Alternate Days diet to lose weight permanently

Rubén Bravo, a specialist in Nutrition, Gastronomy and Wines from the Camilo José Cela University, is the creator of the Alternate Days Diet, which guarantees progressive weight loss without feeling like you’re on a diet.

From Thedietmd.com, we tell you how to do the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently, including the pros and cons of this revolutionary plan.

What is the Alternate Days Diet

A weight loss plan that combines semi-fasting days in a balanced way with others of a more strict diet and the so-called “social days,” guaranteeing an effective weight loss routine.

Bet on a healthy diet that includes natural and fresh foods; the Alternate Days Diet allows you to lose weight quickly but with willpower, especially in the first phase, which is the most restrictive.

During the first phase, this diet promises a loss of between 4 and 6 kilos, while in the other two, the weight loss is lower but constant and without the dreaded rebound effect.

How to do the Alternate Days Diet

It is necessary to differentiate this diet from the so-called “miracle diets” since the Alternate Days plan does not restrict any food group, and carbohydrates are included in the menu daily. At the same time, legumes and healthy fats are added weekly.

The operation of this Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently is quite simple since it is divided into stages:

• Purifying days with semi-fasting days to purify the body and eliminate toxins, in which it is only possible to take up to 500 kcal.
• Diet days in which you can opt for fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and white fish.
• Social days allow one to indulge in little whims or take more caloric food without exceeding it.

Add good hydration in any of the three phases and drink at least eight glasses daily. And in turn, the diet is divided into three stages, in which the cleansing, diet and social days are distributed in different ways to achieve the goal of losing weight.

Phases of the Alternate Days Diet

Designed to lose between 16.5Kg to 23.5Kg in 4 months throughout its three phases:

• Fast Phase: It lasts three weeks and is the most restrictive phase of the weight loss plan since total calories are reduced to 500 kcal daily. In this phase, the week should always be distributed alternately: 3 cleansing days, two diet days and two social days.
• Evolution Phase: This phase lasts nine weeks, and the days are distributed: 3 days of the diet, two cleansing days and two social days.
• Controller Phase: It is the last phase, and it would be the maintenance phase since its objective is to avoid recovering the lost kilos. For this phase, the week will include four diet days, one cleansing day and two social days.

What to Eat on the Alternate Days Diet

The base of this diet does not have forbidden foods; it is a combination of fruits, vegetables, fish and low-fat dairy products.

However, some foods make the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight definitively a healthy eating plan because they help eliminate toxins from the body, providing nutrients that improve cardiovascular health and intestinal transit.

Let’s see several of the special foods that are part of the Alternate Days Diet  to lose weight permanently:

• Celery: Helps the body to get rid of impurities, improves intestinal transit, and is a good liver protector.
• Parsley: Improves digestion, helps combat fluid retention and improves kidney function.
• Onion: Thanks to its high content of Potassium, Flavonoids, Caffeic Acid, Alliin, Allicin, Quercithin and compounds rich in Sulfur, it helps combat fluid retention and prevent flu or bronchitis, improving inflammatory states of the intestine such as Crohn’s disease.
• Dandelion: Ideal for eliminating toxins in the blood, improves liver and biliary function, being an excellent diuretic
• Kefir: It is a fungus that feeds on milk and makes it ferment, resulting in a kind of yogurt that has beneficial health effects as it helps partially regenerate the intestinal flora, facilitate digestion and promote intestinal transit.
• Orange and mandarin juices: Low in sugar and with few calories, both citrus fruits have a high content of Vitamin A and C, in addition to Carotenes and Calcium, being perfect for helping boost the immune system, providing a feeling of vitality.
• Carrot Juice: Carrots are rich in Carotenes and have a high percentage of Vitamin E and Group B vitamins. According to the WHO, its frequent consumption would help prevent breast cancer and improve constipation problems; it is a diuretic, vitalizing and strengthening the nails and hair and enhancing skin quality.
• Hummus: Prepared with chickpeas, hummus is a healthy food, lacking in cholesterol and with a high percentage of Magnesium, Potassium, Phosphorus and Group B Vitamins.
• Kiwi: This moderate-calorie fruit is rich in Carotenes, Vitamin A and Vitamin C; in addition to fibre and minerals, it helps fight constipation and fluid retention. In addition, due to its high content of Vitamin C, it substantially improves iron absorption.
• Dark Chocolate: This food is rich in antioxidants. Its moderate consumption is an excellent ally against the cardiovascular, nervous system and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Type II Diabetes.
• Walnuts: Due to its multiple components beneficial to health, such as the high amounts of arginine, folate, fibre, tannins, polyphenols, and essential fatty acids omega three and alpha-linolenic, the consumption of walnuts helps reduce cardiovascular risk, improve sleep and memory.
• Red wine: A moderate consumption of red wine provides health benefits, being a powerful cardiovascular protector and helping to reduce bad LDL cholesterol and increase good HDL cholesterol, promoting sleep and good rest.
• Decaffeinated coffee: More than a dozen scientific studies have reached conclusions regarding coffee, caffeine and decaffeinated coffee, determining that frequently drinking decaffeinated coffee balances blood sugar levels, in addition to improving intestinal transit. It also helps to provide vitality and more excellent emotional balance.
• Whole wheat rye bread: A bread with the highest amount of dietary fibre, whole rye bread is recommended to reduce harmful cholesterol levels and for people who suffer from constipation. It has less fat and less gluten than traditional wheat bread.
• Lentils: A source of protein, vitamins and minerals, lentils also have a lot of fibre. A low glycemic index allows the absorption of carbohydrates to be slow. It is a food that helps maintain or raise iron and ferritin levels in the body, recommended for people suffering from anemia.

Example of Menus for 1 Week of Alternate Day Diet

One week example of menus that can be used for the three phases distributed accordingly depending on whether it is Fast, Evolution, or Controller.

The scheme of each Phase of the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently is as follows:

Fase fast

• Duration: 3 weeks
• Estimated Weight Loss: Between 4.5Kg and 6 Kg
• 3 Purifying Days. Monday Wednesday Friday
• 2 Days of Diet. Tuesday Thursday
• 2 Social Days. Saturday Sunday

Fase evolution

• Duration: 9 weeks
• Estimated weight loss: Between 1 kg and 1.5 kg per week.
• The cleansing days are reduced to 2 a week, but the social meals are still maintained on Saturdays and Sundays.
• 2 Purifying Days. Monday Wednesday
• 3 Days of Diet. Tuesday Thursday Friday
• 2 Social Days. Saturday Sunday

Fase controller

• Duration: 4 weeks
• Estimated Weight Loss: Between 3Kg and 4Kg
• 1 Purifying Day. Monday
• 4 Days of Diet. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday
• 2 Social Days. Saturday Sunday

In the third Controller Phase of the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently, the guidelines will also be set to lay the foundations for maintaining a healthy weight.

Variants of the Alternate Days Diet

A variant of the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently is the famous 5: 2 Diet, also known as the fast or 5-day diet, because it is a weight loss plan that includes intermittent fasting.

1. Popularized by the English physician Michael Mosley, the 5: 2 Diet owes its name to its eating plan: five days a week, you usually eat while calories are restricted to 500 a day on the other two days. For many nutritionists, this diet is more of an eating pattern than a diet since it does not indicate what to eat daily but when.
2. The 5: 2 diet is easier to lose weight because calories are not restricted. Simple to carry out the eating plan indicates that five days a week, it is possible to eat normally, and the other two days, the intake is reduced to a quarter of a person’s everyday needs, which would be 500 calories for women and some 600 calories for men.
3. It also allows you to choose the days of the week you want to restrict calories, except that it cannot be consecutive days. An example would be: Fasting on Monday and Thursday with only 2 or 3 small meals and eating normally the rest of the week.
4. Those who defend the benefits of the 5: 2 Diet claim that intermittent fasting causes less loss of muscle mass than that generated by a low-calorie diet and even recommend combining the weight loss plan with physical exercises that include strength and resistance exercises.

Contraindications to the Alternate Days Diet

This diet should not be done:

• People with diabetes.
• Pregnant or breastfeeding women
• It is not indicated for older people (third age), children or adolescents in the growing season.
• People undergoing medical treatment should consult with their doctor.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Alternate Days Diet

Aimed at people who need to lose weight healthily and efficiently with this diet, the dreaded rebound effect does not occur. Hence many professionals and nutritionists recommend the Alternate Days Diet as an excellent alternative to lose weight.

The idea of ​​this diet is that most of the weight lost is fat and not muscle mass, as occurs with other diets to lose weight, but it also allows you to enjoy social meals or outside the home on weekends.

Advantages of the Alternate Days Diet to lose weight permanently

• It does not propose closed menus but rather provides specific general recommendations.
• It helps control fluid retention.
• It is rich in macronutrients such as healthy fats, highly bio-available proteins, and mainly whole and natural carbohydrates.
• It helps improve cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure profiles.

Disadvantages of the Alternate Days Diet

• It can take time to plan weekly menus and change eating habits.
• It takes time, and therefore patience is necessary to achieve successful results.

Alternate Days Diet Recipes

Although the Alternate Days Diet does not recommend complex dishes, some recipes can help organize the weekly menu.

We share a couple of practical recipes that are also extremely simple to prepare and adapted to the foods that this weight loss plan recommends using in dishes.

Conclusions on the Alternate Days Diet

The Alternate Days Diet to lose weight proposes a balanced diet to control anxiety since all the dishes recommended in each menu provide a reasonable degree of satiety.

Once the desired weight has been reached, this diet allows you to continue making the food combinations following the recommendations of Phase Three, which is the Controller Phase, thus avoiding suffering the dreaded rebound effect.

Sources and References:

• Polytechnic University of Catalonia

Between pleasure and need. Keys to an intelligent diet

• University of Valladolid. School of Medicine

Healthy Diet vs. Miracle Diet: economic and nutritional efficiency

• Official Pharmaceutical College of Barcelona
• Nutritional supplementation