Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Back in 2005, I stumbled upon a method of eating that really helped me lose weight. It was called the Zig Zag Diet.

• Starling Fitness » The Zig Zag Diet

After nearly four years, it has finally been proven in a medical study that the Zig Zag diet is effective. They took 16 people and had them eat 25% of daily caloric needs on the every other day and whatever food they wanted to eat on the other days.

Here is a link to the abstract from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

• Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults — Varady et al. 90 (5): 1138 — American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Dietary adherence remained high throughout the controlled food intake phase (days adherent: 86%) and the self-selected food intake phase (days adherent: 89%). The rate of weight loss remained constant during controlled food intake (0.67 ± 0.1 kg/wk) and self-selected food intake phases (0.68 ± 0.1 kg/wk). Body weight decreased (P < 0.001) by 5.6 ± 1.0 kg (5.8 ± 1.1%) after 8 wk of diet. Percentage body fat decreased (P < 0.01) from 45 ± 2% to 42 ± 2%. Total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol concentrations decreased (P < 0.01) by 21 ± 4%, 25 ± 10%, and 32 ± 6%, respectively, after 8 wk of ADF, whereas HDL cholesterol remained unchanged. Systolic blood pressure decreased (P < 0.05) from 124 ± 5 to 116 ± 3 mm Hg.

All of the results are in metric, so here are the facts:

• People were able to stick to the diet 86% of the time on the calorie restricted days and 89% of the time on unrestricted days. This is REALLY important because a diet that is hard to stay on isn’t worth it.

• They lost weight EVERY week at a rate of 1.5 pounds a week.

• After eight weeks, they lost a total of 12.3 pounds and their percentage of body fat went from 45% to 42%.

• After eight weeks, their cholesterol levels decreased by 21 points.

• After eight weeks, their systolic blood pressure decreased from 124 to 116.

When I followed the Zig Zag Diet, it wasn’t as restrictive and I lost weight, but I did heavy exercise for an hour on the non-restrictive days. This plan severely limits the calories on the fasting day, but doesn’t put limits on the other days, so it sounds like it would be a plan I could follow. I’m glad to know that there is some medical proof that Zig Zagging works.

Via: Diet Blog: On-Off Fasting: Does It Work?