to think this 'diet' is an eating disorder

[BlackMaryJanes]

I'm dieting the old fashioned way - exercise and reducing calories to about 1800.

My friend recently told me about a diet she's thinking about doing called "The Alternative Day Diet". In this diet, you eat 400 cals one day, then you're allowed to eat whatever you like the next day, then back to 400 cals the next day, then eat whatever you like for a day, etc.

I've done some research on this seemingly popular diet. Apparently it switches on a 'skinny gene' which keeps your metabolism in top condition, burning calories. It also has other claimed health benefits such as - making you live longer (there was a Horizon documentary on the BBC backing this up). The internet is full of gleeming reviews.

But surely this pattern of eating is unsustainable and encourages disordered thinking? I feel a bit concerned for my friend. When she latches onto an idea she tends to go hardcore.

BMJ - lots of questions you're not answering! What are you eating daily for your 1800 calories?

What are you eating daily for your 1800 calories?

I'm not answering on purpose. I'll get the shit ripped out of me.

Bottom line is, the 2lbs per week weight loss on my current diet is satisfactory.

Curryeater - well I'm on Citalopram. I don't know how different it would be with fluoxetine. But I'm certainly not having any problems

StephaniePowers The diet you've outlined sounds very healthy, it just doesn't necessarily stand for all times and places in which "our ancestors" lived. We're talking about the varied environments of most of world and (within homo sapiens) 200,000 years of prehistory. Some people wouldn't have had access to seafood, some people gathered and processed wild grains, some hardly did at all, and the lean meat they had access to would also have varied widely across time and space and included species we wouldn't eat now (eg insects), or that don't exist now, and the latter point also goes for plants. We're also basically making up the quantities they ate this stuff in by inference to the environment, because obviously it's pretty hard to reconstruct a week's typical diet from archaeology alone. And environments themselves are not easy to reconstruct. Palaeoethnobotany, zooarchaeology etc wouldn't be the wide fields of study they are if there weren't lots of unknowns around these questions - including what constitutes "domestication" itself, because obviously it's not like flipping a switch and every species pre-domestication is ideal and every species post-domestication becomes unhealthy. Eg, some archaeologists argue that the wild grains in the Levant were managed for several thousand years before organised agriculture (or rather horticulture) appeared, and this may have caused the grains to actually start evolving. So when does it stop being "good, foraged wild grain" and start being "evil, domesticated, processed grain"? By some definitions, probably not until the modern heavy processing of the 20th century.

So I tend to see the "palaeo" stuff as a convenient shorthand for "don't eat stuff that is obviously unhealthy". As I say, I'm not knocking it as a system, it clearly works.

I'm not answering on purpose. I'll get the shit ripped out of me.

Oh dear

Well I think the answer to your hunger might well lie therein, don't you!

oof that was a great big paragraph.

But if you're not eating healthily, then you're doing your body no favours at all.

I doing the 5:2 diet. I thought I'd give it a go for January after a bit too much indulgence over Christmas. I have lost 4lbs so about a lb a week - not mega weightloss but am finding it much easier to do than the constant obsession about how many calories I have left a day which always makes me feel as though I need to eat.

I have found it helpful. I've never been a big fan of breakfast anyway so tend to skip breakfast, have a salad for lunch and a veg curry or chilli for tea. I'm trying to use it as a way of eating less meat and fish as well so the vegetarian 2 days is a big part of it. I do feel hungry on the 500 cal days but never as though I'm going to faint or be sick or anything; I can work, look after the children and do exercise without an issue. The main thing though, is that it regularly reminds me that I will not die if I miss a meal - it is okay to feel hungry.

(I'm breastfeeding but DS is 3 so only just about once a day - t hasn't been an issue)

Okay here goes. Here's what I eat on an average day:

4 ready meals (they're not advertised as low cal but have about 300 cals in each).
Apples.
Rice cakes.
Low cal jelly.

Yes, I know, I know. Not healthy. However I'm doing this for vanity, not health.

I know there are plenty of foods that would fill me up for longer, however I find it hard to count the cals they contain. For instance, bran flakes fill me up immensely. However I'd have to weigh and measure every meal to count the cals. Whereas on a ready meal, the cals are there in print.

sigh

I'm going to get lynched to fuck now.

Oh, and to lose weight on calorie counting, I would have to eat no more than 1400 calories a day. That is much harder!

Trauma and disease. But not the diet-induced diseases of civilisation.

Read The Primal Blueprint. Have a look at the Paleo for women website.

One point against IF for women (which I raised on the Michael Moseley web chat, but which got no response) is that while evidence of the effectiveness for MEN is fairly well established, the same can't be said for women.

But it was interesting MadBusLady - I agree with you. I cannot see that within the paleo diet there is anything other than 'a great unprocessed dairy-free diet, light on meat most likely but basically anything that hasn't been faffed with or developed'.
I was keen on it for a bit but the books all seemed to be written by people who didn't seem very trustworthy.

I havelost a stone on 5:2. Am now a normal BMI. Reduced my risk if dementia/diabetes/cancer.

I have three you children and do shift work. On a fast day I gave an omelette and ham or porridge for breakfast. Tea/coffee through the day and salad/soul for tea. I eat a normal amount the following g day - perhaps slightly extra carbs.

It works for me.

Of course you're hungry on that. Seriously, look into low-carb/paleo.

I have nothing against the 5:2 or any other diet, and if people are seeing success then good luck to them - I may try it myself.

But it is hard to take new diets seriously when they all introduce themselves pretty much the same way. ie; 'I tried every diet under the sun but I never kept the weight off, until this diet came along. It's not a diet, it's a way of life, and unlike other diets it's easy and sustainable' etc etc. They all say that.

And many of them have research apparently on their side. The research is probably right, but the bottom line is that in order to lose weight, the one thing that we all struggle with is willpower. And there isn't an effective weightloss diet on this earth that doesn't require willpower.

I've read the 5:2 and would love to try it, but I wake up each day starving, and think 'actually I'll try it another time'.

No - you aren't going to get lynched to fuck!

But we might point out to you, gently, (even if this AIBU!), that it's probably no wonder that you're hungry.

Those ready meals, if they only have 300 calories in them, must be very small portions - and you're not eating any fresh veg to go with them.

Do you like cooking?

while evidence of the effectiveness for MEN is fairly well established, the same can't be said for women.

Hmmm I wonder why studies have not been done? Bizarre considering women diet more than men.

BMJ Why don't you try using Myfitnesspal? It's really good for helping you work out the calorie content of food/meals/recipes you're making.

Tbh, it could be a lot better, but it could have been a lot worse (Mars bars and coca cola for a start!)

my friend told me about this diet, except she said you could eat 600 cals then whatever you wanted. I agree with other posters who say its a crash diet - will only lead to yo-yoing.
I've always considered (may be wrong) that Eating disorders are often centred around illogical thought processes with food and fear etc? so def something different.

So, given that you haven't read the book, don't know any of the most rudimentary facts about intermittent fasting, and have a rubbish diet yourself ... you thought you'd come on an declare that it "is" an eating disorde,r in aibu? How very annoying.

My baby is 8.5 months but still not really eating solids.

I am just one of those people who doesn't cope with being hungry. I think my blood sugar is quite volitile and I become foul tempered very fast!!

Those ready meals, if they only have 300 calories in them, must be very small portions

They are quite small. They are tuna pasta bakes and chicken hotpots. In fact, the latter has just pinged in the microwave and my mouth is watering.

Still, not a very good role model for the kids :(

And no, I don't like cooking. DH does that.

Biwi is a much nicer person than me! to Biwi.

Stephanie Oh I see, you're agreeing! Sorry, am confused. I did enjoy the Primal Blueprint (and got a LOT out of it in terms of exercise) but it is very Californian in tone which slightly gave me that distrustful moany Brit reaction. With apologies to any Californians reading. I mean how can you all be that damn happy?

That would be the patriarchy :o. On both counts (the lack of info/man as 'normal' and the greater number of dieters being women).