Alternate Day Diet Plans: Do Alternate Day Diets Live Up to the Hype?

Alternate-day calorie restriction diets are all the rage in 2010. Alternate-day diet blogs are popping up everywhere. This article will tell you about the different alternate day duos and how they work. More importantly, you’ll find out how well they can work for you.

What exactly are alternate day diets?

This type of diet is based on “calorie shifting” principles. Calorie shifting is a scientifically proven method of losing weight by eating more calories one day and fewer the next. The diets we’ll be looking at here follow these principles, but they do it in different ways. The biggest advantage of eating this way is the effect it has on metabolism. By fooling your body into thinking you’re not dieting, your metabolism will continue to work at an increased rate and your weight loss will be 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 daytime fasting diets:

QOD diet

The QOD diet is a book-based diet program that deals with days off and days off. On your “On Days” you are allowed to eat fairly regularly, but you need to watch your sodium and potassium intake. On your “days off” you are relegated to eating just 500 calories and only 200 of those can come from protein. Again you are asked to limit sodium and potassium.

On top of that, you are asked to take protein supplements and powders to help regulate what you eat. This will help facilitate faster weight loss according to the creators of this alternate day diet plan.

diet of the day up

This diet takes the Qod diet a bit further because it doesn’t require the use of as many supplements and potions to aid weight loss. It starts with the induction phase you are in on “Positive and Negative Days” (sounds familiar right?). During induction, you’ll be restricted to 500 calories and won’t be as limited by sodium and potassium. This makes the diet a bit easier than the QOD. On rest days, you are allowed to eat regularly, as long as you don’t “overeat on purpose.”

That last statement is a bit more ambiguous and lasts when you starve yourself the day before.

After the induction phase, you move into the maintenance phase where your off days are eating 50% of your normal eating routine.

The Every Other Day Diet (EODD)

The EODD goes even further towards the ultimate alternate day 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 refined is that it incorporates the SNAPP Eating Plan that tells you exactly what to eat. So, on “Burn” days, you eat exactly what the SNAPP Plan tells you to.

On “Food” days you can eat pizza, hamburgers, etc. as long as it is during the times indicated in SNAPP. The rest of the meals are eaten as indicated in the plan.