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

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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.

Oh yes- could use the yoghurt and mustard - good thinking. I usually use mayo and mustard. Won't be AS nice - but it takes me ages to chomp a bowlful- will keep me occupied.
I am feeling hungry - but healthy hungry iykwim.

I felt ravenous after exercise yesterday.
I'd be a jibbering wreck after a two hour dog walk. Just bought my veg for tea but so hungry it was hard to resist the cakes in the cafe but I managed!

Luckily my husband on a mad fad diet so he only wants salad for dinner. Think resisting fish and chips would be hard.

Mmm wonder if I can add mustard to cottage cheese? Find it a bit bland.
Might try that later.

When I say a 2 hour dog walk - it was a 40 min dog walk with and hour and 10 of chatting in the field, throwing the ball for the dogs. But what I meant was - I was away from temptation for 2 hours.
Am going to kettlebell first thing tomorrow - so will have a protein shake and maybe a weetabix as it is a v intensive class.
Spring onion might be a good option to add to cottage cheese? I can't really imagine eating cottage cheese with no oatcakes or the like.
Am missing crunching and chewing so far. (apart from my measly carrot).
Have made courgette and dill soup - waiting for it to cool so's I can blend it and add some of my milk. oh - for crusty bread and butter!!!

try adding chopped chillies and coriander, spring onions and grated carrots to cottage cheese - actually gives it a taste!

Also for chewing, I do a big plate of roast med veg - works for me!

Evening all - I weighed myself this morning and found that I've lost 2lbs since Tuesday hooray.

I've been on normal days yesterday and today, but haven't gone too mad so generally eating much better than I usually would. No exercise and unfortunately our dog has to rest his leg at the moment so no daily walk either (which we're both missing).

Tonight I'm having my first glass of wine this week. All good so far, but we're going to friends for lunch on Sunday and I know it'll be very naughty.

Monday and Tuesday will be my low cal days.

hi there. lots of people doing well, that's great" I seem to do better on the 650 cal days than the normal ones. was doing ok today but then got starving had a bit of a domestic and had a few too many crisps and 3 glasses of wine tonight after dinner, not good even for a normal day.
mentioned before about sleep problem, anyone else find it difficult to sleep on this? not helping with my appetite either.
oh well, tomorrow is another day

Oh I was sooooo good all day. Then the skinny bastards in the house made me go and get pizza for them! Just because dh had driven all day with ds to the zoo!
I gave in and scoffed 1 bit of leftover pizza.
Still have only had 2 cups of milky coffe, 1 carrot, 1 cup of tea, 1 bowl of courgette and dill soup and a cottage cheese salad (which was disgusting by the way!)
Off to bed now before the muchies start.
Found it hard today as I didn't go out shopping but working from home and was v bored and v starving.

radiohelen 'It's not eat what you like! It's eat a sensible Mediterranean diet of about 2000 calories a day.'

Is it? Obviously if I stick to the sensible 2000 calorie diet then it'll work better (but if I could stick to that then I wouldn't be 3 stone overweight in the first place ) I notice you got the GH article, is there more/different info in there?

I want to use the Genesis sheet as a diet plan and not have to worry about calories the rest of the time and the moon on a stick as well, please

The VLC days are having a massive knock-on effect on the normal days though, I'm eating less on my normal days than previously because the old portions make me feel uncomfortably full and I'm not stressing about the least little hunger pang like I used to, but I can't face the thought of calorie counting and stressing about a bottle of glass of wine here and there.

Oh well, I suppose only time will tell :o

Oh bugger - I may have made that bit up in a fit of fervent self righteousness. I think it's in the GH magazine which has disappeared in today's clean up. I will have a look when I find it and report back.

I was trying to keep it simple in my head so I didn't just eat all the leftover cake in the house.

Oh I'm so pleased :o

I spend my life in a cloud of guilt that I can't stick to a sensible 2000 calorie diet, I couldn't do this one if I had to spend the 5 normal days calorie counting and stressing, I'm hoping the intangible changes (like being able to recognise what hunger feels like and not getting upset about it) are going to be what makes the difference with this one.

Think the idea for the 5 days is to eat reasonably and base it round a med style diet - so not so much white bread and chips - more fruit veg fish and olive oil .. the 2000 calories limit I think is meant to represent what is a normal calories allowance for a day for a female not on a weigh reduction programme - guess if you have severe food issues this could be hard to manage but my understanding from the trial was the 2 low cal days make you more aware of food, volumes, hunger etc ane makes you naturally eat less .. we were never told to count calories on the 5 days - just be more mindful and selective - as said, 2 low cal days will not balance out 5 days of binging!!

TracyK I was so happy to read that u succumbed to temptation as I gave in to some of my kids pasta last night and a Friday glass of wine. Ho hum! Seem to be able to be good til five then it all goes wrong.

Need to get my food sorted better for next weeks lo cal days!

hi, don't worrry, I succombed also! Though as I said earlier, I'm finding it harder on the normal days - my evenings have gone to pot and have snacked too much and had more than my planned 1 glass of wine.

Maybe we need to realistic while also being strict.

Would it help some people to do the 650cal day during the week rather than Fri-Sun? For me, it would be harder to severely limit my diet at the w/e.

I've just had a major breakthrough, dh has said he wants to try it as well :)

Hopefully that's going to be encouragement and competition all in one and it'll mean I only have to cook for the kids on Monday and Tuesday (result on the lazy housewife side also!)

Need to rein in the normal days a little now, dh has terrifying amounts of willpower and I'm damn sure he's not going to beat me at my own diet :o

I did find it easier to do Mon and Tue - weekends are too free to find time to eat - and being with family all day means too much exposure to more "normal meals" - whereas at work and with kids at school, day is more under my control and I am away from the house and so food is more controlled. During week most meals are not family meals except dinner - whereas weekends every meal is communal and it makes it hard to decline what ever they are having and just chow down on some milk and broccolli!

Also I find motivation highest at start of week, as usually have had a good weekend and eaten some nice food - and usually feel fat!

Good news about husband joining in - a bit of competition never hurts!

As for wine on the down days, I did cheat a tiny bit by making very weak spritzer with no cal soda and lots of limes - did almost help! Or try vodka as at least no carbs!

Right. I have recovered the Good Housekeeping from under the woodworking magazines by DH bed .

It says in there to follow an 1800 calorie a day diet!!! Only 200 less than a "normal" 2000 calorie diet..... ooops!

BUT... it's not in the Genesis bumph to do this. They just say eat sensibly. So I vote we take the Genesis advice!

ooh, interesting! well i had a whopping 2500 cals yesterday (it was a bad day and crisps and wine were my downfall..) so am cutting back todayto goal of 1750, so far, so good. had 1,000 calories til now so got room for a light dinner and a little wine topped off with a banana to help me sleep..
No crisps left in the house and intend to keep it that way.

How does the GH article compare to the DM one, same sort of info covered?

radiohelen I'm with you on taking the Genesis advice!

I'm not going to do calorie counting at all, portion sizes in the Genesis info are slightly smaller than I would usually use (a portion of veg is a handful but I have big hands!) so I'm making an effort to give myself smaller portions every day, VLC or normal.

Otherwise though, my normal days are going to be normal :o (I'm not going to post if I've eaten more than I should though, I suppose the thread needs validation for the good stuff not for the bad IYSWIM?)

The Genesis trial had good results for an easy-to-follow, no stress-except-being-a-bit-hungry-2-days-a-week lifestyle change, so that's what I'm sticking to.
Call me cynical but it looks like the lifestyle journalists have tried to tart it up to make it more magazine-friendly and have managed to turn it into just another calorie counting exercise!

I was amazed yesterday how many times I went to grab a handful of nuts, or have a handful of m and m's or a bit of bread and butter. I must do it subconsciously all day long! No wonder I have weight to loose!
did my kettle bell class after scrambled eggs and toast this morning. then had a protein shake and some almonds. Saving myself for some salmon at the inlaws, dfil got a smoking oven for his Xmas. Saved yet again from a chunky/curry tonight.

zog- i'm doing some carb/calorie counting on normal days as a guide for me as i try to cut down carbs in my general diet. For shame, I had to out myself yesterday as felt such a glutton, but each to their own!

As you say, it's not in the spirit of the ID to focus on calorie counting except on the VLCDs but we all have our own take on it.

tracy, am also have salmon tonight, enjoy!

Expat- :o @ outing yourself for feeling like a glutton, internet forum thread as confessional!

I suppose I'm feeling a bit guilty myself for not wanting to calorie count because I've never managed to achieve anything by it. I can recite calorie contents with the best of them but when it comes to actually working out what is in the food I actually stuff down myself it's a big mental block

Am utterly determined not to cheat on my VLC days though, managed it this week and am still eating less than usual on my normal days so I suppose time will tell. It's unheard of for me to still be enthusiastic about a diet a whole week in though, so so far so good :)

Haven't seen the DM article so can't compare sorry! I think though Zog is right. You can imagine the conversation in the features meeting

"What? A diet with no calorie counting, no counting of anything for most of the week? That'll never work. We'll have to force them to count calories on the other days otherwise they'll eat like pigs, unlike us beautiful people here at the magazine"

Lets just take it steady and see how we get on.

I've been lurking and would like to give it a go. I'll start on Tue as that's when DH is off abroad for a few weeks for work, much easier when I don't have to cater for DH type meals.

Please may I join in?
I've been thinking about doing this for a while. Plan to do Tues and Weds as I figure we are always eating leftovers on Monday. Stopped drinking (boo!) last Tuesday and am also not eating meat this month.