Review of Eat Stop Eat : Intermittent Fasting to Lose Body Fat
January 11th, 2010
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by Mike T Nelson · Filed Under: Uncategorized
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- Review of Eat Stop Eat : Intermittent Fasting to Lose Body Fat
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Review of Eat Stop Eat : Intermittent Fasting to Lose Body Fat
That’s right I have confession to make , if you ask me about this even about 9 months ago if I would ever recommend intermittent fasting or fasting in general I would I said Heck No!
Don’t you know your gonna lose muscle mass by doing that you crazy bean pole!
Don’t you know you need to eat every 2 to 3 hours in order to keep muscle mass!
Actually that is what I believed for many years and you can even search this very blog to find articles about it. Even going back by about a year and a half ago (or was it 2 years ago now?) I remember talking to my good buddy Jason Rhymer over at Rhymer Fitness when we were at the Z-Health T Phase certification and he stated he recently starting doing some fasting. I almost dropped my subway chicken sandwich I was eating. I was not agreeing with him at the time, but I was still interested in his results and started to do more research myself again.
Brad Pilon and Eat Stop Eat in the Black Corner
In my quest, I hunted down Mr Brad Pilon of Eat Stop Eat as he had put out an ebook of the same name (Eat Stop Eat). I read it and found every interview he had done and listened intently. I will admit my first instinct was to dismiss this guy as some nut job trying to cash in on the latest trend while avoiding all the research. I found the opposite and recognized he had actually done his homework; so I called him up to grill him some more.
I initially thought it was going to be a knock down drag out debate about protein intakes and meal frequency with yours truly here taking side of “you must eat more frequently” (the red corner) and he was going to take side of “you don’t need to eat as frequently and fasting is cool” (the black corner).
I was sure I was going to mop the floor with him like Rocky did in all of his movies (although Brad is Canadian and not Russian, but they are close, right?)
The Big Fight
It turns out that we had more in common than I expected and I put the screws to him naming studies and he really had read them!
So I went back and over the past 9-12 months or so looked up more literature and my conclusion started to change. I now think if you really are trying to lose weight the intermittent fasting approach is actually a pretty good way to go! Am I out of my tree now?
What is Intermittent Fasting?
By his intermittent fasting approach it’s actually not eating for 24 hours only ONCE per week so if your going to start a fast on lets say Monday at 7 pm you would not eat again until Tuesday at 7 pm. The rest of the week you would not try to make up for that you just go about your business and lead normal healthy pattern.
Audio Interview with Brad Pilon
I have the full audio below that you can listen to at your leisure at the end here.. Even if you have no interested in fasting, we talk about some cool things to maximize your gains in the gym and nutrient/ protein timing.
If you like the interview and want to pick up a copy of Eat Stop Eat click HERE and I actually do endorse it as a method to drop some body fat. I have done it myself and did not see any loss of muscle or strength!
Why the Change?
I like to do my research before I ever recommend anything and I go a bit too far to the extreme, but I only recommend products that work, are based on science and I have tested myself. I have now done fasts for the full 24 hours and I survived and so far have not seen any loss of muscle. I will probably cut down a bit towards this summer, so keep checking back as I will share my full ongoing experience.
Brad Pilon Interview
So sit back and listen to the interview below and we discuss everything from muscle hypertrophy, protein intake, calories, random tangents, fat loss and much much more. Almost 60 minutes for free and you can download it to your iphone or ipod even. The sound quality is not the best ever, but it is ok.
Give the interview a listen and let me know what you think by leaving some comment love.
Rock on
PS
In case you skipped all my ramblings, I do endorse this as a method to lost body fat, so pick up a copy of Eat Stop Eat click HERE
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Eat Stop Eat Review and Interview with Brad Pilon on Intermittent Fasting for Fat Loss and Muscle Gain? [57:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Mike,
I’ve read the book and have no doubt that a weekly fast is a good thing. Our ancestors didn’t have a steady supply of food. And I base most of what is healthy on what we did in the past, because we are living proof that it worked.
But, and there’s always a but, I don’t think weight loss is as simple as calorie in vs. calories out. Maybe what I’ve learned is mythology but it makes sense from a biochemical standpoint. Perhaps you have studied the research to set me straight. I believe the hormonal response and nutritive value of food plays the key role in weight loss. Taubes “Good calories, bad calories” delves into this concept as do Drs. Atkins, Schwarzbein, and Rosedale with their diets. So which of 2 people with similar BMR, each eating 2000 kcal/day would you guess to have the better body comp? One eating 6 days per week a diet of 50-60% refined grain based carbs such as the food pyramid. The other eating 7 days a diet of minimally processed foods, high clean fat from pasture fed animals, dairy, eggs, meat etc.and nuts and oils. moderate protein, lower carbs in the form of vegetables?
I think a majority of folks lack the ability to tap into their fat reserves as a fuel source when not in a fed state. It’s easier to convert protein into sugar and stay in sugar burning mode because of insulin and leptin resistance. Not to mention folks lack the vitamins and minerals and cofactors to properly metabolize the fats and sugars.
Looking forward to your reply, hope you can shed some light on this
PJ
PJ
Thanks for the comments and I have many thoughts that I will get out soon, but not enough time to type them up now.
More soon!!
Mike T Nelson
Mike, Did you blow up the referral I left here yesterday re Rob Regishes The BluePrint ? Honestly, it was to add to your knowledge about fasting and was not a ‘commercial’. I have no commercial interest in that publication
I know … it’s tough to differentiate sometimes
Hi there PJ
Sorry for the delay as I spent most of the day getting my car fixed on my vacation day–ugh.
Great question. A few points
1) Calories matter! Thermodynamics, while it gives me nightmares and evil flashback to my graduate work in mechanical engineering, is still valid. While Taubes did some great research and got people to think, I believe he did a HUGE disservice by saying that calories did not matter.
The catch- the catch is that if you eat more protein, more fibers and veggies, cover your essential fats you tend to eat LESS! This is good. So in the end, many approaches work because of that.
If the person is metabolically flexible enough, I don’t think it matter much what excess calories above min needs for fat and protein come from. Cover proteins and fats and the extra can come from protein, fats or carbs AS LONG AS calories are in check.
For extra calories, I have my athletes just eat what they like! ha! Novel idea I know. We need to stop demonizing foods and good vs bad. I’ve witness high level endurance athletes first hand eat sleeves of fig newtons at once without any ill effects.
Fat Usage
While not a ton of research, some studies form the mid 80s and early 90s showed that most have an issue BURNING fats, vs liberating them. Probably explains why the Randle Effect from caffeine is minimal to non existent. More exercise is needed to burn those calories
Now there are more and more obese people and some evidence to suggest that some do have issues handling FFAs and are very metabolically INflexible to fats. These poor bastards also tend to have a hard time burning carbs too many times. They have uber high blood TGs too as a result and other cardiometabolic issues. They are metabolically INflexible and their health suffers (and performance) as a result.
Wow, I went off on a super geeky rant on that one!
Thoughts?
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Sorry Tim. It was nothing personal and submit it again.
I was probably a bit edgy since I get 65 spam comments a day. I am not kidding. Good thing the spam filter works quite well.
Rock on and thanks for reading
Mike T Nelson
Mike,
Great response, definitely not too super-geeky for me, that the type of response I was looking for. It seems we are on the same page with many issues. Athletes for sure can tolerate and even need more carbohydrates than the average person.
Weston Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is probably the biggest influence on my nutrition views, natural foods, plenty of fats, ferment or soak grains and nuts. True paleo diets were high in fat and organ meats not this skinless chicken breast, olive oil BS that poses as paleo diets nowadays. Great article called “Grease and Guts” on the Price website. I get most of scientific understanding from Schwarzbein and her work with metabolically challenged patients and Rosedale for his work with leptin. According to Rosedale when a person is metabolically impaired they’ll convert protein to sugar and keep insulin levels high and resist burning stored fat. Hence the problem with high protein diets. I haven’t seen or even looked for research studies to prove this but makes sense to me.
As far as essential fats go, we need anywhere from a 5:1 to a 1:1 ratio of omega 6:3, depending on who you read, but we only need a few grams of these per day as higher levels of 3’s tend to go rancid. This makes us getting the bulk of fat from monounsaturated and saturated. I tend to think folks need anywhere from 40-60% of total caloric intake from fat.
I agree with your statements on reduced calorie, if we are eating fibrous veggies in higher quantities and healthy fats we will be satiated with less total calories than if we pigged out on empty carb foods. But even there we are getting back to insulin levels and hormonal response of foods, not total calories per se. I think that’s the disservice of ESE, that you don’t have to change the way you eat. I have several patients on low calorie diets that are unable to lose weight, it not until we change the content of the diet that we see results.
thanks again,
PJ
Mike,
Just google ‘Rob regish The BluePrint’
and don’t let the ’supplements’ word in the link fool you.
Supplements are not required for the program.
The best info on really leveraging fasting for performance (not weight/fat loss specifically) I have found.
Have completed five cycles of it with great results. I put it right up there with zHealth and CST at the top of my ‘best discoveries list’
All the best,
Tim
Mike,
I have liked Brad and the sense that he brings to nutrition online. ESE works well and i will always recommend it and use it.
Nice interview,
Richard
Hi there PJ!
Thanks for the great information as always! AWESOME
Interesting, I have not read a ton of Rosedale’s work (it is on my list), but my thoughts are they because insulin is sky high, it prevents fat burning. May be a chicken or egg thing. Most tend to not burn much protein since it is an inefficient process, but once the metabolic machinery goes awry, the body at some point will do whatever it can to survive.
I do think leptin is a key part, but ALL of the hormones interact and if I was forced to pick a main one, I would still go with insulin as it appears to be the main fuel selector switch. Low levels = fat burning (more of a “fasted” state)
Here is a quote on that from Dr. Jeff Volek
“The diverse functions of insulin can be summarized as anabolic. Insulin inhibits
breakdown and promotes storage of nutrients. In this way, dietary carbohydrate-induced
increases in circulating glucose and insulin levels serves as an important control element on
metabolism, especially the regulation of fuel selection between carbohydrate and fat. A low
insulin level is associated with a metabolic state characterized by increased fat oxidation and
decreased fat synthesis.”
Look how many other hormones in the body antagonize the action of insulin alone –catecholamines, glucagon, etc There are multiple systems in play to just work against insulin.
Fat Ratio
I agree with you on the fat ratios and that matches why what I have read too. Most are way low in Omega 3 (esp EPA and DHA–fish oils)
Yes, Omega 3s can go rancid fast. Great book is “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill” by Udo Erasmus. Great book and required reading for all on fats.
40-60% of calories from fat seems too high to me. Can it work? Yep. But it also depends on calories intake and probably works well for those on lower calories and trying to shrink their muffin top. For a competitive athlete, I would not have most go that high on fat and would move more towards carbs. Again, it depends on the athlete of course, but most are metabolically flexible enough to handle either quite well. Lots of literature to support the use of carbs during long duration endurance training too.
ESE Disservice?
I think with Eat Stop Eat you still have to change how you eat. This is just basic for health. Also, I realized when I did some fasts playing around with it this past summer (note, my fasts were shorter at 16 hours vs 24 since weight loss was not my goal at that point), you really do start to view food in a whole new light. It is odd to explain, but try it out if you have not already and let me know.
In general, low calories diets in and of themselves don’t work. Most also lie through their teeth about calorie intake and expenditure too. Lower someone’s calories too low and at some point they will break and eat out a small village. So I agree that that approach is not the best.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Thanks for the follow up in Tim for all the readers here!
Keep in touch
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Thanks Richard. Much appreciated!
I owe you an email today—I apologize for the delays as I’ve been just slammed lately (but it is all good)
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Mike,
The great thing about these little discussions are that I find we agree on a whole lot more than we disagree on. I have limited work with athletes so I suppose that is part of the difference. I can see them being able to tolerate and even needing more “good” carbs. If I get people in the 15-20% BF range I’m happy and the higher fat, Weston Price works for that. Fat’s that Heal… was one of my original reads when learning about nutrition. Another good primer is Mary Enig’s work, if you haven’t had opportunity to check it out.
I think we all agree, including what I’ve read from Pilon, we don’t need a ton of protein. So that takes care of the insulin/leptin issue.
I have been using ESE for a few months but only about once every 7-10 days. I don’t want to drop weight but would like to drop a few percentage points of body fat and improve insulin sensitivity. I agree with what the idea that fasting teaches us about why we eat. I am also finding I’m getting better at going the distance without bonking or losing mental clarity. But I think my supplement regime is partly responsible for that as well as the fasting.
Keep the great posts and replies coming, I’m learning a ton.
Thanks PJ!
I really appreciate the comments as I have learned a ton from you also. I will have to look into Mary Enig for sure.
Glad the Eat Stop Eat approach worked for you.
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Hi Mike,
First of all, I’d like to say thanks for delivering the quality posts my friend! It’s been great connecting and sharing with you on Twitter (I’m @NU_FiT there) and on FB, as well.
I’ve been experimenting with Intermittent Fasting for the last few years. It began with the Jay Robb “Fruit Flush” and continued with various water/juice/wheatgrass fasts. There wasn’t a great deal of info on IF, but Paul Bragg made an impression on me. Raw milk fast was interesting, too.
Now, I fast 2 or 3 days per week, save coffee during the day. It generally ends up being an 18 hour fast…and is broken with grass-fed beef and greens (practically live on this stuff!!).
On days, that I don’t fast, I thrive off of liquid nourishment:
Coconut oil/products, Cod liver oil, cacao powder,and -well, coffee
Workouts have never been better, and have actually had my best results during fasted-state workouts!
Be Well my friend,
Maximillian Barry, CPT
Thanks for the comment man and great to see you here!
Much appreciate the kind words.
Glad the Intermittent Fasting is going well for you! Awesome!
Any particular reason for the 18 hour fast 2-3 times per week? I tend to do only one 24 hour fast a week when needed (note, I am not trying to drop body fat currently though).
Yes, coffee is great!
Keep up the great work yourself
rock on
Mike T Nelson
Mike,
I fast once every 10 – 14 days for 24 hours. I usually have more energy on those days than others. There was research recently.
Six years ago there was a study done measuring the effects of a ketogenic diet on people with narcolepsy. They only studied nine people but all saw some improvement in their daytime sleepiness.
This may explain why fasting works well for me and why I test well for fats.
Interesting!
I am trying to remember that study and I think I heard about it, but I can’t recall any details.
Have you tried a ketogenic diet? If so, how did it go?
See ya this weekend I believe, correct? Whoo ha.
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
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