What is your opinion of JUDDD?

Imajicat

I have a friend who is doing this up day/down day diet.
here is a web page with what it's about
http://eatingandfasting.blogspot.com/2009/07/johnson-up-day-down-day-juddd-diet.html

Basicly it's an eating plan where one eats very high calories one day and very low calories the next day. My friend who is doing this is getting good results but I freak out a bit when I see her logging only 500 - 600 calories on the down day. I am stuck on my -1200 is the lowest safe calories for a woman to eat in a day- thing and fear that she will be mess up her metabolism with this diet. I don't want to lecture at her because dieting is stressful enough without your friends yapping at you about what you should and shouldn't do. I guess I just want to know what people with better knowledge than me think about this sort of plan or if anyone has tried it and had good or bad results.

thanks!

steadk

I think its a version of caloric cycling. I don't think 500 should be the low however.

AZKristi

From a biological perspective, your body is not a big fan of ups and downs. In fact, your body has thousands of biofeedback pathways that prevent them. For example, if you drink a big glass of orange juice or eat a big bowl of ice cream, your body will experience a rapid increase in blood sugar. Too much sugar in the body is toxic so your body releases insulin which causes your body to convert the sugar to glycogen and fat. If you do this infrequently, its not a big deal. But study after study after study has demonstrated that doing this on a regular basis increases your risk for obesity and diabetes.

I'm NOT saying that this program causes diabetes. Rather, I am trying to explain the idea that your body is constantly working to maintain equilibrium (biologists call this homeostasis). Utilizing a diet plan that, by design, encourages you to oscillate repeatedly from one extreme to another, seems to be counter productive. Its just not what your body is designed to do. On top of that, I can't think of many instances where extreme is considered healthy.

I suspect your friend is getting results because her average calories are quite low. But how much fat is she actually losing compared to lean body mass? Only time will tell.

Imajicat

I suspect your friend is getting results because her average calories are quite low. But how much fat is she actually losing compared to lean body mass? Only time will tell.

Yikes!

That's the kind of thing that I'm worried about.

Imajicat

Bump!

sweet110

I'm sure it works. Even if you don't believe "the metabolic magic" of up/down, there's no denying that you average a lower calorie intake on average. Which I'm sure many people find a neat trick.

My big concern, however, would be the "fad versus lifestyle" element. *Every* fad diet works. From the most ridiculous to the more balanced. The problem comes in when you stop doing the diet...without a change in how you live your "regular" life, you'll gain it back. So ask yourself, could you eat 500 calories, every other day, forever? Particularly when you get to have little "mini-splurges" on the other days? Probably what will happen is that at maintenance, your regular diet will look like the "mini-splurges" or the "UP" days. And you will pack on the pounds.

Who knows what will happen with your friend. There is always someone for whom "wierd" things work. But, generally speaking, the trick is to find a diet you can maintain for the rest of your life. Because keeping it off, not the losing, is where the "real magic" comes in.