Here is an interesting comment that was left on this blog:
Brad, I believe that your diet, or better yet lifestyle type way of eating will really change peoples lives and even mine for the better. I fully understand the concepts that you present but one thing I do not understand – You say that besides our 1 to 2 days of fasting that you want us to eat “NORMAL”. The problem is that most people do not understand what “NORMAL” is. Heck I don’t even know what NORMAL eating is. WHAT IS NORMAL EATING?
Great point… so here we go.
Eating “normal” is eating responsibly (for people who are trying to lose weight).
There is NO ‘normal’ or ‘perfect’ way to eat for weight loss.
This is the great fallacy behind most diet books.
The fact is calorie restriction (or more correctly a calorie deficit compared to the current amount of calories you are eating) causes weight loss.
ANY diet book or diet style that claims they have the secret ANSWER or that their way is the ‘only way that works’ are INSTANTLY proven wrong by the millions of people who have successfully lost weight by using alternative methods.
For instance, if I were to say that the Eat Stop Eat style of fasting is the ONLY way to lose weight I should INSTANTLY lose all credibility (Since it is entirely possible to lose weight without following the Eat Stop Eat style of fasting)
The point I am trying to make is that there is NO such thing as an all encompassing way to define eating “normal”. This is why I don’t ever attempt to define what is “normal eating” or what a ‘normal diet’ is.
What is a normal diet to someone who lives in Cairo Egypt would be very “not normal” to some one who lives in Pittsburgh.
Normal is defined by your ancestry, your geography how you were raised and your personal preferences AND your goals…you simply cannot define it.
Eating responsibly is much easier to define.
Simply put, eating responsibly is eating the AMOUNT of food necessary to reach your goal.
Eating responsibly is also a mindset. It is realizing that on many occasions you are going to want to eat more food than you need to.
If your goal is to lose weight then eating responsibly means recognizing when you are eating too much and either A) making the decision to stop eating or B) accepting the fact that at that time you are going to eat more and you will deal with the results later.
There is no free pass to weight loss.
And, despite what some people say, you simply cannot eat as much as you want and still lose weight as long as you take supplement X or follow diet Y or exercise routine Z.
Even getting the fat cut right off your body in a surgical procedure still does not constitute permanent weight loss. (Yes you can eat enough food to put that weight right back on! …the remaining fat cells can still expand and fill up with fat if you continue to wolf back massive amounts of calories after the surgery)
So the bottom line is that there is no such thing as “eating normal”, there is only “eating normally for YOU”.
If the amount of food you normally eat is the amount of food it takes to maintain your current weight at your current activity level (so assuming that you are not currently gaining or losing weight), then adding in one or two fasts without changing anything else, will cause you to lose weight. End of story.
So ONE method (but certainly not THE ONLY method) to lose weight is to eat normally (for you) and then add in one or two Eat Stop Eat fasts per week.
I hope this helps clarify a pretty ‘murky’ topic.
BP
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the explaination, it’s often hard to know if we are eating right, there is just so much marketing out there that we need to do this or that and eat this but not that and take these pills but only after this or that.
For me eating normal is basically to follow social norms. i eat three meals a day, i’ve tried the whole six or seven thing but it just does not work for me. i try to restrict each meal to 500 calories – but i go over by a little whenever it seems right. Sure , sometimes I get hungry between meals but i know it’s only ever a few hours away till I get my next meal.
Now to this i’ve added fasting tuesdays and fridays, I can change this whenever it’s not suitable – like last week I had a seminar so I moved my fast to Saturday.
I have a question though, I find that now that i’ve added fasting to my life i do not have as much strength or energy to get through my workouts. this is especially true on the day after a fast eventhough I would expect that my evening meal should have reloaded my ATP glycogen stores. is this to be expected or are there certain food compositions that would better solve this issue – like higher carbs or more protien?
Good explanation, Brad. Eating responsibly for me is eating a variety of good foods, but not overeating. I don’t deny myself tasty food, even if they might not be the healthiest choices. But through trial and error I have learned my limits and know that if I overeat regularly I will not lose weight, fasting or not.
Great post Brad! You have no idea how many times I’ve attempted to explain this to people who ask me about fat loss. No end of them think they can eat as much as they want but if it’s low fat it’s ok. I tell them to include fat but keep their total lower and they think I’m retarded or something.
Also, a quick question for you: I’m 19 and I’ve seen before that you’ve recommended not fasting for people under a certain age. I think it might have been 21? Currently I’m eating to build muscle and just want to give my body a break from eating so much and do a 24hr fast on Sundays, would that affect me negatively at all or would you say it’s ok?
Thanks man,
Sam
Good post Brad. Certainly, eating “Normally” is different for everyone. My friend Mike, who is an eating and muscle building machine, and cannot put on an ounce of fat if he tries, certainly defines “Normal” differently than I do. Someone like myself, I will always have to keep an eye on what I eat. Not OCE, but like you said, there will be times where you want to eat more, and you might have to control yourself and keep it real. This is one of the hardest things to do…
[...] blogmocracy.com: lgf 2.0 added an interesting post on How to Eat â [...]
“you simply cannot eat as much as you want and still lose weight”
There is no truth truthier than this truth. It all boils down to this.
Brad,
Given that our bodies are amazingly good at reestablishing equilibrium, it seems that fasting with any regularity will inevitably lose its efficacy for weight loss as our bodies normalize to the new system of eating. I completely agree that if you regularly do not fast and are maintaining your bodyweight and introduce fasting two times per week while maintaining that normal food intake *will* result in weight-loss, it also seems in my experience that over time, we learn to incrementally eat more, which works to offset times when we are fasting.
I’ve observed diminishing returns in fasting even though it worked incredibly well the first few months. However, my bodyweight now stays within a few pounds of a certain level. So the test (I think) of my theory here would be that periodically I should reduce or eliminate fasting for say a month, and then reintroduce 2x fasts per week — ratchet down that way.
Does that makes sense?
@Justin
Hi Justin,
Yes makes sense. I wouldn’t really call it reestablishing equilibrium (which implies some sort of adaptation) rather I would call it reaching equilibrium (which implies you have simply reached the weight that your new calorie intake supports), but’s just semantics.
Something I’ve written about before is along the lines of what you suggest. Take time off of fasting, assess how much you need to eat to support your new weight, then introduce fasting again.
I find 14 days is typically enough to get a good feel.
B
(this has NOTHING to do with metabolism or leptin or anything like that, it’s simple a way to measure, assess and adapt)
@Alyson L
You’d be surprised how long it took me to figure that out…sad but true.
B
@Billy
Great point Billy – eating responsibly could also be defined as eating ‘awareness’…
B
@Sam
Hi Sam,
I’ll be honest, that particular warning is in the book more a ‘blanketing statement’ than it is my own scientific assessment.
My only advice is to take it easy on the ‘bulking’. One of my biggest ‘bodybuilding regrets’ is when I bulked up to 216…complete waste of time.
B
@Omar
Omar – Perfect…in my opinion that was a perfect description of eating responsibly.
B
@Chris
Hi Chris,
I’m really not sure, to tell you the truth it depends on what type of training you are doing.
Realistically, if it is weight training I doubt your nutrition has anything to do with it.
B
i am so sorry about the previous 2 comments, i have a quick quuestion. if i am 18 years old is it ok to fast for 24hrs twice a week following ur guidelines. thansk
Hi Brad,
I recently bought and read Eat Stop Eat – a fantastic read! I wonder if you could answer some questions that occurred to me while reading it.
– You say that short term calorie deficits don’t trigger muscle loss, if weight-training is included into your program. Does that mean, if you do not weight train, you will indeed lose muscle? At some point muscle loss does occur – you see this in anorexics, for example. Or is there something else going in entirely, when calorie reduction leads to muscle loss?
– At what point does a “short term fast” become a long term one? Not that I want to try it at all, but when does a fast become harmul? I’m just curious.
Hi Brad,
So, if eating normally for me includes eating sandwiches and sometimes pizza, would fasting 2 days still allow me to lose weight? I’ve had it stuck in my head that losing weight equals eating low carb. I tried Atkins a few years ago, and lost weight, but I found I was obsessed with food all day long. I had the same “obsessive” feeling when on WW. I’m not overweight, just need to fix some problem spots.
Thanks!
@Terri
Hi Terri,
Losing weight does not have to include low carb eating. It is a method, but certainly not the only method.
Eating normally can include sandwiches and the occasional pizza, as long as your long term ‘average’ is a calorie deficit (That’s where the fasting comes in).
B
[...] Brad Pilon on How to eat Normal. [...]
Hey Brad (or anyone who would like to comment)
I have begun fasting once or twice a week to get off the ‘freshman 15′ (actually about 10, over the course of fours years at college). I really enjoyed ESE and would like to make it work for me, but I have a problem. After my fast, typically dinner to dinner, I eat a normal size meal but am still ravenously hungry, so hungry that I cannot fall asleep. I can deal with periods of hunger during my fast, but after they are over, it seems like no normal amount of food will satisfy me. Any ideas on how I can adapt ESE to work better for me?
Thanks,
Michelle