How much weight can you lose by eating every other day?

General rules

The day-to-day diet is based on the classic approach of alternating fasting and eating to reduce body weight.
Thanks to such “stressful” fasting days, the body does not have time to adapt to the new regime and uses up internal reserves, while on days of normal food intake there is an opportunity to relax, including psychologically, which helps not to break down and go through the entire weight loss marathon. This diet was first proposed and tested by Dr. Johnson; he managed to get rid of 16 kilograms in 2 months. Eating every other day is not difficult, the main thing you need to remember is that:

• ordinary “well-fed” days are absolutely normal for you, your usual diet, the only thing is that the calorie content per day should not exceed 2 thousand calories;
• “Hungry” days are fasting days, their calorie content should be 25% of the usual diet, that is, in this case, no more than 500 calories.

Eating every other day is a type of nutrition, not a diet.

Many people are interested in the possibility of losing weight by eating every other day. This is probably why intermittent eating (eating interspersed with food breaks) is often classified as a diet. They even came up with a name - the sinusoidal diet. The fact that this diet helps you lose weight is its only similarity with weight loss diets. I have an extremely negative attitude towards diets and believe that there are much more effective and simpler methods for losing weight.

What characterizes weight loss diets:

• Diets for weight loss always (!) have a limited duration. Following a diet longer than prescribed can be harmful to your health. And there will be no effect from a long-term diet - the body will adapt by slowing down the metabolism.
• The results of any diet are extremely difficult to maintain for a long time. The pounds come back, even if the number of calories consumed is lower than before the diet.
• Weight loss diets are very difficult to follow. Even those diets that look simple turn out to be a serious test of will.

I'm talking now about more or less adequate diets for losing weight. But there are frankly harmful diets that cause serious damage to health (for example, on a protein diet you can easily “implant” your liver).

All of the above characteristics of diets do not apply to intermittent feeding:

• Intermittent eating can be used for weight loss if losing weight is your goal. But by eating this way, you don’t have to lose weight if you don’t need it. We'll talk about this below. Moreover, intermittent eating helps you gain muscle mass.
• Intermittent feeding has no time limit. There is no addiction (with a subsequent slowdown in metabolism). You can eat this way for the rest of your life without harm to your health.
• Unlike any diets for weight loss (diets with a reduced number of calories, diets with a limited amount of certain foods, mono-diets, etc.), with intermittent nutrition there is no shortage of any useful substances.
• Intermittent feeding is characterized by considerable flexibility - there are several such feeding schemes, from which it is easy to choose the one that suits you.
• This diet is very easy to follow—much easier than it might seem. The amount of willpower required is minimal, not comparable to the daily willpower required to stick to diets. You can choose a diet in which the feeling of hunger will not be felt at all.
• This diet is not only not harmful to health. On the contrary, many studies show that regular food breaks have a positive effect on all body systems.

Considering all of the above, I think you will agree with me that intermittent feeding is not a diet at all.

Authorized Products

There are no strict recommendations for choosing products and creating a menu. Half of the diet should be eaten as usual, and the other half of the days:

• cut your usual portion by 4 times;
• create a separate menu for 500 calories;
• make it a mono-diet and eat only the same amount of one type of product, the energy value of which does not exceed 500 calories, for example, 1 kg of apples (calorie content is approximately 50 calories per 100 g of product).

Of course, in order to maintain health and prolong life, it is best to follow the principles of a healthy diet on ordinary days:

• eat lean meats;
• boiled chicken eggs;
• low-fat cottage cheese and fermented milk drinks;
• sea ​​fish and seafood;
• more vegetables and fruits;
• porridge;
• process food by boiling, steaming, multicooking, stewing, baking in the oven or grilling.

Attention!

Foods with negative calorie content are just a lifesaver on hungry days; a snack of grated celery, carrots, radishes, cucumber salad and other green vegetables (broccoli, dandelion, arugula, sorrel) will saturate the body with useful substances and create a feeling of fullness due to a full stomach .

Table of permitted products

Fully or partially limited products

Diet restrictions are still more relevant to fasting days, when the menu needs to be compiled so that the body receives the necessary energy charge for a long time:

• say “no” to easily digestible foods with a high glycemic index , because these are empty calories that go straight into fat folds, for example, flour, confectionery, various snacks and bars; instead, it is better to eat a portion of oatmeal with dried fruits or drink low-fat yogurt;
• salt and spices - their effect is most often aimed at improving and stimulating appetite, and salt generally retains unnecessary water in the body and increases the risk of swelling;
• semi-finished products, canned food and other modern products rich in harmful dyes, thickeners, flavor enhancers and other additives;
• sweet drinks - granulated sugar should not be added to tea, coffee and even compote; in extreme cases, it can be replaced with fructose , a sugar substitute or honey in small quantities.

Table of prohibited products

Menu (Meal Schedule)

Example of a balanced nutrition menu for 500 calories

Hungry days on apples and dairy products

Menu Features

The fasting day menu resembles a fasting menu - it is designed for 500-1000 calories and involves moderate consumption of any one product. Nutritionists recommend focusing not on general figures, but on the average calorie content of the daily diet. If you consume 2000 calories a day, you need 1000 to unload, if 1500, then 750 and so on.

Be sure to read: The most effective and popular mono-diets

Approximate unloading diet:

• 500 g cottage cheese;
• 1 liter of kefir;
• 0.5 kg apples.

Choose products according to your taste - it can be berries, buckwheat, fruits, milk and so on. After 7 pm, try not to have dinner at all; on a normal day, eat with pleasure, but do not overeat. If you can switch to healthy, natural foods, you will reap enormous health benefits. You need to drink a lot - water, green tea, herbal infusions.

Before starting a diet, it would be a good idea to consult with a nutritionist to understand whether such a menu is right for you.

The specialist will also tell you which foods you can eat and which ones you should avoid. For the first couple of weeks of the diet, the nutritional schedule must be strictly followed, then you can alternate days - for example, two well-fed days in a row, if there was an unexpected celebration or get-together with friends and pizza, and two hungry ones.

Advantages and disadvantages

Opinions of specialist doctors

Nutritionists from different countries have studied this diet a lot and come to different conclusions. Firstly, the vast majority of doctors do not recommend making fasting days “dry”. They call this “dry fasting” and warn that with such a diet, weight loss will be much less, and it will not be the fat that will go away first.

And in general, doctors recommend sticking to more gentle diet options. For example, on a fasting day, do not eat only water or kefir, but simply reduce your daily caloric intake to 500 kcal, while maintaining a varied diet.

Experts say that gentle options are easier for people from a psychological point of view, especially for older patients.

Doctors say that the best weight loss results are shown by patients aged 50 to 59 years. At this time, due to age, metabolic processes in the body slow down, and eating every other day activates all metabolic processes and allows you to get rid of the most harmful fat - abdominal fat.

Don't forget about drinking regime!

Diet every other day: reviews and results

On various forums and women's portals you can find numerous reviews about the diet every other day. It gives good results and is suitable for many girls, because the scheme is very simple and convenient - you eat normally for a day, you limit yourself for a day and after 2 weeks you get minus 4-5 kg. In addition, there is no need to give up your favorite foods or eat by the hour.

• “... Of course, it’s optimal to be on a daily menu of 1000 calories, but I’ve been on 500 calories every other day for a month now and I’ve already lost 5 kilograms, but I have a sedentary lifestyle, and I was only 10 kg overweight.”
• “... Do not doubt that the diet works, even one fasting day a week gives results, the main thing is that it really is a fasting day”;
• “...They scare me with the risk of ruining my health, I think that such a diet is better than constantly overeating.”

Useful tips

Reviews from nutritionists about nutritional principles and lifestyle will help you achieve the best results during the every other day diet.

• During the diet, it is advisable to give up sugar. The first few days it will be difficult to drink unsweetened tea, but then your body will get used to it.
• Avoid alcohol and cigarettes completely. Occasionally you can drink a cup of coffee, preferably in the morning.
• It is better to buy fruits and vegetables at the market rather than at the grocery store. This way you can increase your chances of purchasing products grown without the use of chemicals.
• Every day you need to walk more than 2 kilometers. You can get off the bus a few stops before your home and walk the rest of the way.
• Visiting sports sections is welcome. This could be either classes at a fitness center or a visit to an amateur volleyball club.
• It is better to divide food intake by hours and strictly control it. If there is still a lot of time before eating, you can drink a glass of water.
• The last meal is at least two hours before bedtime. At night, the body should rest completely.

Diet price

Calculating the cost of nutrition for striped diets is not difficult, because according to the rules, half of the days you should eat as usual, which means you can calculate your family expenses per family member for the last month (most likely it is about 7 thousand rubles) and divide in half (3 .5 thousand rubles). Then you need to calculate the cost of “hungry” days:

• if you simply divide your regular one by 4, the cost will be approximately 900 rubles;
• if you do special ones, for example, the suggested cottage cheese-apple, fruit or balanced nutrition days, then their price will be approximately 200 rubles; for half a month you will have to spend about 3 thousand rubles.

Thus, for a month of food you need to pay from 4.5 to 6.5 thousand rubles.

Intermittent power supply circuits.

In describing intermittent feeding schemes, for the sake of simplicity and brevity, I will use the word “fasting” instead of “food pause”.

Once again I remind you of the rules:

1. during fasting - we don’t eat anything, we drink only water,
2. the rest of the time we eat as usual.

Nutrition plan with daily 16-hour fasting.

You choose what time of day not to eat. The main thing is not to eat for 16 hours straight, every day. You need to start and end a 16-hour fast at the same time every day. For example: we eat from 12:00 to 20:00. We fast from 20:00 to 12:00 the next day.

The advantages of this power scheme:

• A 16-hour break in food is easily tolerated (especially since half of the time is spent sleeping).
• This regime does not interfere with leading a normal lifestyle, having lunch and dinner in company or with family.
• Daily short fasts quickly become a habit.

This scheme is not suitable for everyone. The main disadvantage is the daily refusal of breakfast or dinner. A healthy breakfast is especially important for early risers. You can shift the time frame, for example, like this: we eat from 8:00 to 16:00, fast from 16:00 until the next morning. But then you will have to give up dinner every day and go to bed hungry.

In my opinion, this is not the best scheme. It is closest to regular diets because the total number of calories you consume per day is reduced. To prevent this, you will have to artificially increase portions (which will make it difficult to digest food), or introduce additional snacks (which is not always convenient and not always healthy).

There are other intermittent power options.

Diet plan with weekly one-day fasting.

You choose one day a week on which you will not eat. As you can see in the diagram, while awake you have to fast for only 18 hours, not 24. But, if one day (24 hours) still seems too long to you, you can start with shorter 20-hour fasts.

If you think that fasting one day every week is too often, but you still want to practice intermittent eating, then you can try fasting one day a month.

The advantages of this power scheme:

• It is psychologically easy to give up food just one day a week.
• This pattern is great for beginners.
• If you have never fasted before, then after one day spent without food, you will understand that it is not at all difficult.
• One fasting day a week will have virtually no effect on your lifestyle.

The only drawback of weekly daily fasting is its relatively low effectiveness. If you want to lose weight, you may need to add one or two fasting days per week to see results faster.

Perhaps, starting with this scheme, you will “get the taste” and want to increase the number of fasting days a week to two or three. As shown in the following diagram.