After two weeks, your SIRT1 gene will be fully activated and working for you. You’ll have a better sense of what it means to be hungry, and you’ll already have begun to see and feel the benefits of up-day, down-day dieting. You’ll have lost some weight and you’ll be feeling more energetic. If you have allergies, asthma, or arthritis, you will have started to see a reduction of symptoms.
Now is the time to begin to eat regular food and, depending on how much weight you want to lose, also increase your calorie consumption on your down days. As with most things in life, however, this increased freedom carries with it added risks—in this case the risk that you will begin to rationalize and deceive yourself about how much you’re really eating. If you stop losing weight, 98 percent of the time it is because you are taking in too many calories on the down days. I’m not saying that you’ll be doing this on purpose, but there is an unconscious tendency within all of us to underestimate the amount we are actually eating.
My husband has been on the Alternate-Day Diet with me for six months. He was diagnosed as extremely hypertensive (very high blood pressure), with high cholesterol, over twenty years ago and has been on various medications ever since. Seven years ago he had a heart attack. The doctors have always said the same old thing—take the pills, cut fat and sodium, exercise, and lose weight.
Regardless of his weight (which has varied) and his eating/exercise programs (which we worked very hard to get right), his blood pressure was always off the scale. Even with the medication, it refused to come down to a healthy range. He also found it increasingly difficult to lose weight, which may have had something to do with his multiple medications.
One week into this diet his blood pressure was the lowest we have ever seen it. Better than that—it was optimal! This was also right after treating himself to a burger combo for lunch! Convinced that this must have been some kind of mistake, we have carefully monitored his blood pressure frequently since. He is getting the same consistent low readings. He is now also 20 pounds lighter and much happier. Needless to say, we are delighted. Maybe it’s time to discuss cutting meds with the doctor!
—Mrs. G. M.
Keeping that journal we talked about earlier and writing down what you’re eating on your down days is a good way to keep this from happening. The point at which you should also start keeping a record of what you’re eating on your up days is when you stop losing weight or begin to lose less than a pound a week. The objective is to maintain the sense of freedom alternate-day restriction provides without falling off the wagon, so to speak. Keeping a journal can actually bolster your enthusiasm and help you remain motivated to press onward and downward
Because of daily weight fluctuation, do not weigh yourself more than once a week and always weigh yourself on the morning following a down day—for example, on day 6 or 8, but not on day 7. You could very well see a variation in weight of as much as 3 to 4 pounds from an up day to a down day. This is because of the amount of water that’s contained in food and retained in your body. It does not reflect your actual “true” weight. Weighing more often or at the end of an up day could lead to unnecessary anxiety and frustration, which could derail your diet altogether.
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ADJUSTING YOUR DOWN-DAY CALORIES
It stands to reason, of course, that the fewer calories you take in on your down days the better off you’ll be, particularly if your goal is to lose weight, not simply to maintain your weight and improve your health. If you switch to eating real food after the initial induction period and can still keep your down-day calorie intake to no more than 20 percent of normal, that would be great—and many people do it without any problem. For others, however, 20 percent feels too restrictive for long-term compliance (which is, obviously, the key to success on any diet). I would suggest that you try it at 20 percent for at least a week and see how you feel. If it’s too difficult or unpleasant for you, try going to 25 or 35 percent.
Within this range you can have tasty meals that will leave you satisfied. You won’t feel as deprived as you were during the first two weeks of the diet, which means that you’ll be more likely to stay with it. My goal here is to be practical. If you feel as deprived as you probably have felt on all the diets you’ve quit, you won’t continue on this one either. I’m therefore recommending as few calories as I believe you’ll find tolerable over the long haul.
Personally, although I sometimes go as low as 30 percent, I regularly eat approximately 50 percent of my normal intake on alternate days for a couple of reasons: I know that this level of reduction is enough to activate SIRT1 and give me significant health benefits, and it’s the level at which I’m most comfortable and don’t gain weight. I would always like to lose a few more pounds, as most of us probably would, but I’ve been unable to maintain a lower weight over time, so I have decided to stay at the 50 percent level (or lower).
I might be described as a backsliding reformed disinhibitor. Disinhibitors are usually men who like to eat and who describe themselves as “big eaters” in an almost macho sense. Restrainers, by contrast, are typically young women who are concerned about their body weight for reasons of appearance. I have come to realize the danger of being a disinhibitor in the present food environment, but I do have a natural inclination to overeat, and only by restricting my caloric intake every other day can I keep my weight from creeping upward.
Actually, as indicated by the study done by Ravussin and his colleagues, eating 75 percent of required calories every day activates the SIRT1-mediated calorie restriction mechanism, and we believe that this level of restriction for a 36-hour period of lower energy, as provided by the Alternate-Day Diet, is sufficient to turn on SIRT1, although not as intensively as lower intakes on the down day.
I know that many people would prefer to be told exactly what to eat when and how much on every day of a diet, but if you’re looking at “diet” as a lifelong lifestyle, rather than an on-again, off-again quick fix, that simply isn’t practical. No one is going to stick to such restriction very long—and the proof is that despite the vast number of diets available to everyone, the great majority of us remain overweight.
The Alternate-Day Diet succeeds because it allows you to determine the level of restriction at which you are comfortable and requires you to restrict only on alternate days. Once you determine the level of down-day restriction you can live with (up to 50 percent) and make sure that you stick to that, you’ll never again have to worry about “cheating” or eating “bad” food at a party, or never having a cheeseburger again for the rest of your life, because you’ll be able to do all of that at least every other day.
IT’S ABOUT MAINTAINING A BALANCE
Remember that I’m not advocating overeating on your up days, but you do need to eat normally not just to prevent “diet fatigue” but also to prevent your metabolism from slowing down.
In general, three things happen when you lose weight:
• During normal weight loss (if you’re dieting every day), after a few days your metabolism slows down by about 15 percent and remains at that level as long as you continue to lose weight.
• Once you’ve stopped losing weight your metabolism stabilizes, but there is some evidence to suggest that there may be a long-term reduction in metabolic rate of about 3 or 4 percent in the average person.
• Once you weigh less, you will need fewer calories to maintain your weight even if your metabolic rate isn’t reduced. This ought to be fairly obvious—if your body weighs less, it consumes fewer calories.
No diet can change the fact that the less you weigh, the less you can eat without gaining weight, but following the Alternate-Day Diet will at least prevent the reduction in metabolic rate that occurs with other diets. Because you’re not restricting calories every day, your body doesn’t perceive that it is “starving” (which is what triggers calorie conservation through a reduction in metabolic rate), and therefore your metabolism doesn’t slow down. This principle was demonstrated in Ravussin’s study of volunteers who ate every other day for three weeks. Their resting metabolic rate did not go down. This is one of the great benefits of the Alternate-Day Diet.
It’s tempting, when something is working, to want to do it more and better, and in the Asthma Study it did appear that our study subjects were restricting calories to some degree on their up days. You, too, may begin to think that the less you eat on your up days the better off you’ll be, but again, it’s a question of balance. You don’t want to slow down your metabolism and you also don’t want to feel deprived every day—that’s nothing less than a prescription for noncompliance and, ultimately, diet failure.
According to anecdotal evidence disseminated by the cruise industry, the average person gains 8 pounds in the course of a seven-day cruise. Based on the average American BMI of 26 or 27, my own calculations indicate that these people must be eating about 250 percent of their normal calorie intake every day throughout the entire cruise.
Although that sounds impossible, it probably isn’t, especially when you’re being invited to partake of an abundance of good, tasty free food virtually nonstop and you’re also on vacation, outside your usual daily routine, and you know it isn’t going to last forever. What you should recognize is that you are capable of greatly increasing the amount you eat if you allow yourself to eat without any attempt at self-control.
The moral of this story is that life isn’t a cruise, and while I don’t advocate that you restrict calories on your up days, I also caution you against throwing caution to the wind and stuffing yourself. Balance is everything—at the dining table as it is in all of life!
That said, however, the fact remains that in order to lose weight we have to use more calories than we are eating. So whether or not there is a change in metabolic rate with this or any diet, we simply have to accept the fact that we have to restrain ourselves sufficiently to lose weight.
FOODS TO FEED YOUR DOWN DAYS
The following lists are neither exhaustive nor definitive, but they’ll get you started on the road to down-day success. Any paperback calorie counter or online calorie site will help you to expand into other foods you enjoy.
Nonstarchy Carbohydrates
The following vegetables are nutrient-dense, full of antioxidants, filling (because they contain water and fiber), and very low in calories:
Adapted from Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy by Walter Willett, MD, with Patrick J. Skerrett.
|
FOOD |
AMOUNT |
CALORIES |
|
Artichokes, boiled |
4 ounces |
50 |
|
Asparagus, boiled |
4 spears |
12 |
|
Beans: green or wax |
1 pound |
128 |
|
Bok choy, boiled |
1/2 cup |
10 |
|
FOOD |
AMOUNT |
CALORIES |
|
Broccoli, boiled |
1/2 cup florets |
20 |
|
Brussels sprouts, boiled |
1 cup (7 to 8 sprouts) |
56 |
|
Cabbage, green |
1 cup shredded |
18 |
|
Carrots, raw |
1 cup sliced |
52 |
|
Cauliflower, boiled |
6 florets |
25 |
|
Eggplant, boiled |
1/2 cup cubes |
14 |
|
Greens: collard, kale, mustard, or turnip, boiled |
1/2 cup |
25 |
|
Lettuce: butterhead, Boston, Bibb |
1 cup shredded |
7 |
|
Mushrooms, raw |
1 cup whole |
24 |
|
Okra, boiled |
1/2 cup sliced |
26 |
|
Pea pods, boiled |
1/2 cup |
34 |
|
Peppers: green, red, yellow, or orange, raw |
1 cup sliced |
25 |
|
Spinach, boiled |
1 cup |
36 |
|
Squash, boiled |
1/2 cup |
15 |
|
Tomatoes, raw |
1 medium |
33 |
|
Water chestnuts, canned |
1/2 cup sliced |
35 |
|
Zucchini, boiled |
1/2 cup sliced |
9 |
Lean Protein
A small amount of protein will help to keep you feeling fuller longer.
|
Chicken breast |
||
|
skinless and boneless, broiled |
4 ounces |
186 |
|
Egg whites |
2 large |
33 |
|
Fish |
||
|
Cod |
4 ounces cooked |
119 |
|
Flounder |
4 ounces cooked |
133 |
|
Salmon |
4 ounces cooked |
233 |
|
Snapper |
4 ounces cooked |
145 |
|
Swordfish |
4 ounces cooked |
145 |
|
Tuna |
4 ounces cooked |
209 |
|
Shellfish |
||
|
Crab |
4 ounces cooked |
116 |
|
Lobster |
4 ounces cooked |
111 |
|
Shrimp |
4 ounces cooked |
112 |
|
Tofu, silken firm |
1 slice |
52 |
|
Turkey breast |
||
|
skinless and boneless, roasted |
4 ounces |
153 |
Good Fats
Remember that whether or not they’re “healthy,” all fats have about 100 calories per tablespoon, so they’ll have to be used very sparingly on your down days.
Canola oil
Olive oil
Soybean oil
Down-Day Flavorings and Food Substitutes
Use as many and as much as you like—the more flavorful your food, the more it will satisfy you.
Any dried herbs and spices
Garlic
Ginger, fresh
Hot sauce: Tabasco or Worcestershire
Lemon juice
Low-fat or non-fat broth
No-calorie salad dressings
Nonstick cooking spray
Salt and pepper
Soy sauce (20 calories per tablespoon)
Vinegar: balsamic or wine
No one’s immune, and there will be times when you’ll just have to have a snack right now. Portion control is important when choosing snacks, because a calorie-dense food may be appropriate for a snack when eaten in small amounts but can blow your calories for the day if you eat too much. This is especially true for nuts, nut butters, and cheese. Other foods, such as raw vegetables, are lower in calories and can be eaten in larger amounts. Some companies are now selling 100-calorie packages of foods for snacking.
100 CALORIES OR LESS
3 cups air-popped popcorn
7 walnut halves
10 raw almonds
20 peanuts
25 pistachios
1 cup nonfat milk
1 ounce light string cheese
1 Jell-O nonfat pudding cup
1 hard-cooked large egg (limit if on a
cholesterol-reduced diet)
1 tablespoon peanut butter
50 CALORIES OR LESS
1 cup chopped raw vegetables
1/2 cup blueberries or raspberries
1/2 cup fresh cherries
1/2 medium banana
3 fresh apricots
1 medium kiwifruit
1 small apple
15 grapes
3/4 cup tomato juice
3/4 cup vegetable juice cocktail
2 slices melba toast
2 Hershey’s Kisses
10 CALORIES OR LESS
1/2 cup sugar-free gelatin dessert
1 celery stalk
3 cherry tomatoes
1 medium dill pickle
FREE
Coffee, without cream or caloric sweetener
Black or green teas, plain
Diet sodas
DOWN-DAY STRATEGIES FOR STAYING ON TRACK
Once you’ve completed the induction phase and are using meal-replacement shakes as your main source of calories on down days, you’ll be looking for ways to get through down days with more than just the anticipation of tomorrow.
• Make one of your meals a shake. This will give you one less meal to think about. It’s easy, and if you have a shake for breakfast, you’ll know exactly how many calories you have to last you the rest of the day. Or if you generally eat lunch on the run, take your shake with you so that you won’t be tempted to grab whatever is handy or stop in at your favorite fast-food emporium.
• Eat lean protein. You’ll be more satisfied with less. It will keep you feeling fuller longer. And you won’t be spiking your blood sugar and triggering cravings for sweets as you will with carbohydrates.
• Keep your measuring implements handy so that you don’t underestimate what you’re consuming or become tempted to add just one more dab of peanut butter to your cracker.
• Take some physical action to record your calorie intake, such as writing down every time you eat something. This action uses a principle of behavior modification that says “the hand teaches the heart”; that is, the physical action somehow breaks through the denial to which we are all subject. If you cannot commit yourself to writing it down, you are likely to fail.
• Exercise: Intense or prolonged physical activity can affect your down-day calorie requirement. For example, slow jogging for one mile (which takes most people about 20 minutes) burns about 100 calories, allowing you to add 100 calories to your down-day intake. Just be aware that you need to be very honest with yourself about how many extra calories you are burning. Therefore, if it takes you less than 20 minutes, or you don’t walk a full mile, don’t even count it.
I’ve been doing this diet for more than six months and have lost 26 pounds. I have another 23 to lose to reach my goal.
It’s still working for me, though the loss does slow down somewhat (like most diets, really). Overall, I have averaged a steady (and very healthy) 1 pound per week. This includes some “mistakes” and a five-week vacation of free eating, which only resulted in a 5-pound gain that amazingly fell off within two weeks of getting back in the game!
As you progress, it’s important to check back with the Calorie Calculator (to calculate an estimate of calorie requirements for “down” days) and adjust calories for your lower weight accordingly. After being on this plan for a while, it does become necessary to watch up-day calories too. Though that seems less of an issue, as I just don’t want large amounts of food anymore. My latest strategy has been to incorporate some of my down-day tricks on up days in order to get the most out of my calorie allowance.
All I can say is that this is the easiest diet to stay with. Isn’t that the key? If I can do it, anyone can!
I don’t see this as a “diet,” I see it as a lifestyle, and don’t doubt that I will continue to use this forever if I am to maintain my weight when I get there.
—Mrs. J. S.