The Alternate-Day Diet Revised: The Original Up-Day, Down-Day Eating Plan to Turn on Your "Skinny Gene," Shed the Pounds, and Live a Longer and Healthier Life

I have been very frustrated in the past with my attempts at losing weight. I became aware of the "keto" eating phenomenon over 10 years ago and gave it a try and lost a good bit of weight but then it all came back. It was also very hard to do with my work and schedule. Constantly having to prepare meals at home is not really something I can do and continue to move my business (and my family) forward in life. I also was never going to be able to do traditional "calorie restriction" diets. Again...I don't have the time to punch everything I eat into an app...and I REALLY don't have time to weight food on a scale. So from a practical perspective, it wasn't going to work.It also wasn't going to work from a psychological perspective. Why? Because I like to "eat big". Not eat like a bird. If we have Sunday dinner of roast, potatoes & gravy, carrots, rolls, and corn...I'm gonna eat it. And likely have seconds. If we go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner...I'm going to eat a full steak dinner with a loaded baked potato, rolls, peanuts, and whatever else shows up on the table. So there's no way that trying to eat micro-meals was going to work. So I pretty much felt dejected and doomed.Enter The Alternate Day Diet by Dr James Johnson!This book gave me so much hope. The up-day/down-day principle is so easy to follow. And no food-type restrictions other than not drinking things with sugar in them? That makes it easy to execute. And execution is everything. Theory is nothing...execution is everything. The theory behind the keto diet is sound...but executing on it is very hard.The author advises to start regulating calorie intake on your "down" day by utilizing meal replacement shakes. The reason is because portion control can be assessed and measured and maintained with ease. I didn't end up doing the meal replacement shake thing because I found a very convenient alternative....The McDonald's Bacon Ranch Chicken Salad w/ Grilled Chicken and Ranch DressingOn your down day you're pretty much supposed to limit your calorie consumption to 500 calories. The salad above? It has exactly 500 calories. So every other day I just hold off on eating till dinner time, get this salad from McDonald's and eat it with my family at the kitchen table. They eat whatever my wife prepares and I eat this large and filling salad.I've lost 15 lbs in about 2 months. Which is great. And the diet is flexible. We went on a 3-day vacation to an indoor waterpark and I just "came off" the diet for that period of time. Didn't worry about it. At with the family whatever they were eating. Knew I could go right back on the protocol when we got back. And I did. What about when I got sick with the flu pretty bad shortly thereafter? Diet and exercise were not on my radar. Sleep and eating chicken noodle soup was. So I just went off the diet...got over my sickness...and went back on it. No problem.I've been to the doctor and she gave me lots of praise for my progress. My wife says she notices a change as do my co-workers. So things are certainly headed int he right direction.The simplicity of the advice in this book is what I really love. And the psychological aspect. I get hungry in the afternoon on my "down" day...but I just tell myself that I'm going to have this big, healthy salad in a few hours and that I can eat whatever I want tomorrow and just like that... I'm fine. My mind isn't feeling desperate. I don't feel trapped. I don't feel constrained. I don't feel restricted. So the mental aspect of this diet is ideal because you can "mind hack" yourself easily to remain consistent.Finally, I love the fact that it's sociologically adaptable. Thanksgiving dinner, birthday cake, going to our family's favorite cupcake bakery in Frankenmuth Michigan when we go there for vacation....and a whole bunch of other things like that. They are all "unhealthy" decisions. But they are part of the culture that holds the world together and makes life worth living. With other diets you would have to pretty much avoid those things completely (cut them out of your life) or play hard games where you "re-do" them in a new "healthy" way. The new "healthy" revision is never as satisfying as the original. It's a mockery of it. And you know it. And that means you kind of "dread" the new version of a favorite eating tradition instead of looking forward to it. It's sad but true.Eating and food is a psychological/sociological thing just as much as a biological one. This approach to eating respects and honors that. You are empowered to be able to participate in those things and STILL lose weight. Over the course of a year your down day's will level out the "bumps it he road" that these unhealthy eating events create so that you can continue forward just as successful as someone adhering to a strict and miserable diet program.I'm so grateful for this book. Honestly...I feel like it's a secret weapon. They say that there's no magic bullet...but they're wrong. This IS the 'magic bullet" of weight loss. America's obesity problem could be solved with little pain, angst, and frustration if everyone simply read and then followed the advice given in this book. It's truly remarkable.

This is an excellent book and led me to do some research on his studies. This led me to Dr. Krista Varady who also has written books and did human studies on IF or modified IF. That also led me to the book, "the fast diet", basically the 5/2 diet. I decided to try Dr. Johnson's approach as he outlines in this book. After 4 weeks, I'm down 8 lbs. He is correct that it takes some time to get used to the fast day and only eating 500 to 600 calories. The first two weeks I couldn't do it completely but still lost weight. During the fourth week, I was able to do it and lost 2.5 lbs that week and am now excited to keep going. One thing that I think is misleading is that he says you can eat anything you like on the alternate day. He should definitely emphasize as long as it doesn't exceed 10% of your normal eating. You can't eat unlimited fried chicken, pizza, cake, etc on the alternate day if your goal is to lose weight. I have tried to keep my free day around 2000 calories and eating just three meals. The fast day, I break my 500 to 600 calories up over two meals around noon and 5pm. I drink about 60 ozs of water throughout the day which helps. Once I reach my goal weight, I may follow the 5/2 plan.

It's hard to write a review about this book because this way of eating is incredibly beneficial for me. I have trouble separating my positive results from what I think of the book. 7 years ago I had a gastric bypass and lost 114lbs. Since then, I have had a slow regain of 35lbs. Nothing I did to stop this worked. I work out 4 days/week. I tried monitoring my intake using MyFitnessPal. I visited my uncle in California, who had good success with intermittent fasting. He told me about it, and I have read online blogs and research online since. I ordered this and received it a week ago. In that time, I started eating a 4-3 plan (4 days eating normally, 3 days eating very low calorie, 8 hour window). In that time, my energy has increased, I don't get fatigued when working out, my food cravings are drastically reduced and I have started losing weight which has previously been very stubborn. I'm sure that it isn't for everyone, but that for those who have had difficulty losing weight with much regain, it is worth a shot. I think this way of eating addresses problems with stress hormones (cortisol) and insulin resistance. I have read reviews on Amazon from some who say they got nowhere with this way of eating. I think that is quite possible. I don't think that everyone's weight problem is the same. What Dr. Johnson's book said that was helpful for me was that he didn't recommend this way of eating for those with Type 1 diabetes. It was important to me that he identified contraindications for the diet which for me lends more credibility to his words. So, Dr. Johnson does a number of positive things in this book. I don't agree with all of his recommendations, but most are in the ball park of reasonable recommendations. I have gained much information from other sources, but for those who want to consider this type of eating plan, I think it is a good resource.

The book is filled with a lot of science talk-which is good for me because I like science! I haven't strated the diet yet, as I'm still reading the book. When I do will update this review!

This came well before the 5:2 diet and its clones.It works. Bought the book again as a refresher after 8 years. Working up to actually doing it but the intention is there.

Item was well packaged, as described and received in timely fashionThank you

When my weight hit 80kg and I was most definitely slap bang in the middle of the overweight band on a BMI diagram, it was time to do something about it. I had some while before flirted with the trendy 5:2 diet but struggled to stick with it. Recently I investigated the alternate fasting day diet, essentially an earlier incarnation of the far more well-known 5:2. Both diets ultimately originate from research into increased longevity as a result of calorie restriction and so that was the original motivation behind it all rather than weight loss per se.Never one to read just one book on a subject, I bought both The Every Other Day Diet by Krista Varady and this one by James Johnson. Both books have their differences. Varady doesn't really go into the underlying science in depth, in contrast to Johnson. Varady asserts that the 25% of calories on the fasting day optimises weight loss by minimising muscle loss; Johnson by contrast says that total food abstinence on each fasting day would be optimal in maximising the effects of the SIRT1 gene, but the 25% is a concession to the fact that no-one would be able to stick to such a diet, and it still has a sufficient effect. Varady seems to make no concession to extra calories on a fast day if your are exercising, whilst Johnson allows increasing from 500 to 1000. Varady argues that the dieter should step on the scales every day, Johnson says once a week.Personally I have not been calorie counting on the fasting days but just having one meal in the evening and trying to exercise a certain amount of portion control (and definitely no 'extras', e.g. wine). I think I have been finding this easier to maintain than 5:2 because of the establishment of a routine with every other day - with 5:2 you get back into normal eating for a few days then think "Oh God I've got to fast again" when the next fasting day comes around. Combined with my normal gym routine I have been losing around 1kg per week so far as expected.

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