Hi there, have decided to give this diet a go for the next week anyway. I have n't much weight to lose, but I have hit a bit of a wall with my usual eating habits in the last few weeks, mainly down to self indulgence admittedly.
The diet involves eating about 400 - 600 calories on a down day, and eating what you want the following day without watching calories. I have been reading up quite a bit on it and the science behind it intrigues me. If anyone else has done this diet and has any words of wisdom please pass them on, I started a down day this morning and would appreciate any advice!

Had my first item of food today - a banana - for lunch. To be honest I was less hungry before I "indulged"! Feeling hungry now, although this is probably due to the time of day, I am always a bit peckish and sluggish at this time.
I have a whole 300 calories to play around with for dinner so think I am going to have curried veg - onion, mushroom, courgette and peas. This is a fave dish anyway and should keep me within my limits

Hmm haven't heard of this one but from what you've written sounds a little flaky. So you starve one day and the next you eat what you want? Doesn't one cancel out the other?
Well good luck with that one, keep us posted.

Will do, if I last! Here is a link to some more information:

http://www.johnsonupdaydowndaydiet.com/

I don't think this would work for me - I might just abut cope with the low day, but ifI was given a free reign to eat whatever I wanted, then I would more than make up for it on an up day!

I agree Teresa - I couldn't be trusted!

I don't think that my body would cope with eating too few calories. One coffee in some of these coffee shops and that's you're lot.

Keep going Brenda - you've got to give it a fair go. And then let us know how it goes.

Well first Down Day over and I am on a Up day!!! I've got to admit it was hard last night, particularly trying to sleep but when I woke up this morning I wasn't hungry at all. Had my usual breakfast of weetabix and banana. I think if my Down Day had ended last night before I went to bed I would have gorged but because I got to sleep that made all the difference. Don't intend to splurge today, just eat normally, and at the moment it seems unlikely, but you know yourselves, as the day progresses!

Brenda, is that really a photo of you? You look about 15!

I'm a firm believer in giving yourself permission to eat - if you are a food lover, being on a diet and counting stuff (calories, sins, points, whatever) only makes yourself start thinking about what you can't have. It also means that we tend to follow the diet until we get to goal (hopefully), but then we can stop... leading to - guess what - more weight gain.

If you switch it round and give yourself permission to eat whatever you want, then I found that you tend to then ask yourself if you REALLY want it, and surprisingly, once it stopped being forbidden, I didn't actually want it that much. Sometimes I did, and then I would eat it and not feel bad about it (and thereby no triggering a "damn I've blown the diet for today so might as well make the most of it" post chocolate binge), but a lot of the time because you CAN have it, you can say no much easier. This is basically how I lost my weight.

I think this diet is working on the same principle. On an up day, you have permission to eat whatever you want without guilt. People who binge tend to think that if someone says that to them then they would start eating and not stop, but in fact it doesn't work like that.

When you start to think, OK, I could eat such and such but just stop and ask yourself whether you really do want it, you'll probably find that you don't and your up day isn't the calorie laden fest you might think it would be. Even if you do overinduldge, its unlikely to cancel out the (very) low calorie down days, so your overall calorie intake will be less on average.

For most overweight people, losing weight is a "mental" issue, not a physical one (that's not phrased quite right, but you know what I mean)

That's my humble thoughts on the matter anyway. Please feel free to disagree!

Fiona, lol, thanks for your very kind comment What can I say? It was one of those rare days when the Gods were conspiring with me rather than against me!
Teresa, I think there is a lot of truth in what you say, to be honest I think at this stage, and I am less than a week into this diet, I think I am pursuing it purely because I don't want it to beat me! I had an up day on Saturday and was out on the town on Saturday night, yesterday was a down day and with a little bit of a hangover it was quite tough and I gave in last night. Now I am annoyed with myself and wondering should I just abandon it or what. I like the discipline I have to exert over myself, I like it on an up day when I know I have successfully completed a down day. I am also intrigued by the idea that this diet is supposed to slow down aging in the brain.
Anyway, I think I am going to stop this diet, because just rereading this post has shown me this way of life could become a bit obsessive. I am a big fan of the South Beach way of eating and it has worked very well for me so I think I will return to this!