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

[migwickert]

This is my second week during 24h fasts and I've done it twice this week. After reading about it on the site, I tried it last week, only once. It went well, easier than expected. Energy was high, felt focused but most importantly, a productive day.

Last week: fasted from 8pm Sunday to 8pm Monday. I'm doing the stronglifts 5x5 and Monday I'm on so I did workout B. No problems during the workout. I used to think my workouts would suffer because I didn't eat like I should before hand. Clearly, that's not the case., according to ESE.

Brad's book has changed my attitude and approach. Anyhow, since last weeks fast went well, I wanted to do it twice this week.

This week: fasted from Sunday 6pm to Monday 6pm and from Tuesday 5:30pm to Wednesday 5:30pm. It becomes easier. Again, I workout Mon, Wed and Fri and ESE hasn't made my lifts more difficult. I haven't felt this sharp and focused in some time. Also, I haven't had any headaches. Thanks for sharing Mehdi. I've been reading the site for a while now, recently signed up for the forums. Plenty of good stuff going on in here. Glad to be here.

[Jereplofje]

Any results so far?



My first day of fasting was weird, I was also hungry the day after the fasting and had to be careful not to binge. My workout was terrible and I was tired all day (I even got a comment in college from two people, "Dude, did you smoke weed or what? Your eyes are red!" just like when I sleep too little).

I'm going to give it another try next week and see if the fasting really was the cause.

[Playboy]

There's an adaption period to fasting. Basically it comes down to two things:

1. Your body cleanses itself when you fast. Do you eat lots of bad food? You might not be aware that diet sodas are full of toxins, and drinking them regularly will make your fasts bad. Also, make sure you get NO calories during the fast. This includes stuff like chewing gum. If you get any calories, you'll re-start the entire fasting process because your body starts burning glucose again. Which means you need another 24 hours to get the full effect.
2. Most people don't have bodies that are used to being in ketosis over long periods of time. If you've done a low-carb diet, you should have an easier time fasting in theory. In fact, you shouldn't notice any bad effects at all. If you haven't, your body isn't very effective at using ketones for energy yet, as the only time it uses them is during sleep (and as you probably know your body doesn't need a lot of energy when sleeping). As you start fasting more, your body will get used to burning ketones and you'll have no problem (other then maybe psychological ones) going 24 hours without eating.

Hope this helped.

[Playboy]

I thought the Anabolic Diet gives you enough carbs to stay JUST out of ketosis? I remember Di Pasquale saying in an interview that a severe state of ketosis is inefficient use of energy.

This was not the quote I meant, but I could only find this right now in another interview with him:

Also, in my view, it's not necessarily even necessary to go into any severe degree of ketosis, at least as far as having significant ketonuria and as such measurable in the urine with a ketostix, in order to get the changes in body fat and body composition that accrue from using a low carb diet.

I consider AD a better and more efficient version of the Cyclic Ketogenic Diet. I've done CKD and it didn't appeal to me.

AD works fine, and combining it with a day of fasting seems to make sense.
AD ---> Your body uses fat as a main fuel source.
Eat Stop Eat ---> Creates a temporary gap of energy intake while temporarily boosting metabolism

Combining those two sounds perfect.



Regarding what you said about ketosis... I thought the body needed several days to go into ketosis. Or can it happen within one day of fasting too?




Edit:
Here's the quote, it's from an interview with Di Pasquale on T-Nation:

NM: Whoa, let me back this up for a second. So what you're saying is, if one were efficiently using ketones for energy and lipolysis on a carb depleted diet...it shouldn't produce a state of ketosis?

MD: That's correct. If you've adapted fully to the diet.

NM: So it's not preferable to be in ketosis if the objective is fat loss?

MD: That's right. This is where I differ from everybody else and why the Anabolic Diet is so effective where others are not. Ketosis is very catabolic! First of all, the Anabolic Diet keeps you at 30 grams of carbs a day, five days a week. That keeps you out of ketosis, but the body begins to adapt to using fat for fuel. On the weekend, you can eat as many carbs as you like. That's the anabolic phase, but the body is still in a fatburning mode. Once there's a spillover of carb calories to fat storage, after no more than 48 hours, you go back to 30 carbohydrate grams a day. Basically, this is meant to be a diet that can be followed easily. Who wants to wake up at night to eat or spend each hour of the day watching exactly how many calories you eat? What's interesting is that I've found that triglyceride levels rise on the days when high carbs are ingested.

After reading this, I'm not sure if you're in a state of ketosis while fasting if ketosis burns muscle. However, everything is pretty simple really:

You usually eat carbs, carbs give you glucose. Both your brain and your muscles prefer glucose, I'm not really sure why but I think it's because fat more practical to store. When there's no more glucose, your brain needs to burn something. That's why we have bodyfat, and the brain (dunno about the muscles) burns ketones instead, which as any ADer or ESEer has felt, are more effective and give you better concentration and more energy. Since the ketones come from your body fat, you won't be lacking energy if you don't eat for a while.

Whether this is ketosis or not, I really don't know. However AD has your body using ketones as the main source of fuel, and so does fasting. No real difference.

[Jereplofje]

There's an adaption period to fasting. Basically it comes down to two things:

1. Your body cleanses itself when you fast. Do you eat lots of bad food? You might not be aware that diet sodas are full of toxins, and drinking them regularly will make your fasts bad. Also, make sure you get NO calories during the fast. This includes stuff like chewing gum. If you get any calories, you'll re-start the entire fasting process because your body starts burning glucose again. Which means you need another 24 hours to get the full effect.
2. Most people don't have bodies that are used to being in ketosis over long periods of time. If you've done a low-carb diet, you should have an easier time fasting in theory. In fact, you shouldn't notice any bad effects at all. If you haven't, your body isn't very effective at using ketones for energy yet, as the only time it uses them is during sleep (and as you probably know your body doesn't need a lot of energy when sleeping). As you start fasting more, your body will get used to burning ketones and you'll have no problem (other then maybe psychological ones) going 24 hours without eating.

Hope this helped.

Thanks for the reply!
But I don't really eat bad food. I'm on the Anabolic Diet and only eat clean foods. No processed sugars (hardly at all even on carb up day), no transfats, etc.
I eat mostly fish, cheese, vegetables and sometimes nuts/quark cheese.
I'll give it another try, maybe you're right and my body just needs to adapt.

After reading this, I'm not sure if you're in a state of ketosis while fasting if ketosis burns muscle. However, everything is pretty simple really:

You usually eat carbs, carbs give you glucose. Both your brain and your muscles prefer glucose, I'm not really sure why but I think it's because fat more practical to store. When there's no more glucose, your brain needs to burn something. That's why we have bodyfat, and the brain (dunno about the muscles) burns ketones instead, which as any ADer or ESEer has felt, are more effective and give you better concentration and more energy. Since the ketones come from your body fat, you won't be lacking energy if you don't eat for a while.

Whether this is ketosis or not, I really don't know. However AD has your body using ketones as the main source of fuel, and so does fasting. No real difference.

Your brains run on glucose because fat can't pass the blood-brain barrier. The only other thing that can pass the barrier are ketones.
Your muscles prefer glucose because of the whole ATP system (creatine phosphate and adenosine triphosphate are the most important forms of energy in weight lifting).

To be honest, I have my doubts on the effectivity of ketones. When I did Cyclic Ketogenic Diet (which is even less carbs than AD), I got Keto-breath, was constantly lethargic, etc.
I never had this problem with Anabolic Diet.
That's why I don't really understand the ketosis thing, or that it's a matter of how deep your ketosis is, etc.

According to an article on T-Nation and an interview with Di Pasquale (from Anabolic Diet), it depends on the person. Some people are way more effective in oxidizing fat to use it as energy than others. Some do perfectly well on 30 grams of carbs a day, while others might need to double that amount.


I'm still experimenting, and I'll keep your comments in mind. Thanks again for the reply, I'll let you people know once I've done another fasting day.

[Tmv]

Would it this work better than Eat stop Eat :

Fasting everyday

Example:

1k-1.5k Calories (healthy foods( protein, complex carbs, salads, fruits) - Make sure it equals about 1k-1.5k cals a day
Eat at 12pm ( Noon)
Fast through the rest of the day, (sleep), eat at 12pm (noon)
So doing this everyday
No rest days
Doing this on workout days
Im 213-215 lbs 19.6% body fat

Will I get good results from this?
Is it safe?
Will I get stretch marks/ excess skin from this ?!? :] (i'm trying really hard not too)( Law of Attraction might work maybe?)

[Playboy]

What you're describing there is the warrior diet. Read Mehdi's comments on it (I think he has some?)

[Jereplofje]

1000-1500 calories a day? I'd friggin starve.


I was on a plateau with working away the fat, but now that I've started fasting twice a week, it seems I have picked it up again, and my strength hasn't really deterioriated. So far, so good.

[tarun]

1000-1500 calories a day? I'd friggin starve.

not necessarily... you could eat a bowl of celery all day and be full, and you'd actually have negative calories (body burns more calories digesting celery than the calories it gets from the celery itself)

[raecz]

@tarun: If you believe what Lyle MacDonald says, it's not true, that you have negative caloric intake with eating fibers.

Newsflash: Fiber Provides Calories to Humans

But there is another effect of fiber on energy balance that often goes unappreciated. Backing up, it’s often stated that fiber provides no calories to the body since humans lack the enzymes necessary to digest it. This has often been taken even further to claim that high-fiber vegetables are ‘negative calorie foods’, that is they take more calories to digest than they provide (assumed to be zero).

Here’s the thing: it’s not true. Not entirely anyhow.

Above I discussed the issue of fermentation of some types of fiber to short-chain fatty acids which are then reabsorbed by the body. Well, those fatty acids provide calories to the body. While there is still some debate in the area, researchers have assigned a caloric value to fiber of 1.5-2 cal/gram (depending on the specific type).

Admittedly this is an average and will depend on the specifics of the diet and the type of fiber but, simply, the idea that fiber provides no calories to the body is not true. While the caloric value of fiber is still lower than starchy carbohydrates (4 cal/g), it is not zero.

Source

Back to topic:

I heard an interview with Brad Pilon and he explicitly disapproves to fast more than twice a week, not because of effects on the body, but because this could lead into an eating disorder. Here it yourself here

[fredarn]

Hi there. I'm going to try eat-stop-eat type fasting now. I'll do my first fast this saturday. I am currently experimenting with the Anabolic Diet, so I will experiment with this at the same time. Think it will work fine, since weekdays on the AD is kind of close to the same strategies fasting build upon (low blood sugar and insulin levels, more Growth Hormone etc..)

I am currently doing weight training mon-wed-fri, and MAX-OT (high intensity) cardio tues-thurs-sat. I will carb up after training on friday, and during the first two meals on saturday, so 3-4 meals.. I'm really looking forward to it right now, as I am just on my 11th day on the AD right now, so will be nice with some carbs tomorrow I have been slightly weaker in my lifts at the end of last week and this week, but hopefully that will work better next week after the carb-up.. After a couple of more weeks I will also experiment with a little more daily carbs, about 45 grams post-workout + the 30 grams daily - I suspect that will work better then the pure AD.. Anyway, about the fasting, I will first do it right after my carb-up, so mid-day saturday to mid-day sunday..

I think fasting right after the carb-up will allow my body to start using fat for energy again very quickly - and I can pig out a little on my carb-up Then I'll ad one more fastin day if I need to cut som calories.

[Mehdi]

Hi there. I'm going to try eat-stop-eat type fasting now. I'll do my first fast this saturday. I am currently experimenting with the Anabolic Diet, so I will experiment with this at the same time. Think it will work fine, since weekdays on the AD is kind of close to the same strategies fasting build upon (low blood sugar and insulin levels, more Growth Hormone etc..)

I am currently doing weight training mon-wed-fri, and MAX-OT (high intensity) cardio tues-thurs-sat. I will carb up after training on friday, and during the first two meals on saturday, so 3-4 meals.. I'm really looking forward to it right now, as I am just on my 11th day on the AD right now, so will be nice with some carbs tomorrow I have been slightly weaker in my lifts at the end of last week and this week, but hopefully that will work better next week after the carb-up.. After a couple of more weeks I will also experiment with a little more daily carbs, about 45 grams post-workout + the 30 grams daily - I suspect that will work better then the pure AD.. Anyway, about the fasting, I will first do it right after my carb-up, so mid-day saturday to mid-day sunday..

I think fasting right after the carb-up will allow my body to start using fat for energy again very quickly - and I can pig out a little on my carb-up Then I'll ad one more fastin day if I need to cut som calories.

Well the lack of strength is kinda normal. HIIT doesn't mix with the A.D. and HIIT 3x/week + lifting 3x/week leads to overtraining. Now you want to do fasting on top, that's going to be real recipe to failure.

Drop the HIIT for a starter. And I don't recommend mixing the A.D. with fasting. Why do you want to do that? What's the goal? You think you'll lose fat faster?

And you don't eat carbs during the day while eating tons of fat on the AD. It won't work. You're mixing way too many things. I recommend you do SL5x5 + 8 nutrition rules instead of complcating things.

[fredarn]

I will feel it if I get over trained, I've been training like this for a while and It's no problem.

My goal is to loose off some fat over the coming months, while maintaining og building muscle.. Then I'll go back to maintaining fat % and building muscle. As far as HI cardio I've found that to be the very best type of cardio, at least when I was consuming some carbs. But in fact; I've been able to maintain the high intensity even without the carbs the last two weeks.. I am surprised by that, but it seems that my body is able to use fat for fuel even during very high intensity cardio. Deadlifts and Squats are another animal, though.

This strategy might seem complicated, but I see no reason why it won't work - why wouldn't the eat-stop-eat strategies work on the AD? I will probably need a little more carbs then I would have withouth the fasting, but I will experiment with that in the coming weeks. Like recommended in the 'Anabolic Solution', the newest version of the AD.

I might very well go back to consuming a bit of carbs and a little less fat down the road, but the thing is that I want to try this low-carb tupe of eating and see how it works for me. I will experiment and see how it works, I keep track of things and keep a daily log about how I feel etc.. And I'll see how it works in time, with and without fasting, and with more carbs post-workout, and a little more carbs during the day as well.

I don't think I will end up eating exactly like the AD, I'll probably end up eating pretty much like I did before starting the AD - moderate carb/high protein/moderate-high fat - Maybe with eat-stop-eat incorporated - but I want to experiment to see how my body works on a low-carb diet.

[wv2de]

I've been reading through here, and I definitely like what I'm reading about eat-stop-eat. Based on me knowing myself, I can go without breakfast and not be bothered, and on those days I won't be nearly as hungry for lunch compared to when I've had breakfast or a mid-morning snack. To go ahead and push through until dinner sounds easy, or at least it sounds like I'd have a short period of suffering...

I've done carb restriction and lost some weight before, and I've been trying it recently as well. I'm not counting calories, just avoiding carbs and following the nutrition rules more or less outlined here. I've been stuck around 200 lbs (5'11") forever (few years), except when I got up to 215 on two seperate occasions over the last year where I was doing heavy barbell training and eating to support it. I have gained muscle and improved my body composition, but I can't seem to get the 'pudge' off or change the 200 lb default my body seems to have adopted.

Currently I'm doing some moderate kettlebell training three times per week (M,W,F - heavy, light, medium), and I plan on fasting Sunday and Thursday as described (8PM to 8PM, 24h, for me) while following the 8 nutrition rules and getting carbs post-workout in shakes (goats milk, quick oats, and protein only protein powder). I keep a log of my workouts and take some notes on my diet, I'll continue this and try to snap some before and after pictures around the 8 week trial period that's recommended to see if eat stop eat will work for me. I'm excited, since I've gained some muscle over the last year and I want to focus primarily on losing some fat and maintaining my body composition pretty much from here on out!

Sorry for the speech, and thanks for sharing all the info everyone!

wv

[fredarn]

Good luck, keep us updated.. Starting my first fast later today myself..
Had/Have Anabolic Diet carb-up right now.. I hadn't eaten 'candy' in a long time, some eat a lot of chocolate, ginger biscuits etc.. And I have to say: Next week I will use clean foods.. I'm kind of sick of candy right now, I used to eat tons of candy when I was younger (17 and younger), but after eating healthy for 2 years I seems to have lost my love for crappy foods

Potatoes, pasta, bread and rice next time

@Mehdi: Any good carb-up recipes? You used to eat tons of calories on the carb-up, didn't you?