Brad Pilon.com

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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A great question from Chris:

Brad, I am on the fence about your program. I have been low-carbing it for a while now with some great results. However I am starting to feel a little limited in what I can eat. It would be nice to have the occasional taco or dessert! Are you saying all calories are the same? Meaning if i switch to ESE and add some carbs to my diet, and still lift, my weight and body comp shouldn’t change b/c of the calorie reduction? Thanks!

My Answer:

A calorie is a calorie. 100%. After all, a Calorie is a unit of measurement. So just as an inch of anything can only ever be an inch long, one calorie from any food is still one calorie.

Now, all macronutrients are not created equal (proteins, fats and carbs do have different effects on the body) but this does not have anything to do with the measurement of calorie (By the way..I think this whole calorie nonsense would disappear if we finally adopted the Joule as the standard measurement of energy..but that’s another story all together).

So to answer your question, I am confident that you can switch to an eat stop eat lifestyle (as long as you are still lifting), increase your carb intake (within reason) and not see a change in your body composition, as long as you do not increase the amount of energy you are consuming.

Regarding your carbohydrate intake, remember even if you moderately increase your carbs on the days you ARE eating, on the 1 or 2 24-hour periods when you are fasting, your carobydrate intake will be ZERO. So most likely it will all balance out.

I do think that macronutrients play an important role in health, and the majority of us could benefit from eating a little less Carbohydrates, but in the end, my opinion is that it’s your ability to eat a wide variety of foods that will bring the best health, and the ability to reduce calorie intake that will bring the best weight loss (add in resistance training if you want to make sure the weight lost if body fat).

BP

PS- In the last month I have heard from a die-hard paleo person, a vegetarian, a fruititarian, and a pasta addict, and they have all found benefits with Eat Stop Eat. Bottom line – Eat Stop Eat doesn’t discriminate, it can help people of all diet-beliefs lose weight and feel great!

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So its Jan 1st…again.

For many people this means new years resolution time…and like a bad case of deja vu…it’s typically the SAME resolutions EVERY YEAR.

“I’m going to lose weight”

“I’m going to eat healthy”

“I’m going to go to the the gym every SINGLE DAY”

The problem with these resolutions is that..well..they are boring.

So this year, lets shake it up.

First..let’s combine the first two “traditional” resolutions ..”I am going to eat healthy and lose weight”..throw it out, and replace it with:

I am going to commit to getting results by doing nothing

Way more fun…and if you think about it, that’s exactly what happens when you follow Eat Stop Eat…all of your weight loss success come from…doing NOTHING!

Next, lets take the traditional resolution of “I will go to the gym every single day” and replace it with something much easier and FAR more effective:

I will record my workouts in a journal, and will try to improve with each workout

Like I said, much easier, and 100 times more effective.

Lastly, lets add one more resolution to the mix:

I will commit to one strength goal this year

I like this one becuase it really focuses your workouts, and because strength in the gym is a great measure of improvement.

For me, I commit to doing a standing barbell shoulder press with 225 pounds. It has been a goal of mine for a while now, but 2009 is going to be the year that I accomplish this.

So there are three health and fitness resolutions that are not traditional, not boring, but are super effective.

BP
PS- My own personal new years resolutions are to explore the first resolution to its fullest

I will commit to getting results by doing nothing

I am starting to think that this may have a far greater reach than simply intermittent fasting and weight loss.

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Here an Interesting take on the research behind Intermittent fasting and longevity from Scientific American’s Podcast “60-Second Science”.

You can listen to the podcast here:

http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=fasting-may-equal-calorie-restricte-08-12-26

BP

PS- I just put the finishing touches on my presentations for my 1 day seminar coming up on January 17th. All I can say is that I’ve even surprised myself with how many nutrition myths I manage to tackle in this presentation!

It’s going to be an amazing day, and there are still a couple seats left so make sure you sign up soon ==>

http://www.ttmembers.com/products/item14.cfm

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Here’s an interesting question I received:

Brad, what’s the differences between ESE and the Warrior Diet?

Both programs are based on the benefits of fasting. The main difference is, the Warrior Diet is a little more lenient that Eat Stop Eat, and Eat Stop Eat is a little more flexible than the Warrior Diet. (How’s that for confusing?).

The Warrior Diet is more lenient because it allows for small meals during the fasting period, whereas Eat Stop Eat calls for nothing but calorie free beverages during the fast. Also, the Warrior Diet is 18 hour fasts, whereas Eat Stop Eat is 24.

However, Eat Stop Eat is more flexible as you only fast once or twice a week, whereas with the Warrior Diet you fast every single day for 18 hours at a time.

This is a very simplified answer, but the bottom line is that while they are both effective programs based on fasting for weight loss, they have very different philosophies.

I know of some people who have enjoyed success with the Warrior Diet approach, but I was only able to keep with it for a little under two weeks before it started getting in the way of my lifestyle (lunch meetings etc.).

Similar to my opinions on every other day fasting or even traditional intermittent fasting, I think that they simply are not flexible enough to maintain long-term. This is why Eat Stop Eat was designed to be flexible. The better you can fit your nutrition program around your life, the better it will work.

BP

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