The QOD Diet

His new, highly readable book, The QOD Diet describes a weight loss method based on eating regular amounts of
food one day, and then restricting food every other day while taking in key minerals to keep up one’s energy
level. Here is a new approach to dieting backed by scientific thinking and experience.
The QOD diet is less onerous than other diets. Because one reduces food intake only every other day, one can
always look forward to a day of normal eating the next day. Still, most people have trouble in markedly lowering
the amount of food they eat even for one day. Dr. Daugirdas believes that feeling poorly when not eating much is
due to loss of sodium and other minerals by the kidney. His idea is, that by taking in sodium, potassium, and
other minerals plus high-biologic-value protein, while eating only a small number of calories, you can continue to
feel well and keep up your energy level for a day, even when you are eating only 400 calories.
So his idea is to eat about 400 calories for one day (which he calls the OFF day) , and then 2000-2600 calories
(depending on gender, age, height, and activity level) the next day, (which he calls it the ON day). So average
calorie intake is only 1200-1500 calories per day – the amount that people eat on most weight loss diets. He
gives guidelines on what to eat on the ON days (healthy foods, not too much sugar or junk foods, in other words,
a balanced diet) and how to eat on the OFF days (mostly vegetables, tomato/vegetable juice, orange juice, and
yogurt). He identifies many foods that are particularly good for the OFF days, all or most of which can be found
in local grocery stores.
In addition to letting people eat well every other day (without overdoing it), the QOD diet may have a metabolic
advantage. Normally, when a person goes on a diet, survival and starvation mechanisms kick in and fuel is
burned more efficiently. Basically, the body learns to get by with less. At first dieters lose a few pounds, but then
weight loss often ceases, and people usually gain back much of their lost weight soon after resuming normal
eating. With the QOD diet, the body still senses a normal amount of food coming in every other day, and so it
doesn’t feel the need to go into protection mode and drop the metabolic rate.
Dr. Daugirdas believes that this dietary program is not for everyone. It is not for people who have a tendency to
eating disorders (binge eating or anorexia in particular), nor for people with serious medical problems, including
diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, or stroke.
But it is a way for healthy people to lose a moderate amount of weight and then to maintain their weight.