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Imagine being able to eat to your heart’s content on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Really, go for that steak and glass of red wine; maybe even have some ice cream for dessert. The catch? You can only nibble on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We’re talking non-fat yogurt for breakfast, fruit for lunch and a salad for dinner.

Sound doable? If so, you may be a prime candidate for a growing every-other-day nutrition movement, explored in the book The Alternate-Day Diet (G.P. Putnam’s Sons; April 2008), by plastic surgeon James B. Johnson of Metairie, Louisiana.

Johnson conceptualized the book by borrowing from animal studies showing that mice and primates fed only every other day experience profound health benefits. Numerous studies have shown that daily calorie restriction—not fad diets but carefully planned, nutrient-dense meals with 30 percent fewer calories than average—may alter the development or progression of age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, heart disease and more. And research conducted on mice, published in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Lipid Research, indicates that fasting or even eating half as much as normal on alternate days may shrink one’s fat cells, possibly protecting against obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

A self-described “mindless eater,” Johnson himself was overweight five years ago, standing 6 foot 4 and weighing 255 to 265 pounds. Rather than abstain from eating on alternate days—a Herculean task for most people—he modified the concept by taking in just 20 percent of his estimated daily caloric intake. Three months later, he had shed 35 pounds without experiencing "the kind of deprivation I felt on every other diet."

Prevents Boredom

Behaviorally speaking, Johnson explained that alternate-day dieting (also called “up day-down day” dieting) helps prevent the boredom that often accompanies eating skinless chicken with steamed broccoli for dinner every night. Or never allowing a carb to pass your lips, for that matter. “With this pattern,” he said, “the person can look forward to the ‘up’ day. Anybody can diet for one day, and that’s all you need to know from a practical standpoint.”

Consider Johnson’s sample two-day diet plan: A typical “up” day means consuming pretty much whatever he wants, about 2,700 calories. But the “down” day? Half of a protein shake for breakfast and lunch each and a salad with broth-based soup for dinner. A snack of a piece of fruit brings him to about 500 to 600 calories. (During maintenance phase, he eats more on “down”days—30 to 50 percent of his estimated caloric requirement.)

Besides helping trim your figure while allowing you to indulge in your favorite treats, Johnson said, alternate-day dieting could lead to long-term health improvements by activating a genetic mechanism called SIRT1. This so-called “longevity gene” has been shown by Harvard Medical School researchers to promote the long-term survival of irreplaceable cells, thus contributing to extended life. In a recent (though very small) study led by Johnson and published in Free Radical Biology & Medicine, asthmatics experienced a significant reduction in their symptoms within two weeks of being on the diet. It’s not weight loss that helped their condition, he explained, but rather the anti-inflammatory effect of the very low-calorie diet (asthma is an inflammatory disease). Study subjects demonstrated what Johnson calls "a striking reduction in oxidative stress markers"—indicators of free-radical damage, which leads to cancer, heart disease, arthritis and more.

Mice and Primates

Richard Weindruch, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has studied calorie restriction in mice and primates for more than 33 years. Of the different ways to impose caloric restriction, he said, overall calorie restriction yields the most robust results. Eating 30 to 40 percent fewer calories every day translates to an increase in longevity of the same percentage. “This produces retardation of aging and diseases of aging—even graying of the hair,” he said. “It’s a state of under-nutrition but not malnutrition." Smaller studies suggest that shaving overall calories by even 10 percent to 15 percent can clear the way for a proportional increase in longevity, he said. "So if [Johnson’s] diet is able to restrict calories by a little bit, it can be a good thing. Whether the diet can actually do that is unknown.”

He added, “I would say if it doesn’t result in overall reduction in caloric intake in a week or a month, I would predict it would not have overt health benefits. If it does result in overall reduced caloric intake, I would predict it would.”

“From a weight-loss perspective, it’s not a bad idea, unless you’re restricting too much or going a long period of time without eating,” noted Dr. Reed Berger of the University of Illinois at Chicago Nutrition and Wellness Center (who, like Weindruch, had not heard of Johnson’s book). “Dieting every other day teaches people moderation as long as [they’re] not bingeing one day and starving on the other day.”

She likes the philosophy of no food being off-limits because such black-or-white thinking can lead to a downward spiral in dieters who “slip” and eat a “bad” food.

“With an alternate-day diet, you would be more successful long-term because you’re having things you enjoy.”

Note: Any sort of calorie restriction should be done under the guidance of a doctor or nutrition professional.

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