2 months on Eat Stop Eat

[s0nix]

Hi,

I am writing on this forum because I would like to get the right direction to take.... at this point. I have been doing the Eat Stop Eat for 2 months exactly. The monday and Thursday. Normally, all the other I really eat well: fruits, vegetables, chicken, etc. I even don't eat carbohydrate during the soupers, only chicken/steak/fish with a bunch of vegetables. I'm training 4 times per week: all muscles, mostly base strength exercices. (Thusday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday). I don't do cardio in that workout. I must say that the only fat that I need to lose is my belly fat.

Yesterday, It was my weigh + body fat measurement. I lost almost 10 pounds in 2 months. The problem is that I didn't lose any body fat . How come I lost 10 pounds and nothing, even a little bit, of body fat. I absolutely didn't lose any strength because everything goes well and I keep try to increase my weight lifting. Is it possible that I lost only water, if I did some creatine ... 6 months ago ? That doesn't sound right to me.

Do you think I would have get the same result not doing that diet but doing a lot a cardio instead ? Is it too early to conclude anything ?

What would you suggest me to do ?

[Bman1]

Lots of possibilities and one clarification - First the clarification, if your body fat percentage actually stayed the same, you did lose body fat but you also lost some muscle.

More likely though are the following possibilities -
1. Either your original or yesterday's body fat measurement or both were not accurate. All
BF% measuring techniques have some degree of error. If you are using calipers, the number of folds you measure, the number of replicate measurements you take at each fold, and how precisely you measure in the exact same spot each time affect the accuracy of the BF% estimate. Also, where your body loses fat first can affect the accuracy of the measurement. For example, if you are measuring only at the supra-iliac fold and that is the place where your body holds onto fat the longest, it may appear that you haven't lost fat even though you have lost it from other parts of your body.
2. Some amount of the weight loss is water weight.
3. Lyle MacDonald has a theory that fat cells sometimes fill with water as the fat is burned. Then suddenly, for some reason, the water all flushes out and there is sudden weight loss. Therefore if this is the case and your fat cells are still holding water, it doesn't appear as if you have lost body fat. You can search for the "swoosh" effect at http://www.bodyrecomposition.comfor a better explanation of this.


More important than the %bf measurements, do you feel like you have lost fat? Are there places on your body that either you can see have less fat or which you can pinch less than before? Measurements are a great way of tracking our progress bout you alos sometimes have to go by feel.

[s0nix]

Hi Bman1, and thanks for you answer.

First, my body fat measurement was the same.. but my weight has decreased of ~10 lbs.

1. Your are right... maybe I lost a little bit of fat everywhere on my body... It just can't be see .. yet.
3. Interresting theory. I'm going to read more about it.

I would say that I feel like someone who lost a little bit of his "global shape" (unfortunately). Not necessary bad.. If I lost water that time.. maybe I'll lose more fat the next 2 months.

If anyone did the eat stop eat diet for long time... I would really appreciate to get your advice too.

[Playboy]

I've done ESE for a while now with excellent results, using 3 different ways to measure bodyfat and also weighing myself. Here's some tips:

1. You probably didn't have as much muscle as you thought. Look at your shoulders in old pictures and now, they're a good indicator of muscle gain of loss - your pecs for example might be "Firm" although they're covered in fat, your arms as well.
2. Your way of measuring bodyfat % is crappy I think.
3. You might not be getting enough protein or doing heavy enough lifting to maintain muscle mass, what's your program like in more detail?

Also make it a routine to measure shoulder circumference, and add legs if you want to. Easy way to see if you lose fat or muscle.