Every other day diet?

I started this new diet inspired by the 5:2 diet but instead of two fasting days I fast every other day. On fasting day I have 500 calories on none fasting days I eat around 2000
( maintenance is 2109) and I exercise 3x a week. I've been found this a week and II like it because I don't have to deprive myself of the foods I like...but I'm worrired on whether the fasting days will cause my metabolism to slow thoughts?

Replies

  • lemonychild
    lemonychild Posts: 654 Member
    No.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    It sounds to me like you are undereating by far too much to properly fuel your body.

    Whether or not you are undereating by enough to cause hair loss and other long term damage is questionable but you will probably feel either sluggish or euphoric, most likely alternating between the two.
  • WizWil
    WizWil Posts: 5 Member
    I've read many do 4:3 but that it really doesn't improve the effectiveness of the loss - I'm looking at various intermittent fasting plans and many love the 5:2
  • hiyomi
    hiyomi Posts: 906 Member
    According to my text books (studying for nursing) Fasting diets are a fad and not really beneficial :/
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I lost the majority of my weight doing ADF. But I ate my maintenance calories on up days. 24lbs in 4mths.
    My metabolism is fine :smile:
  • jandsstevenson887
    jandsstevenson887 Posts: 296 Member
    500 seems really low.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Yes. Here is a group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/49-intermittent-fasting
    On non-fasting days, you eat at maintenance. :)
  • thunder1982
    thunder1982 Posts: 280 Member
    Well assuming that you are doing 4 days of 2maintennace and 3 days fasting its the same as eating 1357 per day. This is aggressive but not IMO dangerous depending on how big your calorie burns are.

    If you do 3 days maintenance & 4 days fasting it would average 1,143 which generally is too low unless you are very very short.

    I dont think it would affect your metabolism as its not for any extended period of time. Its pretty much like saving calories for the weekend which many people on here do.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    It won't slow your metabolism any more than any other diet would (which all weight loss diets do). I do a modified version of it, eating 800 calories on fast days and my maintenance plus exercise calories on normal days, but other than that I have been doing very well on it. I found it very hard to stick to 5:2 because I get complacent and find it hard to go back to low calorie intake on designated fast days. The way I'm doing it now makes it into a consistent routine where I actually look forward to fast days.
  • cate320
    cate320 Posts: 130 Member
    I lost a significant amount of weight doing alternate day fasting. I don't know exactly how much, because I didn't own a scale at the time, but enough to go from a size 18 pants to a size 14.

    It worked for me because I was living alone, and worked in a restaurant, so I would keep no food in the house and just eat at work or bring dinner home on my eating days. My biggest challenge was resisting the urge to order pizza, lol.

    I don't have the willpower to do it now that I live with someone and food is constantly around, but I do highly recommend it if it works for you :)
  • mainewoodsmom
    mainewoodsmom Posts: 5 Member
    Google Johnson Up Day Down Day diet (JUDDD). Great diet plan plus health benefits of interm. fasting. You will not wreck your metabolism, but rather belp heal it if you're like a lot of us with metabolic issues from years of poor eating. There is a great forum for this group thru Netrition's Low Carb Friends site, but you don't have to be low carb on this plan. JUDDD is very effective if you stick to it.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    Too big a difference. Try 1800/800 instead.
  • ReaderGirl3
    ReaderGirl3 Posts: 868 Member
    Its called alternate day intermittent fasting, nickname JUDDD. It's the plan I did for my weight loss phase. I alternated between maintenance level calorie days and then very low calorie days (there's a calculator on Dr Johnson's site to figure your down day calories ).

    I has no issues doing this method and it worked well for me. Then, as I started transitioning into maintenance I switched to 5:2iF, and finally 16:8IF for maintenance.
  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,110 Member
    I currently do 16:8 only because it fits my natural hunger rhythms. I'm moving towards 5:2 until I hit my goal. I've found IF to work great for me. I also found this helpful when deciding to make it a conscious way of life. https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/intermittent-fasting/