Here is something that I think a lot of people overlook in their quest to lose body fat:
Burning fat involves using your body fat as a fuel.
However this does NOT guarantee that you are losing body fat…
That’s a WHOLE LOT of work, for ZERO results.
LOSING fat is just that, you burn body fat, AND you don’t replace it.
So they are very similar but they are NOT the same thing.
Lots of things can cause you to BURN more fat without guaranteeing you LOSE body fat.
Exercise comes to mind.
Think of all the claims you read:
“Burn 5 times more fat!”
“Increase fat burning by 120%!!”
They don’t really tell you that you will actually LOSE fat. (It’s just implied.)
So here’s the truth:
You are ALWAYS burning fat, and YES you can burn MORE fat with exercise, but it takes a diet to actually cause you to LOSE body fat.
If you want to lose body fat you have to eat less.
This is the best way to get a WHOLE LOT of results with ZERO work.
This is the magic behind Eat Stop Eat.
It is the Simplest way to get results from doing NOTHING.
No stress, no calorie counting, no crazy food combining.
Just a break from eating that lets your body burn and LOSE body fat.
Exercise is great…but for fat loss, nothing beats an easy diet.
BP
great post brad! Will I benefit from a 18hr fast opposed to a 24hr fast? will the results be the same?
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[...] LOSING FAT vs. BURNING FAT | Brad Pilon.com [...]
That is a great post. Yet it amazes me how many people still think that the only way to lose weight is to start exercising. I think its because people don’t believe that they are eating too much to begin with. If they aren’t 60-100lbs overweight, they just assume their weight gain is from lack of activity (or reduced activity). This confuses me when you consider that you can maintain your weight by doing absolutely no activity whatsoever, as long as you eat at your BMR. People that want to ‘lose a few pounds’ just think that they need to hop on a treadmill for a few hours a week and their problem will be solved. Of course they don’t consider the extra food they intake due to the increased hunger all of this new exercise is causing!! But it’s okay, I’ll just eat that extra cookie because, hey, I’m exercising!!
Brad,
whats wrong or the question is what happesn in the following scenario:
) Im still in caloric deficit diet, but I didn” burt any fat in this scene.
1. I wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen stores and jump on the bike and do 45 min steady state cardio. My body has no choice than use the free fatty acid as fuel so I burn X amount fat (can this be determined aexatly or doesnt matter?). I’m on a caloric deficit diet so I think I lose this fat.
2. I wake up blabla. But I eat 3 donuts and a big coffee (at Starbucks to be exact (we dont have here any, but I want You to be happy
So in a long term the two have the same effect on weight loss?
It’s always so interesting to see how many people want to cut the hours of the fast from 24 to 20 or 18. Even coming that far, there is some sort of a panic about just going all the way. Rather than try to cheat the 24 hour fast, why not just stick to it? One of the major goals is to understand what are your hopes, fears, anxieties and expectations about food. I bet if you try, nothing bad will happen.
Excellent article, I never knew the difference.
Brad, i eat according to ESE and im very happy with it…My question is…does ESE work because of the caloric restrction? Or because of the “fasting”? the increased HGH, Glucagon, etc….
Good point, Michael. Along with that, going a longer (than usual) period of time without food “acclimates” a dieter to saying no to eating the “normal” amount of food. (And if we’re overweight, the “normal” amount is obviously too much!) I started off my diet two weeks ago with an IF, and I think that helped. It gets one used to simply shutting one’s mouth and not eating. It’s a gut check.
Yeah, I think you nailed it wood.
In the two to three hours after the workout, situation 1 would win hands down.
But all else being equal, longer range thinking if the defecit is the same, and both workouts were equal, then so was the weight loss.
B
Hi Brad
I am new on this blog.
My name is Cengiz from the Netherlands me and my friend did some research on to find a good diet and we found your website my friend started a year ago he lost 10 kg in 3 months.
I started this week i am doing ESE for 3 days a week for 20 hours my question was what can i drink at my stop days beside water and coffee any advice.
LOSING FAT vs. BURNING FAT…
Fat Burning – There is a major difference between BURNING Fat and LOSING fat. This is something that I think a lot of people overlook in their quest to lose body fat….
People do not always see that; it is much much easier to lose body fat through diet. With the simple guidelines of eat stop eat, ideally it should not be that hard.
I workout hard with minimal results, but with the few tweaks Brad Pilon has been telling the world, it accelerated results, just like that. Simple rules, faster fat loss.
great article Brad!
I was wondering what was your take on a protein-sparing modified fast instead of a complete fast? I’ve had a look at a couple of pubmed papers, I remember one where they compared insulin between an PSMF and a complete fast, and there wasn’t much difference. I wonder if adding protein during (to the tune of 1-2 g per lb lean body mass) the fast could allow for some muscle mass gain (or further prevent loss) while still keeping insulin low enough to allow burning mostly fat during the day and still keeping a massive calorie deficit
You won’t see any loss if you are resistance training. To be clear – a short term fast that includes resistance training IS a Protein sparing fast.