Brad Pilon.com

On Tuesday I did an interview with Craig Ballantyne about my experiences with body transformations. It was a really fun interview, we covered a lot of topics, including how to use the Eat Stop Eat style of eating for a body transformation and my experiences with doing a bodybuilding contest a couple of years ago. While these topics were cool, the most interesting point we covered was when we started talking about the difference that a tan, moisturizer, shaving and a workout pump could have on the way you look.

If you are entering Craig’s Turbulence Training transformation contest this will be an ace up your sleeve.

By getting a tan, making sure your skin is well moisturized, shaving your body hair (guys) and getting a pump at the gym, you can easily make yourself look 10 pounds more muscular and 5 pounds less fat. This is very important when you are doing your Before and After photos.

To illustrate my point, I took these two pictures two days apart:

The picture on the left is just regular old me. I’m not fasted, and I’m not flexing. I’m 177 pounds and my normal body fat levels (Thanks to following the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle). I’m not sticking my gut out, or trying to look miserable (although I took the pic at midnight so I do look a little tired).

The picture on the right is regular old me after a couple tanning sessions, a quick shave of the chest and one really good chest and shoulders workout. I’m still 177 pounds and the same amount of body fat that I was two days before in my before picture.

To keep this experiment honest I did not fast in-between shoots and the only workout I did was the one right before the photo on the right.

As I hope you can see, some well timed pre-photo prep work can do wonders for your before and after pics. And, it is very important that you take this into consideration when you are doing your before and after photos for Craig’s contest. Also, you should keep this in mind the next time you are looking at a weight loss supplement ad that uses Before and After pictures as testimonials to how effective the product is (If I could do this in two days, imagine what could be done in 8 weeks).

Bottom line- Make sure you don’t try to “fake” your before pics, keep them honest, and when it comes to your after pics make sure you take the proper steps to really show off your hard work.

BP

PS- Both these pics were taken in my house with regular lighting, if I really wanted to make the difference extreme I would have used better lighting in the after photo.

PPS- If you want to learn more about how I eat and the methods I use to stay in shape then check out www.eatstopeat.com to learn more about fasting for weight loss

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It’s been a crazy week for me. I was in Montreal for the weekend, checking out the local cuisine. I had some very tasty duck, and some amazing raw fish at Buona Notte (I highly recommend this restaurant!) Unfortunately, on Sunday I was caught in that huge snow storm that pummeled southern Ontario. Needless to say, what should have been a 6 hour drive home ended up taking almost 11 hours!

By the time I finally got home I was so behind on work that I had to spend the last couple days trying to get caught up on emails. One of the emails I received had a really great question asking whether it’s carbs or calories that causes weight gain. I’ve copied the question and my answer below…

Hi Brad,

I’ve read your book Eat Stop Eat and I’m wondering whether you would have written it differently now that you’ve read “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes. I mean, in your book you still write as if the amount of calories matter and as if you shouldn’t differentiate between them. What Taubes has found is that the only thing you really can say is that too many Carbs are unhealthy.

George

And here is my answer:

Hi George,

Thanks for the email and for the excellent question.

I have read “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and was very impressed with its content. I believe that Taubes has accurately pointed out the health issues surrounding a high sugar intake. However, I do not believe that he accurately analyzed the data regarding the correlation between total calories and obesity.

Taubes examined studies containing diet record data and concluded from this research that the obese do not eat any more calories than non-obese people. Unfortunately, we have learned from the work of Brian Wansink that obese people tend to under report their caloric intake by as much as 30% when using diet records. This phenomena has been noticed by other researchers, and has been written up as an extremely important confounder in weight loss research. (For a great write up on this point you can see a Trial by Steven W. Lightman et al. published in the New England Journal of Medicine, volume 327 (37), 1992.)

For this reason I would not have changed any of my recommendations in Eat Stop Eat if I had read “Good Calories, Bad Calories” before I began writing.

I think that the points that Taubes makes about sugar are accurate, and I do believe that one or two 24 hour periods of complety no sugar (like during the Eat Stop Eat method of fasting) is beneficial to human health, yet I also believe that the only way to reduce body weight is through a negative caloric balance, and the best way to ensure that the majority of that weight loss is fat is by using the combination of caloric restriction and resistance exercise (the two keys to Eat Stop Eat’s success).

I hope this answer helps,

Brad

To learn more about the benefits of short periods of flexible fasting for weight loss, visit http://www.eatstopeat.com

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If you are interested in reading about some one’s experiences with her very first day on Eat Stop Eat, then check out Linza’s blog at http://willworkforabs.com/2007/12/17/my-first-eat-stop-eat-day/ !

A great post and a really good account of what your first day on Eat Stop Eat might feel like.

BP

Learn more about using flexible fasting for weight loss

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My mom sent me a text yesterday about a study out of the University of Utah. Apparently, according to this study, people who fast one day a month are 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.

Sounds like great news, especially if you are like me and fast 6 to 8 times per month.
Unfortunately, after looking over the study, I did a google search to see what the newswires were reporting and found some very disheartening news bytes.

According to an article I found on Yahoo News, when asked to comment on the study Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the MayoClinic (who was not involved in the study), stated “Fasting resets the metabolic rate”.

Now I’m not sure what Dr. Gibbons meant by “resets”, and he was probably speaking about long term chronic fasting,but the author of the article on Yahoo News added these words after Dr. Gibbons quote “slowing it down to adjust to less food and forcing the body to store calories as soon as people resume eating”.

These words cannot be Dr. Gibbons. They just can’t be. There is no way I can accept that a former heart association president would make such an incorrect statement, especially since it was in reference to a 24 hour fast.

This begs the question, why is the mainstream media so afraid to tell people to eat less? Why is it that when research on the benefit of brief periods of fasting comes out, people have to comment on the dangers of long term chronic fasting.

Instead of just explaining that as little as one 24 hour fast per month can reduce your chances of being diagnosed with clogged arteries, they have to start digging to find something,(completely unrelated to the study), so they can throw some negative comments into the fray.

If you’ve read Eat Stop Eat, you know that metabolism doesnot decrease during brief fasting. In fact, evidence suggests that it may even go UP!

I know it will be an up hill battle, but my goal is to make the use of brief periods of fasting a respected and established method of weight control…because it is easy and because it works.

Are you fasting today?

BP

EAT STOP EAT, its easy, its effective, and new research suggests it’s good for your ticker!

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You’ll never guess what happened to me this week.

I was at a lunch meeting, just finishing my coffee when someone came up to my table to tell me that she had just started Eat Stop Eat.

To be honest, it was a little weird to be approached in public, but it was an awesome feeling to be able to actually see her excitement. And, it was an even better feeling knowing that she was going to see results!

My goal is to make the question “Are you fasting today?” as common as “Did you want to go eat?”. If this happens, it means people are finally losing weight without the pain of constantly dieting. Without having to cut carbs for months on end, and without the pain of taking a week off of dieting only to watch the pounds practically jump back onto their bodies.

So with New Year’s fast approaching, it’s time for you to help spread the word. If you have been practising Eat Stop Eat, and have seen great results, it’s time to let your friends in on your little secret (it’s the holiday season, so don’t be greedy and keep it all to yourself!)

This holiday season you can do your part to stop the needless diet suffering that always happens this time of year.

Eat Stop Eat, help spread the word

BP

PS- Haven’t read Eat Stop Eat yet? You can check it out byclicking here ==> www.eatstopeat.com

Fasting for weight loss

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