Alternate day calorie restriction diets are all the rage in 2010. Alternate day diet blogs are popping up everywhere. In this article, you will learn more about the different alternate day duets and how they work. More importantly, find out how well they can work for you.
What exactly are alternate day diets?
This type of diet is based on the principles of “calorie shifting”. Calorie shifting is a scientifically proven way to lose weight by eating more calories one day and fewer calories the next. The diets we review here follow these principles but do so in different ways. The biggest advantage of this diet is the effect on the metabolism. By letting your body think it’s not dieting, your metabolism will continue to run at full speed and your weight loss will occur faster and for longer periods of time. All of these diets require some exercise, but they can all be considered cardio-free diets.
Below are descriptions of the most popular alternative daily fasting diets:
QOD diet
The QOD Diet is a diet program based on a book that is all about days and days off. On your “on days,” you’re allowed to eat fairly regularly, but you need to watch your sodium and potassium intake. On your “off days” you’re only allowed to eat 500 calories and only 200 of those can come from protein. Again you are asked to limit sodium and potassium.
In addition, you will be asked to take supplements and protein powders to regulate what you are taking. According to the creators of this alternative daily diet plan, this will help facilitate faster weight loss.
Up Day Down Day Diet
This diet takes the Qod diet a little further because it doesn’t require as many supplements and potions to help with weight loss. It begins with the familiarization phase, which is where you find yourself in Up Days and Down Days (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?). During induction, you’re limited to 500 calories and you’re not as limited by sodium and potassium. This makes the diet a bit easier than the QOD. On bad days, you’re allowed to eat regularly as long as you don’t “deliberately overeat”
That last statement is a little more ambiguous and harder if you’re starving yourself the day before.
After the induction phase, you go into the maintenance phase, where your bad days make up 50% of your normal eating routine.
The Every 2 Day Diet (EODD)
The EODD goes even further towards the ultimate alternative daily diet. The EODD has different phases like the Up Day Down Day Diet, but they work the same in each phase. The reason this diet is more sophisticated is that it includes the SNAPP meal plan, which tells you exactly what to eat. So on “burn” days, you eat exactly what the SNAPP plan tells you to.
On “Feed” days you can eat pizza, hamburgers, etc. as long as it is at the times specified in SNAPP. You eat the remaining meals as indicated in the plan.
Thanks to Raquel Jacobsen
