Has anyone heard about the Intermittent Diet? I'm thinking of giving it a go

[NotMostPeople]

www.genesisuk.org/media-centre/articles/The%20Intermittent%20diet%20.html

It's not specifically for women who want to prevent breast cancer although who doesn't? The idea was to look at alternative ways of dieting to the standard calorie counting/Mediterranean diet as people find it hard and it's important for cancer prevention to keep your BMI in the heathly range.

I'm thinking of giving it a go as a part of my inevitable New Years loose weight resolution and it would be great to hear of anyone else who's done it or would like to give it a try.

My plan is to start a general 'good' diet tomorrow, throw out the booze and chocs and once the dc's are back to school at the end of the week start the intermittent diet.

Thinking about trying this, I have lost and gained 2 stone so many times and desp to find a way of dieting thats sustainable. Read something in 4 hour body about fasting being a good way to live longer but that method involves not having protein so I am confused now! Work on thursdays so might have to play with whether or not thats a good day to fast. Had a little chicken and beans fried with onion and tomatoe puree and a little mashed avacado for breaky so might work out the calories in that and see if I can start today.

Hmm going to be tough I had spoon of peanut butter aswell! If I eat the rest of the packet of chicken I will have had around 520 cals but might be able to bulk that out with frozen veg and spinach.

iHi Pookey. welcome. read around fasting also. lots of different ways of doing it. not heard about protein-avoidance one though. am a bit as protein much more filling thanother food groups and as omnivores we need it! which is is not to say we should fill up on crappy sausages, burgers etc but good lean meat, fish, eggss all good!

Your breakfast sounds fine for a VLCD minus the beans and the oil. why not try it for a month and see how you go? hy not check the link in the OP's message for more info - the 2 day diet recipes etc. most of us seem to be exchanging much of hte milk for altnernative protein source such as lean meat/fish/egg whites

Thanks expat I will def give it a try. Had a quick look at the leaflet and it says it is not a fast. just realised i had some of the beans leftover so might be able to get it in under 650. Will read the rules for the vlcd again. Drat forgot about the oil when calculating cals.

hi pookey. no, I guess it's not a fast as such but the v restricted intake has the same effect.
oil.beans fine 5 days a week but no butter/oil on the 2 VLCDs.

So its veg meat and low fat diry but not cheese? I have only looked at the leaflet so far. I saw previously in the thread that you were trying the on off diet - how did that go?

yes and we all seem to be eating fish/seafood/eggs instead of some milk allowance. rest of ID diet on those days is 4 x veg portion, 1 x fruit portion, lots of water/tea/coffee. No juice, fizzy drinks (except water). I find i just drink loads which sort of fills me up, esp fizzy water.
I'd forgotten the on-off one did i say I'd try that? whoops! well sounds interesting/also the NoS diet someone mentioned - no snacking/seconds or sweets but 3 basic meals a day except on S days - "special" days (birthdays etc) and Sat/Sun..whne the idea is you eat normally. Beautifully simple, all the info on the website, all for free and v v sound!

Hello ladies

Good to see it's still working. I've come a bit unstuck. 7lbs down but nothing last week. Well maybe half a pound or something unreadable on my scales. The trend is still down though.
Going to be good on Weds and Thurs this week. Here's hoping 9 inch plates and a bit of moving around will add to the effect. Oh and my period will have gone away too!

radiohelen weight going down at all when on your period is woerth celebrating. I only seem to loose weight after period has started and then for a week or two, then its bloat for another week or two. Read once that women should only weigh themselves once a month, but I am not that disciplined. Hope the smaller plate works!

Expat both those sound interesting, I would imagine the on off diet has more potential for speedy weight loss, but dont think my family could take me being snappy every other day! the s diet sounds very practical. I also quite like the sound of clean and lean which app is how nigella lawson lost weight. I will give this diet a decent shot first!

hi pooky, yes, there's a danger of trying to mix them up and failing at all of them, isn't there?

am intrigued, really intrigued by the simplicity/ethos/person behind the NoS one but for now have committed to the ID - am in my 6th week now, wow! so will carry on for a while, possibly into the long-term if it carries on like this. Not heard of clean and lean but am liking the new nigella..must google.

RH, yes period seems to bugger it all up rather, thought it was just me but we all seem to have similar pattern so must be normal. surprised there's not more mention of this in dieting literature even the ID stuff.

I htink i've lost c 3 kilos since i started which i'm happy with and seems to be steady and slow enough to be sustainable for me.

am on VLCD today and may do again tomorrow to fit round meals out rest of the week. not done 2 days in a row before though, sounds quite gruelling.

Expat Good luck with two day stint, you will be keeping your body on its toes which is probably good, be interesting to see what your weight loss is like for the week.

think I am ging to have to bow out of this thread for a while. erm... I forgot about breastfeeding. DC3 15 mo is having milk in morning and evening but not during day. I was fine with with 650 cals yest and dd slept until after 5.00 but this morning she didnt seem to be getting as much milk as she wanted and I felt a bit shakey after. Feel ultra foolish. Man I find it difficult to loose weight bf. Be back in a few months hopefuly. Constant calorie counting here I come drat.

I'm about half a stone down now from when I started- didn't follow properly in the first 2 weeks, only did one day a week instead of two. I'm keeping calories to 1200 for another 2/3 days a week where possible, and eating what I like the other days- for me thats probably well over 2500 calories without putting much effort in!

that's good. when did you start, Karaoke?

i don't think i can face another VLCD tomorrow. One is fine, doable in every way. but it's hot here and i get low blood pressure and have PMT so think i might do thurs or a w/e day (that'll be a first!) instead. Admire those of you who do manage 2 in a row!

Pookey, gosh had no idea you were breastfeeding, wow! Isn't that c. 500 calories gone, whoosh, anyway? Leave alone running around after a little one, that leaves you what a whopping 150calories just for you to get through the day! i admire you but think you're v right to bow out until you stop bfing, I bet the weight will drop off then anyway, often does as body conserves fat for baby.

gone all Dickensian so am now/temporarily this name...

Pookey, we have not spoken much so please take this in the nicest possible way, it is said with a smile and half in jest. You muppet!
You can't bf and eat 650 calories a day two days a week. Cut yourself some slack lady and leave the weight loss until your lo has given up mommy milk. Do some exercise or something but don't freak out your body by starving it! Come back and see us when your breasts are unfettered by nursing children we shall clasp you to our (hopefully) less voluminous bosoms.

RH how rude! No your right, I am a muppet, didn't even cross my mind wow expat 150 cals no wonder I felt funny this morning. Not sure dp would agree but here's to less voluminous bosoms all round woops actually I'm bf prob more approp.

If it's any consolation pookey I lost very little weight while bf and it literally fell off once I stopped (and then gradually crept back on but we'll not mention that shall we?)

It was almost as if my body was hedging its bets on keeping some in reserve, then when baby weaned it flicked a switch to say 'OK you can let it go now.'

I'll have yours if you don't want it. VLC day tomorrow so might as well!

Had a vlc day yesterday, felt fine, slept well, and I'm not even hungry now. Normally I'm up early for bacon butties after a vlc day but today I'm waiting til after the school run as usual (so I get to eat in peace while watching that going to Austrailia programme )

Still not weighed myself as the vlc day will bugger it up a bit. My clothes are falling off though, I can now get my jeans on and off without undoing the button.

that's good, prof. I still need to crack the sleep -awoke 445 this morning so not too bad but had hoped would go thro later having had banana last thing.. think it's a work in progress for me on VLCDs.

i just worked out my lost weight in baked bean tins and lined up 9 tins on the table! SUPER-SATISFYING! Highly recommend..each one I've got is 410g so as I seem to have lost nearly 4 kilos (slightly cheating as post-VLCD today so slightly less) this is nearly 10 tins of those beans! Can't quite believe it, seems so much when you line them all up (also makes me wonder why i have QUITE so many beans in my cupboard )

Well done prof, bet it's very satisfying to pull up your jeans like that!

Expat- imagine carrying all of that around with you, all day, all night, wherever you go. Isn't it mad how it translates?

I started the first week of this thread, is this week 4? Or maybe 5? Think it will be 5, so I have had 7 VLC days so far, so can't complain at that loss! However I am getting to the stage where I need to cut down on weekends, as it's always by Tuesdays that my weight creeps back up. It seems to be 2 days later that my body notices what I've done.

I just wanted to check in and see how everyone is. A combo of pmt and op has meat an outrageous gain for me but I know it's all going to sort itself out.

Great, great news about your jeans yaffle. Congrats!!

I love the baked bean idea expat and quite impressed with you massive be any stock levels :)

E xxxx

Hi everyone, just checking in. we've got rather quiet on here!

Bluebird, have you tried the tin thing yet?! ..might help with the lethal pmt/diet combo! Sorry realise you also mentioned having had an op..hope it went okay, this ID thing obviously not going to be your priority until you're better. I feel for you, take care..

Karaoke, yes, can't believe it when you see alll the tins lined up, didn't think i had much to lose but now makes me wonder..I must have started around same time as you, also week one of thread (very first week of Jan) and by my calculation that is 6 weeks, 12 VLCDs.

Anyone else wondering how this works into the long-term? what pace the weight loss slows to or does it just plateau and self sustain after a few months? Just wondering what those trials showed..

think this is a new leaflet on the GenesisUK website, quite helpful:

www.genesisuk.org/downloads/pdf/9f59f6ccaf84bd907859e4abb973545f.pdf

i note it also says can do ID for 2 days or med diet to lose weight then once done suggests one "restriction" day every week to maintain this loss. I'm guessing they mean the VLCD of 650 calories by this?

Working on this assumption, am thinking i'll do a few more weeks of this till i reach a target weight (actually haven't decided one yet ) then keep 1 day a week on this to maintain, going back to 2 if weight creeps up. anyone else thinking of doing similar|?

That's a helpful leaflet, thanks for linking. I'm raving about the diet to anyone who'll listen so that makes it a bit more user-friendly-looking than the original printout when I'm being a diet bore

I'm probably going to carry on long-term doing 1-2 days once I reach my target (that's going to be a while though, BMI was an obscenely high almost 30, is now 28 and target will make me 22.)
The knock-on effects that the VLC days have on the normal days are too good to miss out on, it's like a mini-detox from piggish eating.

The thought that my target weight is actually achievable given time is totally mindblowing :o I love this diet!