The Truth About the Every-Other-Day Diet | Women's Health

Have you heard about the new book, the Every-Other-Day Diet? It has a premise that sounds too good to be true: Lose weight without giving up the foods you love. The catch? While you can eat whatever you crave one day, you have to limit yourself to 500 calories the next. "Diets don't work because no one can endure day after day of deprivation, cut off from the foods they love," author Krista Varaday, Ph.D., writes in the book. "But the reasons why traditional diets don't work are the same reasons why the Every-Other-Day Diet does work—because it does away with daily deprivation and hard-to-follow rules." 

So will the whole one day on, one day off thing melt flab? Some research suggests that “intermittent fasting” actually results in greater fat loss than if you stuck to the same calorie count every day, and other animal studies suggest that it may even help you live longer and prevent cognitive decline. Granted, staying under 500 calories every other day can be a challenge at best and next to impossible at worst—one salad can easily set you over the limit. Odds are, you’ll be cranky and dragging from the lack of calories if you stick to such a strict intermittent fasting regimen, says Boston-based sports nutritionist Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook.

But if you're tempted by the idea of being able to eat whatever you want during certain time periods—and still losing weight—you can adopt a similar strategy that's not quite so restrictive. The 8-Hour Diet (which has also been called "the food lover's diet"), for example, suggests that (for at least three days a week) you chow down on your favorite foods within an eight-hour time frame, while you fast for the remaining 16 hours each day. Cutting back on calories a few days a week—instead of every single day—is more do-able for some people and may help keep your metabolism from slowing down as much as it would if you were to severely slash your calorie intake every day, says Lauren Slayton, M.S., R.D., author of The Little Book of Thin.

MORE: How Much Weight Can You REALLY Lose In One Week?

Intermittent fasting definitely isn't for everyone: If you get hangry every time you go longer than a few hours without eating, then a more traditional weight-loss plan is probably smarter for you. But as long as you know what you’re in for and the idea of only eating at certain times doesn’t intimidate you, go ahead and give it a test-drive.

MORE: Is It Normal to Feel Hungry All the Time While Dieting?

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