Summer weight loss Eat Stop Eat style
Just a quick tip today for people trying to get lean for the summer using Eat Stop Eat.
This tip assumes you are fasting twice per week, and it also assumes you have no interest in adopting and new Obsessive Compulsive Eating habits.
So here’s the tip – Try to do both your fasts during the work-week (Sunday night counts), then tackle the two toughest days of the week – Saturday & Sunday.
Aim to have a ‘good’ Saturday and Sunday – Since this is when a lot of people do some serious calorie damage.
Really, all I want you to do is to come out of the weekend feeling confident you made some responsible decisions and came out ‘neutral’.
Take control of these two days, eat responsibly during the rest of the week and let your fasting do the rest of the fat burning work for you.
It’s not OCE or nutrition-magic. It is a simply change that can make a BIG difference in your weight loss success.
Concentrate on conquering Saturday and Sunday and the rest will fall in to place.
BP
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I like the idea of fasting twice per week, but I am somewhat confused though. You first said try to tackle the fasts during the work week (Sunday night is okay tho). then you said fast on Saturday and Sunday? Or am I reading this wrong?
Fasting during working days works well for me. I am busy for most of the waking hours so don’t even think about food.
Hi Brad,
Just about to leave for the airport to wing back home from scuba holiday and as much as I’m reluctant to leave the world beneath the waves, I’m looking forward to getting back to more variety in food (dessert islands off the coast of Venezuela deliver slim pickins!) AND get back into my fasting rhythm.
Yes, missing fasting may sound odd to those not in the know but I have really grown to love the process. It’s easy and energizing. And I do like you suggest – weekdays unless something bumps the schedule and then I’ll work in a Saturday or Sunday.
For the most part my 2 day schedule is Mondays/Thursdays. After several months, I had shifted into one day a week, but now with a couple of missed weeks and a few too many local beers, even with as many calories as scuba diving burns, I’m looking forward to trimming up a little ESE style. I’ll start back in with a couple of days a week.
It’s a great tool – thanks again Brad for shedding a whole new light on it!
Lani
Hi,
Is there any reason to only fast 24 hours twice a week? If you did it 3 times wouldn’t you burn more fat?
I moved my fast to Saturday, which in itself dealt with my tendency to overindulge on the weekend, at least for one day. But I totally get you, Brad–weekends are easy to pig out on and would benefit the most from more discipline.
Always great posts Brad. A little off the subject, but I have heard about the benefits of alkalizing the water you drink and have heard that adding a little baking soda to the water will do the trick. I have heard that it will alkalize your body, help you build muscle (since we tend to be more acidic and acid eats at our muscle), give more energy, help in weight loss.
What are your thoughts about the whole alkalization thing and what is the best (and least expensive – I know there are drops, but they add up quick) way to accomplish this, if you know.
Thanks!
Michael
@Michael
Hi Michael,
I’m glad you liked it.
On a different note, I did a descent amount of research on alkalizing agents while working in the supplement industry and I can say my opinion is that A) it takes a large large amount to have any measurable effect and B) this effect will not make any difference in how you look over a 2-3 month time period.
B
@Achintya
I think twice a week allows for the greatest flexibility. There is nothing wrong with 3 times per week metabolically, but from a real life standpoint, my guess is you will burn out faster on this regimen.
B
@JC
I want you to try fasting during the work week, then eat during the weekends, but try to really pay attention and eat responsibly.
Most of us turn ‘off’ on the weekends, so this is a good practice to gain some control.
B
Hi Brad,
I recently bought the book and I really enjoyed it. I am on my second week and losing body fat. I told my friend about it and he directed me to this site. http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/03/02/postponing-death-caloric-restriction-vs-intermittent-fasting-part-1/ I’m a big fan of Tim Ferriss and I’m sure you’ve heard of these studies, but do you have any rebuttals that I can tell my friend in regards to this?
@Jonavan
HI Jonavan,
Yep, I’ve gone over those comments a number of times. In my opinion they were written by a competing author who I beleive at one time thought of writing a book on intermittent fasting, and is now trying to down play it as a fad.
The research he quotes is correct, but I beleive most of it is either taken out of context or does not apply to Eat Stop Eat specifically.
They were good issues to bring up and the author is a bright man, however I must remind you that anything I write is obviously going to be biased towards Eat Stop Eat, and anything a competing author is going to write is obviously going to by biased towards there own work, so you need to take all of it in context.
I hope this helps,
B
Brad, I have a question and it might not directly pertain to this article but i had nowhere else to ask you this. Look, everybody knows that fruits and veggies are the absolute best things to eat. My biggest problem is that i cannot get this one particular idea out of my head: “I must eat really clean or i have no chance of losing weight and keeping it off.”
My mother told me to just eat less and move more (sound familiar?) but for some reason i always think that i have to eat super clean to get any desirable results. The hard part of it all is that i just don’t like fruits and veegies and trust me, i have “practiced” on fruits and veggies just to try to like them more but it doesn’t work.
How can i lose this mindest of eating super clean and accept the idea of eating less? You have no idea how hard it is for me to escape this thought. Thank You!
Achintya, I have some additional thoughts on the 3x a week strategy.
First, I agree with Brad that this can lead to fasting burnout and a “stored hunger” (in non-scientific terms) effect.
The other consideration is good nutrition. We should be eating high quantities of vegetables and fruits each day to keep our phytonutrient supply up. Now, if we cut out 3 days and aren’t vigilant about having really high quality intake on eating days, this could take nutritional toll over time. Of course, the same can be said of the 2 days a week schedule, but with 3 it becomes even more imperative to pay attention to nutritional quality.
Lani
Great tip, Brad. Why is it that it’s easier to stay focused on eating healthy during the week, but the weekend is so much more difficult?
I have found it very helpful to fast on Saturday. That makes the weekend go smoother as far as eating goes. : )
Al S,
do you currently fast? If not then just throw in a couple fasts each week and see if you lose weight.
If you lose weight(which I would suspect you will) then you don’t have to bother with force feeding yourself fruits and veggies if you don’t want to. Fruits and veggies are just a suggestion, not a rule written in stone. There are many cultures that don’t consume a great deal of fruits or veggies and they do just fine.
There is no right or wrong way to eat…there is just how you eat, and how it makes you look and feel.
If you feel fine eating the way you do, and you’re happy with your appearance, then who cares about fruits, veggies and whatever else.
if on the other hand you don’t like the way you look or feel then you might want to consider some modifications. I would always recommend fasting before trying to sub some particular food in or out.
John
Hi Brad!
Just a quick thanks for this post – it fit perfectly with my renewed focus on getting into my IF routine. I’m going to try and do exactly what you say here. Fasting dinner to dinner on sun/mon and thu/fri, and then try not to go crazy during the weekend
John, Thank you so much for your opinion. I never thought about it that way before, and it makes complete sense to me now. This is a burden that has been lifted off my shoulders thanks to you!
Hi Brad,
I found out about ESE a few weeks ago, and I think it’s a fantastic! It’s nice to see the starvation myth debunked and that your conclusions are backed up by actual science (something severely lacking in 99% of the other nutrition and exercise literature). I hope ESE really takes off!
I actually have a bit of a concern, though. I used to have an eating disorder, and luckily I kicked it. I’ve been doing ESE for the past couple weeks and have been feeling great. But, I finding myself wanting to fast more often and restrict calories even on non-fasting days. It’s like now that I know calorie deprivation is not going to harm me, I’m becoming obsessive compulsive about fasting.
Any recommendations or suggestions? Has anyone else voiced a similar concern? I really like ESE and want to continue, but I also don’t want to go back to having an ED (believe me, it’s a terrible place to be!).
Hi Brad. Is it ok to drink Nestea Lemon Iced Tea while fasting? It’s the kind that comes in a can. Says on the can here that it has ~100 calories and 33g of carbs, from sugar.
Thanks
I’ve learned to slightly modify the ESE, by only eating dinners during the week and doing whatever on the weekends. My total fast time each day is about 18-20 hours. Over the last 2 months I’ve lost about 15lbs and feel great. I’m really happy with the results, but am wondering if it’s ok to be doing it this way from a health aspect. Any insight?
Thanks for everything,