, I've never thought of doing that, it would make me miserable. I just ate the foods I liked and logged consistently, but I'm a data geek so that helped. Good luck!
I am aiming to be in cal deficit with most of them, will be using fitbit to monitor activity (smashing my goals at the min!) and I know I will get swings.. so will weigh daily anyway to see how this pans out. It's the geek in me wanting to try them all and do a bit of sn experiment, as I said previously, I lost 48lbs and maintained most of that for a few years now. Calorie counting doesn't always work for a lot of people (plenty of posts on here how they fell have off the wagon!) They lose motivation, they can't be bothered with all the weighing and keeping track... so maybe what I am doing will be right for some... who knows..5 -
You might need to spend more than 5 days on each diet to truly see the effect of each of them. INteresting experiment, sounds exhausting but good on you for trying.
Maybe 15 days on each would be more realistic? In terms of all the fluctuations and stuff as others above have posted?
And I also don't get how choosing a different diet every 5 days is easier than counting calories and eating whatever you want within your caloric budget.
Keep us updated tho, I'm curious to see how you go! Good luck!
oh - and do you count weekends or are those "free"?2 -
OP, just based on some of the themes you keep repeating in this thread, check out these posts when you get a chance. Maybe they'll help you decide how to move forward once your experiment is over :drinker:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/818701/the-myth-of-motivation-and-what-you-need-instead/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10636388/free-customized-personal-weight-loss-eating-plan-not-spam-or-mlm/p113 -
Know what works.... Eating within your calorie goal and exercising.
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I could see some problems there if your digestive system is a bit sensitive. Do 5 days of keto and deal with keto flu. 5 days of high fibre diet, and having problems going to the loo. Body gets used to it. Switch to carnivore and eat no fibre again, body is expecting fibre and is ready for it....13
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Sounds expensive. I foresee a lot of food wastage.8
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barbarajaneuk wrote: »JessAndreia wrote: »Why do you feel like you need to be following some named diet?
Because it's interesting... It will keep me motivated as let's face it.. Plain calorie counting can get boring after a while and doesn't always fit in with life in general...and I am curious to try them all as you read so much about them in the media. I also want to see if I like a particular one more than others and if I absolutely hate it then it's only 5 days and I can persevere anything for 5 days. If I lose a bit of weight along the way then all is good, If I don't then all i have lost is a few weeks..
can you explain in what situation calorie counting doesn't fit into 'life in general'?9 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »You might need to spend more than 5 days on each diet to truly see the effect of each of them. INteresting experiment, sounds exhausting but good on you for trying.
Maybe 15 days on each would be more realistic? In terms of all the fluctuations and stuff as others above have posted?
This was my thought too. Honestly, I think you'd really need at least 4-6 weeks on each, but certainly 2 at least. Many ways of eating take a while to figure out, and changing food dramatically can need to be worked in more gradually too.
Here's a podcast with a couple of nutrition experts doing n=1 experiments with some popular diets like keto, paleo, DASH, but they are doing 4 weeks on each: https://www.thenutritionwonk.com/single-post/2018/10/24/Introducing-N1-A-New-Nutrition-and-Diet-Podcast
It's interesting, although the episodes come out slowly because of how long each takes. They've done keto and the intro to the DASH experiment.And I also don't get how choosing a different diet every 5 days is easier than counting calories and eating whatever you want within your caloric budget.
I think some people consider themselves limited in what they can eat when calorie counting. I think it could be fun (if you have the time, I couldn't, but also getting bored with food isn't my problem) to do one week trying a bunch of Italian recipes, one week trying a bunch of Indian recipes, etc., and making them fit your calories. Or maybe trying different eating schedules or patterns, if one did not automatically appeal. I think the shorter time would fit those experiments.6 -
concordancia wrote: »That sounds exhausting.
And expensive!6 -
Best of luck.
personally i don't do any "diets". i eat a variety of foods i like in moderation. i keep snacks and desserts daily (need my chocolate) cuz that works for me and keeps me happy. Sure some foods i avoid as they are "triggering" and i have a hard time moderating portions but I am working on those skills here and there as well. and they are specific foods not food categories or macros
i don't eat low carb. i don't eat low fat. i don't fast (or IF).
my diet has no name and is one i will need to maintain my entire life (just adding a few extra calories daily to move from weight loss to maintenance).12 -
You know that the whole 5:2 diet is a 7-day system right? As in, 5 days at maintenance calorie level and 2 days fasting. If you only do 5 days, you're not doing 5:2.6
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Instead of using "diets" to narrow your food choices how about every 5 days you pick a different country and make recipes from there. This way you get that something new every 5 days so you don't get bored and you also get to expand your horizons at the same time.13
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Okay so your plan is to make dieting really novel and exciting.
What exactly is your plan for maintenance seeing as it's basically fewer calories forever?6
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