Alternate Day Fasting.

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ginge

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Location
South East UK
# of dives
25 - 49
I'm a UK resident and I thought I'd post the diet I have been on for the last couple of months since it is really working for me.
It's pretty simple.

It is called Alternate Day Fasting.

The idea is that you eat normally on one day (no more than your weight maintenance calories though) and on the next day you eat 20% of your weight maintenance calories (there are several calculators on the internet to work out exactly how many calories that is).

As an example I have had muesli and toast for breakfast, a McDonald's Quarter Pounder meal for lunch (I was on the road with work and that is where my buddy wanted to eat) and I am just about to have a normal evening meal in the hotel restaurant.

Tomorrow I will have no breakfast, plenty of water throughout the morning, a muller rice for lunch (190 Kcalorie rice pudding snack), more water and some grilled chicken breast and steamed veg for dinner (350 Kcalories).

It works for me because although I am hungry on my fasting days I know I can eat normally the next day.
Drinking water suppresses my appetite and makes me feel full.


It is down to maths, for a man my size at the start of my diet I had to consume 3600 Kcals a day to stay that weight.

If I eat about 3500 (which is a lot) on a normal day and about 500 on a fasting day I consume in total 4000 in 2 days.
To stay the same weight I would need over 7000. That is a net deficit of 3000 every 2 days.

You need to deny yourself about 3500 Kcals per pound of fat you wish to lose.


It is working well.
Even though I have taken 4 days off so far (eaten on fasting days) for the purposes of diving and going out for dinner on my birthday (fell on a fasting day) it is working.

I have gone from 120 Kilos = 264lbs = 19ish stone to 108Kg = 238 lbs = 17ish stone in 8 weeks.

12kg or 26lbs in 8 weeks is a little bit quick, I was surprised but that may be down to the thermic effects of the food.

I am not adjusting my calories so as my body weight drops and my weight maintenance calories go down with it the gap between what I eat and what I need to eat to stay the same weight will reduce and with it the rate at which I will lose weight.

I am feeling good and I fit into my dry suit more easily.

My wife likes it but she says I am a bit grumpy on fasting days.

The best part is there is no book to buy, no club to join, no rules to remember, it's just easy.

Added benefits are that it seems to activate the SIRT1 gene which prolongs live and improves the general health of rats, no study has been done with humans.

I've lost weight before restricting myself to 1000 Kcals a day and this is much easier, the 1K diet was relentlessly grim with nothing to look forward to, this is like a series of 1 day diets and if I need to dive or do anything strenuous I can just skip a day.

Anyway, if anyone has tried this please feel free to add any impressions you have.


Ginge
 
Fasting may help you lose weight in the short run, but you will gain it back in the long run. Even though you alternate fasting days, your body will take the signal of constantly being hungry as a sign it should store more energy when you eat food, converting more food into fat.

Healthy weight loss isn't just about the mathematics of adding and subtracting calories.

If you want long-term weight loss, you need to eat healthy foods and work out at least a few times a week (for at least half an hour). You need to permanently change your diet and exercise habits. You cannot just alternate between dieting and then eating whatever you want. Everyone knows what's healthy - it just takes some effort to change yourself.

I eat three normal, healthy meals a day and then healthy snacks in between whenever I'm hungry (but not after 9pm). I avoid fast food, though I allow myself to have a cheat day each week. And I exercise most days.

Not trying to lecture. Just giving you an idea of what works, based upon experience and conversations with personal trainers and lectures.
 
I understand that.
The consensus is that ADF dieting does not trigger the fat storage starvation response because the hunger duration isn't long enough.

In fact the ADF diet more closely matches the way humans ate during the greater part of the evolutionary process, many people believe it has health benefits beyond weight loss.

That is what I meant when I mentioned the SIRT1 Gene.

I am considering a modified ADF for when I hit my target weight which is a way of gaining the health benefits of the SIRT1 gene without weight loss, in that case you eat normally most of the week but eat a reduced calorie diet on two non-consecutive days.

There hasn't been a proper clinical trial in humans yet but in rats and dogs calorie reduction (and ADF is a good way to achieve calorie reduction) has been shown to activate SIRT1 and thereby reduce insulin sensitivity, increase the ability to cope with stress, reduce damage to cells via oxidisation (which leads to cancer) and increase life span.

I do light exercise, I walk to work (2K a day) and work on my feet plus some exercise from diving.
In the summer (once I hit my target weight) I will begin to do more aerobic exercise but I find that if you try to take on too many targets at once you are more likely to fail at all of them. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew.

Anyway. I will keep everyone updated with how things go...
 
I would think that the body would not recognize this as fasting but starving, thus work in the opposite way and start to store the fat.

I have lost about what you have (35 lbs) in the same 8 weeks, but I have used a fat free/oil free diet with lots of veggies and legumes.

But hey...if it is wokrking for you who is to argue the results...congrats. :)
 
Just an update.

The first bit I lost was the "easy" bit it seems.
Once I got that out of the way I have settled down to a nice steady rhythm.

I weighed in at the end of the month and I am now 104 Kgs = 229 lbs = 16st 5lbs.

If anything the diet has gotten easier, now that I am accustomed to the fasting days I don't even really feel hungry.
When I do feel hungry I have a drink of cold water and the sensation goes away.

Over the last month I haven't actually doing the diet correctly either, I have been diving both days every weekend and since I think it would be irresponsible to dive hungry I have been eating at the weekends plus a couple of things like my friend's birthday barbecue have piled on calories on days that I shouldn't be eating.

In total I am now down 17Kg = 37.4lbs = 2st 9lbs since half way through January.

14ish weeks and on average that is just over a kilo a week. Pretty good average and I hope to be able to keep it up for a further 15 Kilos, I'm aiming off for 90kg = 198lbs = 14st 2lb
 
Monthly weigh-in.

I've had a very busy month, every weekend I have had two days of diving so I have had 5 extra days of eating this month.

I weighed in on the morning of the 1st and I am 100Kg = 220lbs = 15st 10lbs.

That is a total of 21 kilos now (46lbs = 3st 4lbs), I am feeling pretty good about it.

I only have 10Kg to go now, should be 2 to 3 months then I will be switching to maintenance.
 
No weigh in on here at the end of June since I was on holiday in June.I'm afraid that 2 weeks all-inclusive in a 5* hotel in Playa Del Carmen eating doughnuts wor breakfast didn't do me any favours.At the end of June I was at 102 kg = 224 lb = 16 st.I got straight back on it when I got back and I weighed in this morining for July and I am 98.5 kg = 217 lb = 15 st 7 lbNow I am at a total loss of 22.5 kg = 50 lbs = 3 st 7 lbsAs of now I am switching to only fasting on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I will be ramping up my exercise levels, cycling 3 times a week.So far I have lost 5 inches off my waist line. Only another 21 pounds to go :)
 
Just about any diet will take your weight off. Once the diet is finished, you'll put it all back on. The key to health is to adopt a healthy, balanced, sustainable eating and exercise pattern that is not a diet, but rather a permanent lifestyle change that you can maintain for the rest of your life.

Instead of eating 100% of your calorie allowance one day and 20% the next day, you should be eating 80% or 90% of your calorie allowance every day. Once you reach your goal, up that to 100% for maintenance every day. Of course, it should be a balanced diet that you can live with for the rest of your life.
 
I've heard a lot of people talking about this diet but it doesn't seem like something I could incorporate into my life, eating is a social thing too and I have children, I want to teach them healthy eating habits that you keep for life. But this is me personally, different things work for different people so if this works for you then great.
I've lost about the same amount of weight in around the same time by loosely adopting the paleo diet, which again goes by the same kind of eating habits as our ancestors. I'm mainly cutting out processed food and sugar and eating more vegetables. I've also cut out all low fat food and even though it felt strange at first I soon got used to it. I don't have bread or pasta very often at all and have nuts for snack, if I need them at all. It's basically just common sense.
I suppose this just proves that we're all different.
 
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