has anyone tried...

barbsus1991

yeah so has anyone tried the up day down day diet? i only just heard about it and am very tempted to use it to get over the plateau i've hit..you basically eat 25% of your daily allowance on a down day and the next day is the up day which you can eat your full daily allowance- so in my case a down day is 400cal and up day 2000cal.. its supposed to keep your metabolism on its toes so it doesnt slow down, and you dont go into starvation mood because that takes a few days and on this you are only under eating one day at a time.. opinions?

Blueeyes1117

Sounds very interesting but also seems like it would be extremely hard to do on your down days. 400 calories is a very very low amount i dont know how healthy that would be for your body but im also one to say if you feel its what you want to do you have my support. Good luck if you decide to if you feel like you just cant do it dont push yourself.

OLP76

Never heard of it - until you posted it. I would like to see what others say...

polo571

Your down day is 400 cals? Thats starvation mode at its best. What are your goal cals per day?

Gogo76

Sounds a little bit like short term fasting...which I have heard yields great results. I read that you take one day a week or every two weeks and only drink fruit juices, water, or tea. The rest of the week you just eat healthy with a normal days worth of calories.

peggybrant

this explains it but I'm not sure if I would do it.

http://www.johnsonupdaydowndaydiet.com/html/how-to-do-the-diet.html

barbsus1991

well, if you search it online there is a calculator on the official website you put in your height and weight etc and it tells you how many cals you should have on your up and on your down days. ive read some reviews and the only negative thing i have come across is that it is hard to do for the first 2 weeks but then it gets easier! also, make sure you drink plenty of water on both days and exercise mostly on your up days. other than that all the reviews ive read are that it is good for weight loss, and once youve lost the desired weight you can increase the down day to 60% to maintain the weight you have reached..

i started out today, so ive had 400 cals in total and i admit i am STARVING, but its not as hard as i thought because if i fancy something i just think well its ok i can have it tomorrow.. on a general diet you cant think that you have to wait a week or so to have a treat. on this you can eat the foods you like- within moderation- every other day. im going to give it a try for a week and see what happens, i think if i can continue to get through the bad days then it might really work for me. i either eat too few calories, or too many, if i can alternate days and its stops my body going into starvation mode and therefore lowering my metabolic rate then i really think its worth a shot!

sbwood888

Ugh! Sounds hard on the down days. I dont think I could do it.

shadowofnature

This sounds really interesting! I think the hardest thing for most people with this would naturally be the down days and not because it's low cal but because once you eat a little, you tend to want more and that could lead to binging. As long as you were eating the proper foods on the 400 calorie days it sounds pretty good. I'd be curious in knowing if you do this and how it goes!

barbsus1991

yeah i would think the down days would be hard, but apparently what most people find hard is trying not to binge on the up days.. which is understandable! after having a down day today tomorrow is my first up day, so for the first time in months i might actually be able to eat foods i like without a dreaded feeling of guilt or going over my calorie goal! must try not to binge though. il let you all know how it goes when i weigh in next tuesday!

mkrafick

I zig-zag diet at the suggestion of my trainer - I have a goal of 1770cal a day, so I will eat 1400/1500 one day, 2000 the next, 1700 the following day. I always change it up but try to take in more calories on workout days. Coupled with eating 5-6x a day it really keeps my metabolism up and keeps my body confused. I have been happy with it so far. if you only confuse your body by a smaller percentage (say 200-300cal drop) you don't want to binge on the up days.

If you drop too low though, your body will go into starvation mode and hold on to everything after that so don't drop by too much.

The part i struggled with is weighing daily - I would watch myself go up some on high calorie days, drop slower on lower calorie days, but I saw over a period of 7 days I would be dropping as whole.

I reccomend it, but not to the extreme 400cal days.

edorice

The 400 calories total sounds wrong. I have heard of zig zagging your calories with a DIFFERENCE of 400 calories per day. 1200, 1600, 1400, 2200, 1200, 1600, and then 1400. I don't do the zig zag dieting, but I have read that people do it to get out of a plateau.

barbsus1991

ok so first down day went fine, first up day went fine, down day number 2 not so good... totally binged out. i think, if you dont mind beingin a foul mood every other day then its fine! xD i didnt have a problem with the hunger pangs at all, i quite like hunger pangs, but my mood has been atrocious, spent a third of the day crying, a third of it fighting cravings and the last third stuffing my face!

i have a one year old son who i stay at home with and it got to a point today where we were both in tears because i couldnt look after her properly because of my mood- i was being impatient and getting angry way to easily, neither of which were fair on him! as soon as i ate some proper food i felt ten times better- but then couldnt stop myself from going over the top and now i feel terrible again! so from my 3 day experience all i can say is it doesnt work for me at this time, if i didnt have my son i could cope with the bad mood, but i think its unfair on him to have to put up with a grumpy mummy all day because of a diet! so i think i may try the 400 difference a day to keep my metabolism on its toes, but hopefully prevent me from over eating and feeling as terrible as i do now!