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.

Oops. Meant emotional eating thing

vlc today. So far so good but could eat a scabby dog atm am sooo hungry Never mind, dinner soon!

Had grilled bacon rashers and cottage cheese with pineapple for breakfast. I know it sounds disgusting, but it was all I had in the fridge and it was absolutely delicious! Who knew?!

Lunch was salad with more cottage cheese (must go shopping...) and having a small plate of bolognese, no pasta or cheese, tonight for dinner. Also had a few coffees. Don't have any fruit in though...

Had a run earlier on, before I get too weak! No running tomorrow as will be my second vlc day. Looking forward to wednesday already...

That is so good that you are learning how much unneccessary snacking we all do during the day, but with the assurance that once the 2 days are over, we can eat normally-ish again.

Do you think men should do the 650 cals a day too? Even big men? Surely they should have a wee bit more??
I've not done so well - had a small packet of mini cheddars and a handful of almonds. Was so friggin starving.
Might be able to pull it back if I don't have much else till tomorrow. Did do some exercises while waiting for milk to heat in mwave earlier though.

I guess men could do it - maybe if you take the ratio of 650/2000 where the 2000 is the average number of calories needed by a woman to maintain weight - and use whatever it is for me - who knows!!

I would also say that is does take a couple of weeks to get used to and perfect the low calorie days so do not worry if your first couple of attempts fail - hunger is a hard experience to go through especially when I guess a lot of us are here due to not letting ourselves experience it - on the trial there was a drop out rate at teh start as some people could not cope with it even when they had done the dry run. I found it hard but just stick with it and I bet you will findthat you lose some weight as just the awareness you get about food makes you natually cut back and over time you adapt and find ways to cope adn work round it - and then enjoy the fact that 5 days out of 7 you are not on a diet!

good to have your voice of experience, makes me feel better!

I'm with you all on the 'not realising how much I usually just constantly graze/snack' until I shouldn't can't. My first vlc day and hasn't been too bad up until now but my danger time is when I get home from work ie after 4pm. I'm still not sure what to have for dinner as I could eat the proverbial horse now. I know they're not great but a Coke Zero helps me.

But I have downloaded Dr John Briffa's 'Escape the Diet Trap' book on to my Kindle as it's 'only' £3.99. I've only skimmed some bits so far (am a slow reader) but it's fascinating and seemingly very sensible. Different in many ways to the Genesis but there is much crossover advice.

Day one done and dusted. Bit tetchy but def know that grazing means I eat lots more than I need to.

Onwards and Downwards! No snacks tomorrow, just three decent meals.

Here's to Tuesday!

well done Blue - it really does get easier from here

Here goes day 2...

Shame dh has taken all the milk to work and the milkman's late so I can't even have a
Banana for breakfast it is then.

poor you, Zog! My dh polished off my carefully reserved yoghurt last week whjen I was on a VLCD, could have killed him!

not meaning to annoy those on VLCD, but seeing as I'm not today, have to comment that am getting OBESSED with food, esp w carb avoidance. Am worried I'm counting too much still on my days "off" and that my metabolism will be permanently buggered when I inevitably slip off the wagon at some point..
Reading (again when I should be studying...) around this took me to the primal diet/exercise stuff online (oh the wonders of google..)and someone or other advocates the occasional or even weekly binge to overcome this and to trick the body out of starvation mode. Must say am liking the sound of that! Am I making sense here?!

moonshine, would be interested to hear your comments about Briffa's book.
Only read the 2 articles I've got via Times android so you must be finding out a lot more.

One primal link was marksdailyapple.com if anyone else is interested

oh god, that site has some seriously scary photos to go with the success stories though - before and after photos taken to the extreme (and all via the tanning salon/photo-shop/?)..A lot of the actual info-laden stuff seems quite sensible though. I must go and study now..

I did read in the 4 hour body book - which is a basic lowish carb one that each week you should have a day where you eat just what you want - so a fairly strict hard core 6 days and then one day of anything goes. Does makes sense! For me now though, I recognise my pathetic inability to be good for more than 2 days a week so not sure it would work for me - yet.

I would not worry too much at this early stage about being too obsessed - any change in routine that is going to work requrires thought and effort and once you see it working and get used to it, I am sure it will be lower profile in your mind ..

thanks, ZZmum. are you having a VLCD today? Was that 4 hour body book advocating intermittent fasting? Sounds it from the name but never heard of it..

I am on VLCD today - am now 3lb down from last week and so feeling good! Managed to go to gym yesterday as well

The 4 hour body book is Tim Ferris - he advocates a very simple diet 6 days a week based around eggs, some black beans and low carb with just 4 hours exercise a month - and then the major day off - so not really intermittent diet - more a binge to boost metabolism similar to how you have read.. the book is huge and to be honest, I did not like it as he pushes a lot of supplements and not sure I believed his science - except for the low carb which I do really believe in now .. well works for me so it must be right!

I guess research is interesting but I find that too much info means I land up taking bits from several different diets - usually the bits I like and then failing to follow any properly!!

Now time for me to work and you to study and to forget about food for an hour or so!!

yes, mum IKWYM about mixing it all up, there's so much (conflicting) info around but am fairly convinced about the virtues of low carb - am already feeling better, I think.

Did 20mins cross-trainer yest, planning longish walk w kids today, plus some weight-resistance stuff.

am REALLY going to go now..

Love this thread. I'm fascinated by what makes us fat & ill. I'm low carbing at the moment because I know it works for me & I can maintain will power for a few months on it, but I know that I will get bored eventually. This intermittent diet sounds great for when that happens.
For anyone really interested, there is a fascinating book by Gary Taubes called The Diet Dellusion. He is a journalist & wanted to try and understand why, despite all the dietary advice being pushed out by Western governments, the populations are just getting fatter & fatter. It is a giant tome & very sciencey in places but basically it says that sugars (particularly the really new ones like corn syrup) and simple processed carbs are our nemesis. That they are addictive and bugger our insulin production, give us Type 2 diabetes & a whole host of other health problems that plague modern man not to mention turning us into porkers.
Expat, you were saying you had wobbly bits you really wanted to tone. Have you tried Callanetics? It sounds very out of date - but it is flipping amazing. I never thought it was possible to tone specific parts of the body - but it really, really is.

I'm on a normal day after vlc yesterday. I found yesterday OK, felt a bit light headed at point but not hungry in my stomach iyswim.

I'm more hungry than normal today, couldn't wait til 12pm for lunch! But I'm making sure I eat a decent amount, otherwise I won't get through my 2nd vlc day tomorrow.

What's everyone eating on their vlc days? I could do with a few ideas.

I'm on VLC day 2, was a little shaky earlier but then remembered that I'd only had a banana and a cup of coffee so at almost 11am that was understandable!

I'm sticking to the Genesis printout and only having 4 veg portions/1 fruit portion/2 pints milk (no protein/other dairy/soups even) because it's working well for me not having any 'proper' food, it's taking the temptation to pick at banned foods or overeat away completely which is making it easier.

Probably not the best for giving menu ideas for that reason, today I've had a banana, a small tub of raw carrot sticks and a small bowl of pickled beetroot. Later on I'll have 1/2 tin of tomatoes and maybe some sliced raw pepper.
It's the coffee that's keeping me going though!

OK for breakfast I have a couple of eggs that I either scramble with chili and coriander or I make huevos rancheros which is eggs fried with a spicy tomato sauce - my appetite is strongest in morning so I tend to use more calories in morning so can sometimes add chopped smoked bacon or cheese or chorizo to add some protein - all within calories though! I find strong flavours tend to make me feel that I have eaten more than I have IYSWIM?

Lunch I go for a veggie soup - quite like brocolli or a veggie muligatawny ...

Dinner - I try to find something to chew -so I like a plate of roast veg - aubergines and courgettes and mushrooms tend to stay quite firm so it feels like a proper meal - I tend to drown in either soya sauce or chillis ..

and the rest of time I bloat out on diet coke or fizzy water and count down the hours to a decent normal meal!

I'm on normal today - think my dib dabs are starting - so no real enthusiasm for the diet grr.
Prob won't do VLC till Thur when I'm at a clients all day that lock me in an upstairs room and don't even offer me coffee - so will have no temptations.
Have had coffee and WW toast this morning and a couple of squares of dark chilli chocolate.

ZZMum - yes, I know what you mean about strong flavours. I was only saying to dh yesterday that adding chillis to my soup made it more warming and satisfying.

I'm sticking to 650 calories but making it up of lean protein, vegetables, one portion of fruit and one of dairy. Yesterday I had strawberries and yoghurt for breakfast, roasted vegetables with 2 egg omlette for lunch and chicken and vegetable soup for dinner.

Tomorrow I think I'll have the same but change dinner to stir fried prawns with veg and lots of chilli and corriander.

Tracyk - what are dib dabs??

Expat - I haven't read anymore today and yesterday I skipped straight to the 'what to eat' bit but from what I have read (and it could be similar to Gary Taubes??) it seems fascinating and is advice taken from lots of studies which, as described by PostBellum is anti-processed food, warns against grains/too many carbs which mess with your insulin levels, but promotes (the right) fats as very definitely non-fattening (although obviously not in large quantities). And he confirmed everything that I thought about the connection between exercise & weight loss (it made me feel good but never helped me to lose weight - in fact it makes me put on weight!). But I shall report back.

I am on my second VLC day - I'd be ok if someone put me to sleep at 4pm every day! But I am terrified about eating 'normally' for the rest of the week so will try and stick to the low-carb or at least low-GI way of eating for now.

Am interested - does anyone weigh daily and, although has lost weight over a week, found that you have exaggerated up and down weight spiking (if that makes sense)?