Eating To Lose Weight: The Every Other Day Diet

Fasting to lose weight has become a popular way of dropping pounds. But any sort of fasting solution is temporary. A healthy consistent diet is typically needed for effective weight management. So, eating to lose weight is a much better alternative. The Every Other Day Diet provides a unique approach to weight loss that encourages you to eat to lose the weight.

What is it?

The Every Other Day Diet is a plan that alternates the types of foods you eat from one day to the next. On one day you will limit meals to high protein foods, such as meat, chicken, and fish. Carbohydrates should be limited on the high protein days. On the following day you are allowed to eat pretty much any mix of foods that you'd like including meats, pasta, and snacks.

Sounds a little too easy. Too good to be true. Eating to lose weight? How does it work?

Eating To Lose Weight

The author of the diet, Jon Benson, is a well respected fitness and diet expert. He maintains that by following a caloric cycling routine, the body is fooled into thinking that calories are not being restricted, when in fact they are. In most diets where calories are restricted, the body slows the metabolism down to compensate. This means less fat is burned to produce energy. If the body can be fooled into maintaining a high metabolism while calories are restricted at the same time, you produce a far more effective weight loss scenario.

The Every Other Day Diet is broken down into a cycle of "burn days" and "feed days". During the burn days, you eat only 30-50% of your maintenance caloric intake. During the feed days, you consume up to 150% of your maintenance caloric intake. You are allowed to eat the foods that you like on these days as long as the portions are controlled.

Sounds good. But how do you control portions?

Benson introduces the HOME (Hands on Method of Eating) method to determine how much you should be eating. HOME lays out a means to size portions based on different parts of your hand. It males for an easy visual reference guide to follow when dishing out the plates.

There are three primary plans in the Every Other Day Diet program:

1. Primer - This is the most flexible of the three programs, and allows you to essentially eat whatever you want every other day.

2. Lifestyle - The maintenance program, recommended after the initial primer phase. There are only two "feed days" here, meaning that you can only eat whatever you want for these two days. 

3. Extreme - The most strict of the three plans and is meant for athletes and bodybuilders.

Benson recommends that you start with the Primer plan where you can eat what you want every other day. After a certain period (once specific weight loss goals are met) you should move to the Lifestyle plan, which restricts "feed" days to only two per week.

Benson also outlines three caveats to his program. Most weight loss programs hype the results you will see from following their diet guidelines. Benson takes a much more realistic approach by making it clear that his program will only work if:

1. You are dedicated to succeed.

2. You must incorporate some type of exercise program. Any weight loss program that does not include exercise is a scam, as exercise is the single most effective method of burning fat.

3. You must be realistic. The weight is not going to come off overnight. Set your goals so that they are reasonable and attainable.

So, if you are committed to following the plan, exercise, and have realistic goals, you will lose weight. Under this plan, the caloric cycling will ensure that you will lose weight fast. Benson's research into the workings of the human metabolism are spot on and have been proven in multiple studies. Leveraging the metabolism's fat burning abilities is an effective way to control your weight.

So, forget about fasting to lose weight. Forget about those lose weight fast fad diets. Eating to lose weight is an effective and long term strategy that will enable you to lose weight and, more importantly, keep it off. The Eating Every Other Day Diet is an effective eating to lose weight diet.  To learn more, click on the book below.