Every Other Day Diet--anyone else on this diet?

sheilaq14

I started in January, still going strong! I have lost nearly 40 lbs and it feels like something I can do a version of forever. I know meal timing is not supposed to matter, but I find I lose best when I wait to eat until dinner on my fast days. Have u checked out the forum over on lowcarbfriends for JUDDD? I am not low carb, but it's a great group of ladies who have had much success with EOD. Good luck!

fluffyasacat

I started in January, still going strong! I have lost nearly 40 lbs and it feels like something I can do a version of forever. I know meal timing is not supposed to matter, but I find I lose best when I wait to eat until dinner on my fast days. Have u checked out the forum over on lowcarbfriends for JUDDD? I am not low carb, but it's a great group of ladies who have had much success with EOD. Good luck!

That's brilliant weight loss, sheilaq14! You must be so proud of yourself! Thanks for the tip about lowcarbfriends - I'll seek it out.

ndoty_sa

"I have heard of it but it doesnt seem like a healthy management plan. For example I did cardio today and also a lot of movement with the dog grandkids etc. So accorfing to MFP and Fitbit I burned 680 odd calories over my BMR which if I ate only 500 calories then I would be -183 calories. So where do you get the energy to exercise or even exist?"


"From your fat stores, that is the point of a weight loss diet - to make you use up some of your reserves."

^^ This was my favorite exchange of this whole thread! And for the record, I used EOD but without any calories at all on fast days, and then Warrior Diet window on Feast days. And don't worry, I can put down some serious cals in a short window.

ndoty_sa

Sorry, I "use", not "used"; I currently utilize EOD.

vmmbrown

In my many years of Yo-yo dieting, something I am not proud of, I have found that when I "diet" I think about food constantly and that is what gets me in trouble.

I started doing the 16:8 fast and It was great, I didn't think about food and I enjoyed the extra time saved from not having to make breakfast in the morning. But weight loss was a little slow. I did more searching and found 5:2 which lead me to read Dr. Varady's work.

Ten years of study and still studying, on human subjects, not mice, not theory, human studies. And not just any humans, obese humans, people like me. Her findings and her research led me to give it a go. So far I am liking it, though I admit that the first few feed days I did over eat by a lot, I still lost a little bit. As the time progressed my feast days became less feast like.

I don't think it is unhealthy or unnatural, (and ten years of studies saying it is safe). I sometimes wonder if the "norm" of eating constantly is natural. I certainly don't feel normal when I am constantly fussing, worrying and thinking about food. I find the every other day diet way of eating is incredibly freeing.

amusedmonkey

Actually, I think that every other day diet has better adherence than 5:2, for me at least. I tend to try almost every diet I hear about, well, because I'm a curious person. From my personal observations, I get complacent if I have consecutive feast days. Getting back to fasting the first time is okay, but then I tend to just add feast days until I'm barely losing anything and the whole structure of 5:2 falls apart. With the every other day diet there is a clear every day structure, making it easier than 5:2. It's counterintuitive to feel more restriction is easier than less restriction. I was surprised myself! With 5:2 I feel like "oh great.. tomorrow is a fast day.. I hate that.." with the every other day diet the structure make my line of thinking more along the lines of "I can eat whatever I want tomorrow, cool!".

The simple structure of it leads to a more positive way of thinking, and since being on a diet is 80% a mental process I find it to be much more successful (not to mention the greater loss is quite motivating).

What I like most about her work is that she approaches the subject like a scientist, not like a salesman. No outrageous claims, no bro science, not magic bullet, not conspiracy theories or "what they don't want you to know". Just pure facts and simplicity. For example, I saw how in one of her interviews she was asked why she chose 1 meal per day rather than splitting the 500 calories across the day, and you don't hear some cool story about cavemen, or magical claims of life prolonging properties that will cure cancer and save you from every chronic illness on earth or any of the usual flashy "big reveals" you tend to see in diet books. Her answer was simple: "we found that having one big meal tends to lead to better adherence than several small ones. Interestingly, the 1 meal group also had better glucose control. We also found that a meal in the middle of the day had better adherence than a morning or an evening meal."

angela233Z

I am doing 5:2 and love it. It is the first diet that I do not feel constantly deprived. I eat 500 calories twice a week and close to my TDEE on other 5 days. Once I have lost the weight, I plan to eat TDEE everyday as that should maintain.

amusedmonkey - thanks for your input on EOD, have you ever done 4:3? I am interested in that only because I could do same 3 every week.

good luck to anybody trying it.

amusedmonkey

I am doing 5:2 and love it. It is the first diet that I do not feel constantly deprived. I eat 500 calories twice a week and close to my TDEE on other 5 days. Once I have lost the weight, I plan to eat TDEE everyday as that should maintain.

amusedmonkey - thanks for your input on EOD, have you ever done 4:3? I am interested in that only because I could do same 3 every week.

good luck to anybody trying it.

I haven't, but I imagine it would be quite similar to every other day with only struggling to get back on track once a week. Having a free weekend and starting over on weekdays may actually give that structure that I was missing in 5:2 because you always know you should be starting the week with a fast and no time to get complacent on weekdays. Actually, I may try it and see how it works for me. Thanks for the suggestion.

F00LofaT00K

I guess you have to read her book to understand what I'm talking about.

I appreciate all your feedback and thank you for your input.

I have been researching this subject for a couple of months now, and I was kind of looking for someone who was familiar with Dr. V's EOD so we could do it together.

I won't go into all my reasons for preferring this diet over eating 1500 calories a day--except for this one: with the EOD, I am not hungry all the time, whereas if I try to eat a restricted calorie diet every day, I feel like I'm starving and I usually go off the diet.

Thanks again everyone, and hope the best for you all!

We definitely understand what you're talking about without having to read the book. Previous posters just tried to explain that if you're not in a caloric deficit overall, on average, then you still won't lose weight. If I eat 10,000 calories on my feast days and only 500 on my fast days, I will be eating well over 30,000 calories per week. If I eat above 15,400 on a weekly average, I will gain weight.

So this method may work for you and, yes, the science behind CAN be completely sound if one is still in an average deficit, but this may not work for everybody. I am glad that you found something that is giving you results. Good job! If you're weight loss stalls at some point, consider setting a maximum caloric intake on those days and keep on losing until you reach your goal!

fluffyasacat

We definitely understand what you're talking about without having to read the book. Previous posters just tried to explain that if you're not in a caloric deficit overall, on average, then you still won't lose weight. If I eat 10,000 calories on my feast days and only 500 on my fast days, I will be eating well over 30,000 calories per week. If I eat above 15,400 on a weekly average, I will gain weight.

To be blunt, duh. No one is going to eat 10,000 calories on a feast day, or expect to lose weight if they do. This has been the one tired argument constantly made by people NOT on the diet who have no idea how feast day eating is limited by common sense, a shrunken stomach AND the diet guidelines... IN THE BOOK!

amusedmonkey

We definitely understand what you're talking about without having to read the book. Previous posters just tried to explain that if you're not in a caloric deficit overall, on average, then you still won't lose weight. If I eat 10,000 calories on my feast days and only 500 on my fast days, I will be eating well over 30,000 calories per week. If I eat above 15,400 on a weekly average, I will gain weight.

To be blunt, duh. No one is going to eat 10,000 calories on a feast day, or expect to lose weight if they do. This has been the one tired argument constantly made by people NOT on the diet who have no idea how feast day eating is limited by common sense, a shrunken stomach AND the diet guidelines... IN THE BOOK!

I totally agree. On feast days I eat all my heart desires, within reason. I don't track calories as I eat them, I just keep a note of them on the side. In the evening when I log everything I usually come in at around 1800-2500

fluffyasacat

I totally agree. On feast days I eat all my heart desires, within reason. I don't track calories as I eat them, I just keep a note of them on the side. In the evening when I log everything I usually come in at around 1800-2500

I've been logging everything because I've only been on the diet for 4 weeks, but more out of interest in seeing how my macros break down than for any fear of going overboard. I average 2000 on my feast days. Have you lost the whole 41kg on EOD? such an amazing outcome!

amusedmonkey

I totally agree. On feast days I eat all my heart desires, within reason. I don't track calories as I eat them, I just keep a note of them on the side. In the evening when I log everything I usually come in at around 1800-2500

I've been logging everything because I've only been on the diet for 4 weeks, but more out of interest in seeing how my macros break down than for any fear of going overboard. I average 2000 on my feast days. Have you lost the whole 41kg on EOD? such an amazing outcome!

No, I haven't lost it all on this diet. I'm an easily bored person so I switch around my approach ever so often. Most of the time I just eat within a range (800-maintenance) depending on the kinds of food I feel like having that day, but the progress can be slow since at times I spend weeks in maintenance, especially when my mother gets the baking bug. I resort to EOD or other strict approaches when I'm close to a certain personal milestone and want a quick rush to reach it, then I usually revert to just eating whatever I want. Sometimes I just randomly get curious about a certain diet and try it out for a couple of weeks.

The main key to losing for me was to take the easiest route at all times and not to stress myself too much about overeating/undereating or even macros. I have a problem hitting my ideal protein and that made me into a nervous wreck trying to gulp down things I didn't like just to hit it, then I decided to go for a very reasonable and easy to hit target (a minimum of 50 grams per day) even though it's quite low. Losing a bit of muscle is fine for me if it keeps me from quitting all together because of fussing too much.

That said, EOD diet works like a charm for me when I decide to go on it.

fluffyasacat

I think that makes perfect sense and I think that trying new things is a great strategy for alleviating monotony as well as just being able to sample different things as experiments. There's no "fail" when it's all about "try it and see what happens". Not to mention avoiding the dreaded plateau from sticking doggedly with the same strategy for months/years.

I think of EOD as a bit like interval training. You run hard, then walk, then run hard again. If I ran all the time, I'd eventually burn out.

Fit_Chef_NE

It works exactly the way any other diet works. Calories in are less than calories out. It isn't a magic bullet. Great if it works for you, but any "science" that says it works better than other diets is bogus. This woman is just taking your money and telling you things you could look up on the internet for free. If you spend a dime on learning how to diet, you are being taken for a fool.

There is no "easy" way to lose weight. :laugh:

angela233Z

I think of EOD as a bit like interval training. You run hard, then walk, then run hard again. If I ran all the time, I'd eventually burn out.

Perfect analogy!!!

amusedmonkey

It works exactly the way any other diet works. Calories in are less than calories out. It isn't a magic bullet. Great if it works for you, but any "science" that says it works better than other diets is bogus. This woman is just taking your money and telling you things you could look up on the internet for free. If you spend a dime on learning how to diet, you are being taken for a fool.

There is no "easy" way to lose weight. :laugh:

What you're saying is actually true. It's all about calories and there is no easy way to lose weight (although there an easiest and smartest way for each individual). The author does not make any of the above claims. The science is legit and published specifically for this diet. It's actually the only diet book that I didn't groan while reading. No outrageous claims, not magic promises, no claims that it's better than other diets, just an approach to regulate calories in a way where it is possible to eat respectable quantities of the high calorie foods you like, with strategies and fun studies thrown in.

I actually bought the book knowing exactly how the diet works without it. I bought it for the fun of reading. I was curious to see what is this book that, for once, does not push some "what they won't tell you" agenda. I did not need to learn how to diet, as you can see from my tracker I already know how to, but where is the fun in not being curious and hungry for knowledge or plain good reading time?

WalkingAlong

I'd like to read it but my digital library only had the Johnson one (Alternate Day Diet) so I'll read that one instead. I've always wanted to try it but have been hesitant. I'm ripe for a new plan, though.

WalkingAlong

This woman is just taking your money and telling you things you could look up on the internet for free. If you spend a dime on learning how to diet, you are being taken for a fool. ...

Education is the best money spent, if you ask me. And a book is about the cost of one fast food meal.

I wish more people would read diet books. It'd help them spot the obvious diet myths all over the internet, including here.

If we were talking about fat burner pills, I'd agree.

fluffyasacat

It works exactly the way any other diet works. Calories in are less than calories out. It isn't a magic bullet. Great if it works for you, but any "science" that says it works better than other diets is bogus. This woman is just taking your money and telling you things you could look up on the internet for free. If you spend a dime on learning how to diet, you are being taken for a fool.

There is no "easy" way to lose weight. :laugh:

There's a lot of failure in that people regain weight they've worked hard to lose. I'm interested in why that happens and anyone who does 10 years of actual scientific research rather than bogus sensationalism and quick fix solutions has my attention. So don't call me a fool - I am supporting research and expanding my understanding of how my body works and my total outlay has been $19.95.

SMDH at the poor comprehension of a person who thinks "CALORIES IN CALORIES OUT" is news to anyone on EOD, clearly adhering to this basic principle and losing weight.