I’ve thought of about a million different ways to explain this…and the best I’ve come up with is a fictional story…

So here it goes.

Why Eat Stop Eat works well for women.

Janet first met Kevin when they were in College.

Kevin was 6′2″ and 205 pounds. While he wasn’t an ‘athlete’ he worked out regularly and maintained a fairly muscular build for his height.

Janet was 5′6″ and 135 pounds. In her youth she was involved in just about every sport imaginable. From field hockey and soccer to swimming and dance, Janet was active, as a result she had the typical ‘fit’ and athletic body that other women her age hated her for having!

Janet didn’t really have a weight issue during college. Sure, her weight increased and hovered around 140 pounds by her senior year, but for the most part she had it under control.

That is until she and Kevin got married and moved in together.

They both lived very busy lives, balancing there new careers with trying to maintain some sort of social life.

As a result, both Kevin and Janet ate out a fair bit. Nothing extreme, maybe 2 or 3 times per week.

When they were at home Kevin cooked them relatively healthy meals, and they almost always ate breakfast and dinner together.

after 4 years of marriage, Kevin still weighed about 205 pounds. Sure, there wasn’t quite as much muscle, and he was a little ’softer’ around the stomach, but for the most part…not much had changed.

Janet on the other hand, hated her body.

Her once athletic build could now only be described at ‘thick’. She spent a great deal of time stressing over what she ate, making sure she ate enough protein, kept a close eye on her carbs and always took her fish oils pills.

Despite this, she was finding it a never ending battle to keep her weight below the dreaded 160 pound mark..but when work became stressful she could easily find herself in the mid 160’s.

Her breaking point was a couple days after last thanksgiving, when she actually weighed in with a night-time before-bed weight of 170 pounds.

To Janet this was devastating..and she was completely oblivious to why it was happening.

She had joined a gym, and even committed to going on nightly walks with Kevin, but to no avail.

Her friends said she ate too much sugar, but for the most part the meals that her and Kevin ate were very  healthy.

She finally chalked it up to her metabolism. It simply must have slowed down.

It was probably all the stress at work..or maybe it was some rare hormonal thing she inhereted from her mother.

The truth?

Janet was putting on weight because she ate too much.

More specifically, she put on weight because she ate the same amount as Kevin.

They had the same size servings of almost everything they ate.

And since Kevin was (for the most part) maintaining a weight of around 200 pounds, and was just about as active as Janet, it meant that Janet was eating enough food to maintain a weight of…well..right around 200 pounds!

When they would go to the restaurant and order the same meal, Kevin didn’t get the ‘Big Guy’ serving size, while Janet got the ’slim girl’ serving size…both plates looked identical.

When Kevin made them healthy omelets, he didn’t make one for himself then a half an omelet for Janet, he simply made two omelets.

This is the plight of women.

Most serving sizes in restaurants are too big for the average man, let alone a woman who is 4 inches shorter and 40-60 pounds lighter.

And, for the most part, when we are at home we don’t ‘downsize’ the portion sizes for the smaller person.

Even if we tried, we generally end up at some middle ground that is still a little too much for an average sized woman.

This is why Eat Stop Eat works so well for so many women. It gives you a chance to play a little catch up. Or more correctly to play a little ‘fall behind’.

It allows you to eat at a restaurant without having to leave 1/3 of your food on your plate.

You can eat at home with your family without cutting your chicken breast in half and giving it to the dog.

It is a dietary custom/portion size equalizer.

Food for thought.

BP

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One Monkey will mess you up, the other…not so much

The above picture was taken from the article “Proof mounts on restricted diet” found on the BBC news website.

Obviously, there is a difference between these two monkeys…

The best way I can describe it is as follows – When you look into the eyes of the monkey on the right, you see there is a WHOLE LOT OF FIGHT left in him. The monkey on the left…nothing.

Here’s the kicker… Both of these monkeys are OLD…27 to be exact (In monkey years..these guys are geriatric). The difference is the one on the left ate more over his lifetime then the one of the right who was calorie restricted.

So just as the title of the article says..the evidence for the life-extending properties of calorie restriction is definitely mounting.

But it’s not just life extension. It’s quality of life.

Look at the two monkeys again. They are the same age…one just…well, one still ‘has it’.

And if you don’t find the top picture convincing, check out this photo:

So it’s not just extending your life, it’s extending the quality of your life.

Now there are people who don’t like the idea of calorie restriction.

To quote directly from the article:

“Monkeys may be a close relation but there are significant differences which means not everything we see in them can be translated to humans,” said Catherine Collins, spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association.

“And there should be some serious reservations about cutting calories so dramatically, particularly for anyone under the age of 30. Any such diet would need to be very balanced to avoid malnutrition, and it would be a long-term commitment.

“People would have to weigh up whether they are prepared to compromise their enjoyment of food for the uncertain promise of a longer life, and a life which could be dogged by all sorts of problems – including osteoporosis.”

Of course, I understand why they did this…

Journalism 101, find someone (anyone) who will give an opposing view point.

OK so the point of all this…

The dietitian missed a HUGE point.

Calorie restriction DOES NOT have to be a “compromise of the enjoyment of food for the uncertain promise of a longer life”

Eat Stop Eat is a form of Calorie restriction (a term I HATE, but more on that later)

It’s true. Flexible Intermittent Fasting is an easy and effective way to reduce your overall calorie intake while still enjoying the foods you eat.

The other thing is that it’s a mistake to say the longevity is ONLY about living a longer life. It’s about living a younger life too.

Personally, I’m not sure I want to live to 200, but I do know, that when I get older…I want my great grand kids to look into my eyes and think “Man, great grandpa Pilon still has some fight left in him!”

BP

PS – The ‘osteoporosis’ that the dietitian bought up this is one of the reasons we weight train. Bones are like muscles, they respond to the challenge. Keep loading them and they will stay strong for a long time.

PPS- The reason I hate the term ‘calorie restriction’  – If evidence suggests that eating ‘normal’ leads us to being overweight with a high risk of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, where as eating ‘restricted’ doesn’t…well…then shouldn’t restricted be ‘normal’ and ‘normal’ be “sorry, we messed up an overestimated how many calories a human needs”???

***The original article can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8141082.stm

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Ok, Warning – I get pretty philosophical with this post.

Number one question I get about fasting?

What about losing muscle mass?

The truth is (as I point out in Eat Stop Eat) you don’t lose muscle while following Eat Stop Eat because you are resistance training AND fasting.

Of course, this naturally leads to questions about how much protein a person should be eating.

In fact, there were enough questions about protein that I ended up having to write my book “How Much Protein?” to properly answer the questions.

These questions led me to some questions of my own…

Mainly…

Why Protein?

If people are so concerned about their muscle mass, why is it protein that they asked about? Why not anabolic steroids?

After all even the most DIE HARD protein pusher will admit that the effectiveness of protein is very limited.

Protein just isn’t going to make you massive.

Anabolic steroids on the other hand…They have a very good track record for building muscle. Lot’s of it.

In fact…all legal and ethical issues aside, fasting, resistance training and steroids would make for a very, very powerful effect.

Now, I’m not about to recommend steroids. Frankly, I just don’t know enough about them.

Even though it seems like every week another one of our sports idols has been caught doping.

And rumors spread that just about every pro sport has an almost incurable need for steroids in their sport.

In order for the masses to be entertained, the actors (in this case the athletes) need to be almost-super human.

That and, I’m no dummy. I’ve been around the steroid game long enough to spot a user.

I’ve never used, but I know you can walk into any gym in Southern Ontario and easily pick out a handful of high school kids who are ‘on’.

Bottom line – if you are in the weight training game, then you are surrounded by users.

So Here’s my question for you:

If I were able to provide indisputable proof that the ONLY way for you to get more muscle than you have right now is to use anabolic steroids, and that the health ramifications were minor (remember this is just for discussion purposes, I’m not saying this is the case)..what would be your reasons for taking/or not taking them?

Please be sure to qualify all of the assumptions in your arguments.

B

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As Homer Simpson would say, “It’s funny ’cause it’s true”

CLICK HERE ==> Eat Less, Move More

Really, I could use this as a late night TV commercial for Eat Stop Eat

BP

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This question kept me up late last night:

Why don’t you make shopping lists for people instead of meal plans? let people make what they want, when they want it. when the food is out, you’re done eating until the next shopping list is published.

Really, its a very good idea.

A predetermined weekly shopping list that contains a set number of calories, fruits and vegetables provides an incredible amount of flexibility while at the same time helping people ‘target’ a certain calorie intake.

Basically, take a weekly calorie goal, and eat it through out the week in any manner you like. Once meal per day, three meals per day, 32 meals per day….what ever suits you best. BUT, when the food runs out..the food runs out.

This would be a great way to learn what a certain calorie intake ‘feels’ like.

The simplicity and logic makes this an intriguiging idea.

I checked with John Barban and his meal plans do indeed include a weekly shopping list. So if you are interested in meal plans, but crave diet-flexibility the same way I do, then this approach (as suggested by Travis) may be something you want to experiment with.

BP

PS – If you want to check out johns plans while they are still half price (I think the sale ends today) visit www.qualitymealplans.com

PPS – Obviously there are certain limitations to this plan, like if you shop for a family of four, but if you can manage it, it might be worth the experiment.

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NEWS FLASH: Over the next couple days your email in-box is going to be FLOODED by people promoting Meal Plans.

My guess is your going to get a MINIMUM of 5 emails over the next week.

You’re going to here all kinds of stories of why you absolutely MUST get a meal plan.

And, surprisingly (under the correct circumstances) even I am going to be one of those people!

Here’s the deal:

I’m not just blindly promoting some random product – I am promoting it for a specific purpose AND
for a specific reason.

That reason is I lost a HUGE debate with Eat Stop Eat science editor John Barban.

This debate led to John creating meal plans.

It was about 2 months ago, we were sitting in Williams Coffee Pub in Burlington Ontario, I was having a cappuccino and John was having a black coffee (he was fasting).

Out of the blue, John drops this line on me

John: “You know, you basically turn your back on people who don’t want to fast”

Obviously, my first thought was a good right hook…but seeing as John outweighs me by about 25 pounds, I decided that might not be the brightest idea.

Brad: “What are you talking about?” (this was my substitute for the right hook)

John: “Well for people who don’t want to fast, you simply tell them to eat responsibly”

Brad: “Exactly”

John: “Well, for people who have been completely confused by the obsessive compulsive advice from diet books and diet gurus…no one has a clue what eating responsibly means anymore”

Now, this made me really angry. I go to great lengths in this blog trying to explain what ‘eating responsibly’ means…but in reality, I could see John’s point.

Brad: “Well, what would you suggest?”

John: “Meal plans”

This is where I almost walked out of the coffee shop.

Brad: “F&*ck Off” (I’ll be honest, this was the most intelligent thing that I could get out of my mouth at this point)

Brad: “No. No way. Meal plans are a perfect example of OCE, they force people into a style of eating because of some BS pseudoscience rational of why people MUST eat one way…I don’t care what you say, meal plans ARE NOT the answer”

John: “Well, what if they were just simple plans that are made up of whole foods and mixed meals and some cooking instructions, no science story, just meals at various calorie levels.”

Brad: “nope, still way to restrictive, I want people to be flexible with their diets..that’s the whole point of Eat Stop Eat”

John: “Brad, some people need some form of schedule in their lives, especially when they are attempting to diet. You have to admit, even people following Eat Stop Eat sometimes ask for help trying to
figure out WHAT to eat when they ARE eating.”

Brad: “OK , that’s true, but still….I can’t condone eating according to a meal plan for the rest of your life, that’s just…torture”

John: “OK, so what if it wasn’t a ‘rest of your life thing’, what if it was meant as a guide to follow for 12 weeks to get back on track with your eating style’

Brad: “12 week meal plans?”

John: “Yes, 12 week meal plans. The exact same type of meal plans that are used successfully in hospital settings…you have to admit, they have an excellent track record for effectiveness”

Brad: “OK, under those circumstances yes.  But to be a respectable idea it would have to have ZERO pseudo science, no magic hormone manipulation stories, and it would be perfectly blunt that is ONLY a 12 week plan to be used to learn how to eat a certain amount of calories in a day?”

John: “yes”

Brad: “Fine…actually, yes…that would be something I could stand behind…I still prefer people be flexble with their eating habits, but for those people who REALLY want some sort of structure to work with this could be useful…but only if you make sure it’s done properly…you can market the hell out of it, but make sure the product is just as good as you say it is”

That is pretty much how the conversation went…I’m sure I missed some random thoughts and a ton of tangents (and I’ve edited out a bit of swearing), but that is basically it.

It was a debate, and a debate I lost. John had a valid point, a valid problem and a valid solution to that problem.

Therefore I can support this product because in my own way I was involved in its creation and because John gave me his word that it wouldn’t have any crazy pseudoscience or any misleading marketing.

(Obviously there was going to be marketing, I just didn’t want it to be misleading – all diets work if they create a calorie restriction; it’s the people who make up false reasons WHY their diets work that infuriate me!)

Now, I wasn’t involved in the design of the plans or any of the marketing (John teamed up with a guy named Pat McGuire and a guy named Vince Delmonte for this project), but I trust John enough to believe he’s done a good job following through on his idea.

So if you want to check out the meal plans the John helped develop then visit www.qualitymealplans.com

Again, I encourage you to be flexible with your eating, however If you are having a hard time figuring out how much to eat, or have been so confused by diet books and diet advice that you would like a simple 12-week refresher on what to eat, then again these plans may be helpful.

I’m not saying they are magic by any means, but they could be a valuable tool in your weight loss tool box.

www.qualitymealplans.com

BP

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