Eat Stop Eat: Success Stories and Tips & Tricks (Blog)

[Rokku]

The last few weeks, I've been training mid-fast. Last year when I was training for a 10k, I would go running (5-7k) mid-fast, as well. Never had any problems with energy levels or dizziness. Your mileage may vary, but I imagine you'd be fine

[tarun]

Hehe good shit... i video chatted today with this girl from college that is pretty attractive (i used to like her, now we're just really good friends) and the first thing she said when she saw me is... what the heck did you lose weight? i can tell already!! i was like... uhh yeah about 5 pounds of fat in the past 2.5 weeks lol. she was like... no wayyyy thats awesome! you gotta teach me how haha...


thank you eat stop eat!

[Scottymouth]

Hey Guys - I started on Mehdi's fasting schedule and did it for one week. My work schedule stopped me for a week and I am back on it again. I have seen a slight change in BF% and LBM - slight, but an improvement. I do feel stronger and have an odd bit of energy - more than I thought I would have after fasting for 24 hours. I am really trying to stay focused on losing this fat while maintaining my muscle. I would like to build muscle - but I know that is next to impossible while in a calorie deficit. I am going to try and finally lose this last 10% of fat that has been like a yo-yo on me over the last year. I think I have bounced from 15%-21%, but it is hard to tell with a fat caliper because I have those love handles. I see progress and I think the fasting has helped me reign in my discipline as well as light my fat burning fire.

Thanks for this discussion - it has been an asset.

Scott

[Playboy]

This is funny, I thought SL community would be completely against ESE. Here's a tip (i've been on it a few weeks):

When you start fasting, your body starts cleaning out toxins since it doesn't have to work on digesting food anymore. This means that instead of burning only fat, your body is emptying garbage. This is usually noticable on the first 8 or so hours of the fast, or longer if you're into eating highly synthetic stuff. Any "light"-product soda is very bad for you as well, it contains shitload of toxins. You can drink it on your fast because your body will rid itself of the toxins, but drinking it every day is a shitty habit. Water works much better. Symptoms of of your body ridding itself of toxins is headache, sudden tiredness, dizzyness, difficulty concentrating and lack of energy(I also theorize that this is why some people are tired after 8 hours of sleep, but not 4-6 hours, and the cause of being tired after sleep at all). I always fast sunday-monday 18:00 - 18:00 because I eat and drink some crap here and there in the weekends (especially alcohol) and getting it cleaned out before the start of a new week gives you a kickstart. Green tea speeds up the cleansing process when you fast.

And btw finally a program that actually WORKS with little or no effort at all.

[Scottymouth]

@Playboy - I agree. I try to have a Diet Coke just as a treat during a fast, maybe two of them if I am feeling adventurous - though I just finished one with my lunch. (I used to drink 6-10 per day, now I average .5/day. For the first year of my Stronglifts I cut them out entirely. SO....I want an opinion on my schedule. It does work for me and I modeled it after Mehdi's.

I lift Su/Tu/Th and on these days eat approximately 2500 cals - about 3-400 below maint.

I fast:

Sunday 8pm - Monday 8pm

Tuesday 8pm - Wednesday 8pm.

Th - Fr I will eat about 2500 cals

Saturday is usually a free for all, however I never go overboard and usually will even out at about 2500 cals naturally, though there may be some alcohol in there sometimes.

I am considering switching my second fast to Thursday 8pm-Friday 8pm. Would there be any reason, besides my own personal preference to do so?

Just wondering what your take may be.

Scott

[Rokku]

I think that's fine. When I fast regularly, I try to get a full weekday of eating between them, but really it shouldn't matter. My approach is to not worry about it too much - if I feel like starting a fast, I do

(Right now, though, I am following the 'Steve Ward' diet approach (where, on my 'eat lightly' days I simply start a fast).)

[Playboy]

@Playboy - I agree. I try to have a Diet Coke just as a treat during a fast, maybe two of them if I am feeling adventurous - though I just finished one with my lunch. (I used to drink 6-10 per day, now I average .5/day. For the first year of my Stronglifts I cut them out entirely. SO....I want an opinion on my schedule. It does work for me and I modeled it after Mehdi's.

I lift Su/Tu/Th and on these days eat approximately 2500 cals - about 3-400 below maint.

I fast:

Sunday 8pm - Monday 8pm

Tuesday 8pm - Wednesday 8pm.

Th - Fr I will eat about 2500 cals

Saturday is usually a free for all, however I never go overboard and usually will even out at about 2500 cals naturally, though there may be some alcohol in there sometimes.

I am considering switching my second fast to Thursday 8pm-Friday 8pm. Would there be any reason, besides my own personal preference to do so?

Just wondering what your take may be.

Scott

I haven't THOROUGHLY read the topic but won't that fuck up your metabolism? Or does the constant change in calorie intake trick your body? According to both BTFFTM and ESE more then three days on a caloric deficit will cause your metabolism to decrease - but in BTFFTM it also says that you can trick your body into accepting constant deficits eating more on some days then the others, but still staying on the deficit. Is this true for the fasts as well?

[tarun]

@Playboy - I agree. I try to have a Diet Coke just as a treat during a fast, maybe two of them if I am feeling adventurous - though I just finished one with my lunch. (I used to drink 6-10 per day, now I average .5/day. For the first year of my Stronglifts I cut them out entirely. SO....I want an opinion on my schedule. It does work for me and I modeled it after Mehdi's.

I lift Su/Tu/Th and on these days eat approximately 2500 cals - about 3-400 below maint.

I fast:

Sunday 8pm - Monday 8pm

Tuesday 8pm - Wednesday 8pm.

Th - Fr I will eat about 2500 cals

Saturday is usually a free for all, however I never go overboard and usually will even out at about 2500 cals naturally, though there may be some alcohol in there sometimes.

I am considering switching my second fast to Thursday 8pm-Friday 8pm. Would there be any reason, besides my own personal preference to do so?

Just wondering what your take may be.

Scott

I haven't THOROUGHLY read the topic but won't that fuck up your metabolism? Or does the constant change in calorie intake trick your body? According to both BTFFTM and ESE more then three days on a caloric deficit will cause your metabolism to decrease - but in BTFFTM it also says that you can trick your body into accepting constant deficits eating more on some days then the others, but still staying on the deficit. Is this true for the fasts as well?

Yeah but ESE also says not to be so anal about counting calories and stuff... so on your non fasting days, how do you know whether or not you are eating maintenance if you're not sitting there calculating that shit? and in ESE, didn't it also say that they had a study where a group of people didn't eat for 72 hours and their metabolism remained the same.... I think the metabolism slowing down deal applies more to people who just do cardio... not to people who lift. When you lift, muscle breaks down... your body HAS to repair it. that keeps your metabolic rate up.

[Scottymouth]

@ tarun - hey man, good to "see" you again.

I agree - ESE, though I didn't read it, from what I have read from others' notes - the HGH is stimulated when you exercise and fast. Also, I am reading more and more that eating 6 times per day or 3 times per day has little to no effect on your metabolism. The key to this whole conversation is muscle break down and recovery, which as Tarun stated is what the body has to do when you lift. So lifting and fasting will increase HGH in your bloodstream and therefore increase fat burning.

For me - BTFFTM was my bible. I cannot buy ESE now (if anyone wants to email me a copy I won't complain) But I hit a major plateau and was having a hard time increasing my cardio. This ESE system seemed a real good change for me because I was stagant. Fasting is a new challenge, and if it isn't screwing me up I am going to see if it gets me past this plateau. I have another 8-10% body fat to lose and I want to keep every bit of my muscle. Seems to me this is working for those who are doing it correctly so why not.

I'll post if anything adverse happens. I took from Mehdi's post and set the same WO/IF schedule. Unfortunately I have to get up at 4am so I can work out, but I did that for a year or so in the first phases of this transformation so I figured I needed this.

I think I rambled a bit - sorry guys.

Scott

[tarun]

@ tarun - hey man, good to "see" you again.

I agree - ESE, though I didn't read it, from what I have read from others' notes - the HGH is stimulated when you exercise and fast. Also, I am reading more and more that eating 6 times per day or 3 times per day has little to no effect on your metabolism. The key to this whole conversation is muscle break down and recovery, which as Tarun stated is what the body has to do when you lift. So lifting and fasting will increase HGH in your bloodstream and therefore increase fat burning.

For me - BTFFTM was my bible. I cannot buy ESE now (if anyone wants to email me a copy I won't complain) But I hit a major plateau and was having a hard time increasing my cardio. This ESE system seemed a real good change for me because I was stagant. Fasting is a new challenge, and if it isn't screwing me up I am going to see if it gets me past this plateau. I have another 8-10% body fat to lose and I want to keep every bit of my muscle. Seems to me this is working for those who are doing it correctly so why not.

I'll post if anything adverse happens. I took from Mehdi's post and set the same WO/IF schedule. Unfortunately I have to get up at 4am so I can work out, but I did that for a year or so in the first phases of this transformation so I figured I needed this.

I think I rambled a bit - sorry guys.

Scott

check your PM inbox. also, if you read How Much Protein, brad makes a pretty sensible statement: the size of your muscles is determined more by how you workout, than by how much protein you eat.

[Scottymouth]

Well now, I must say that I am beside myself. I am digesting this new information while I am fasting and the facts are compelling. I am going to give Brad Pilon's work a go and see how I do. If it does what I believe it will do, then things are going to get easier and harder. My nutrition and grocery budget will get easier and my workouts will get harder - but the results will be amazing. I recently bought creatine and am going to give that a shot for a bit. I may call this Scottymouth 2.0 or something cheesy like that in my log.

Thanks Tarun - great advice.

[mercurialslush]

Hey guys...
I just started my first ESE fast today. I'm currently in my cutting phase & have been unsuccessfully trying to get rid of the fat i gained on a crazy bulk over a year ago.
My fat loss has been rather slow, & ive even lost almost all the muscle i gained while bulking up..HA.. but once im done cutting up & start to build up again, i hope to regain it sooner ( crossing my fingers @ muscle memory).

ESE has rejuvenated my effort to cut down fast, quickly, once & for all & get rid of my skinny fat state.

I'm currently @ 18.5 % bf, 67.9 kgs... My aim is to get my bf low enough for my abs to be seen - whatever it takes, this time i dont care if I lose my 'cute' face ( it really freaks out some ppl when they c you lose the fat on ur face, their so used to that chubby look,that the low fat look is too much of a shock). Before my crazy bulk last year, i had cut down too but gave up @ around 13 % bf & decided to bulk up.

My current routine is crazy circuit training thrice a week, & on the alternate days Cardio & abs.

I'm curious bout 2 things :

Can i do my Cardio workouts on a fasting day or is that a no no?.. I plan to do my weight training on some fasting days, but am kinda skeptical bout doing cardio while fasting..

Also, How do you count the Fasting hrs - Starting your counter exactly after finishing a meal or 3-4 hrs after the meal has been digested ? So if i finish my meal at 9 pm on Tuesday nite, i break my fast by starting my meal at 9 pm on Wed..?

I'd really appreciate it if u guys could help out. Thanx...

[lawman]

Just wondering what if any effects there are to fasting with or without water.

Thanks

[tarun]

Can i do my Cardio workouts on a fasting day or is that a no no?.. I plan to do my weight training on some fasting days, but am kinda skeptical bout doing cardio while fasting..

Also, How do you count the Fasting hrs - Starting your counter exactly after finishing a meal or 3-4 hrs after the meal has been digested ? So if i finish my meal at 9 pm on Tuesday nite, i break my fast by starting my meal at 9 pm on Wed..?

I'd really appreciate it if u guys could help out. Thanx...

Cardio while fasting burns more fat than cardio on with food in the stomach. And you count your fasting hours right after you finish your meal... not 3-4 hours after it has been digested.

[Scottymouth]

Just wondering what if any effects there are to fasting with or without water.

Thanks

I am sure without is tougher. But what is in its place? Diet sodas, coffee, tea? Water is essential when you are expending calories either by working out and sweating or by fasting. Enough water helps cell reconstruction and proper muscle recovery - our muscles are about 80 water. I would recommend getting plenty of water every day, but especially while fasting. It helps with the "hunger" pains, or at least helps to quell your withdrawals...

My 2 cents....