Not sure how many here have heard of it but its basically a diet that includes 1-2 24H fasts per week.

I'm sure this will fly in the face of some people here but i was just looking for some thoughts. I came across it on the Turbulence Training forums, a good amount of people are on it over there and some are pretty excited about the results.

It seems you either have breakfast and you don't eat again in 24H. So technically a good portion of the fast you will be asleep.

Some are having the last meal in the evening and start eating again the next evening. So in effect you don't go a whole day without eating.

I realize this is for fatloss; its not a bodybuilding or athletic meal plan.

Here's the notorious sales page: http://www.eatstopeat.com/

Not sure how many here have heard of it but its basically a diet that includes 1-2 24H fasts per week.

I'm sure this will fly in the face of some people here but i was just looking for some thoughts. I came across it on the Turbulence Training forums, a good amount of people are on it over there and some are pretty excited about the results.

It seems you either have breakfast and you don't eat again in 24H. So technically a good portion of the fast you will be asleep.

Some are having the last meal in the evening and start eating again the next evening. So in effect you don't go a whole day without eating.

I realize this is for fatloss; its not a bodybuilding or athletic meal plan.

I have read up quite a bit recently about intermittant fasting and I think probably eat-stop-eat is slightly easier to follow than the warrior diet or Fast 5, which are the other main versions. They fly in the face of present body building lore and there is no adequate scientific evidence for or against them yet. I suspect giving the body a break from 6 - 7 meals a day may not be a bad thing and there seems some evidence that fasting up to 24 hours, if you then eat adequately afterwards, doesn't slow down the metabolism, as most body builders will tell you. i suspect for fat loss, this method may suit some people's habits/preferences/lifestyle... So if you were interested I would say give it a go ;) I would suggest you read a little about the warrior diet and its arguments, too.

I fast fairly regularly, though when I fast I drink fresh vegetable juice. I find it quite beneficial, and with the amounts of carrot and spinach juice I drink, I'm certainly not left lacking for nutritition. Most of the time I just fast on Sundays. But the end of July I'm going to try for a 7 day fast to finish off a cut.

Fasting is said to increase the effectiveness of ones immune system, consume fat and excess skin, and detoxify the body.

Cool guys, yeah Jedi i think it would fit my lifestyle and goals very well. I just want to be lean, i'm not looking to be a bodybuilder.

I'm pretty sure i'll be giving it a go.

It sounds really exciting. I'm surprised that more people haven't tried it, but I wonder if it might be really inconvenient. :confused: I also wonder about how your mood and energy levels would be like in the fasting periods. Like one of the guys on that page says, I'd be extremely bored on fasting days; it would be really, really hard for me to do if I didn't have a really busy day planned. But with a full day of activity, I'm pretty sure it would be fine.

This method is also believed to contribute to longevity, so it would be really exciting if you find that it works out for you. How long are you planning to follow it?

It sounds really exciting. I'm surprised that more people haven't tried it, but I wonder if it might be really inconvenient. :confused: I also wonder about how your mood and energy levels would be like in the fasting periods. Like one of the guys on that page says, I'd be extremely bored on fasting days; it would be really, really hard for me to do if I didn't have a really busy day planned. But with a full day of activity, I'm pretty sure it would be fine.

This method is also believed to contribute to longevity, so it would be really exciting if you find that it works out for you. How long are you planning to follow it?

Some people have experienced moods swings and such but i think that's all in the head so to speak. :D It might take a few times to get use to it.

Its a pretty popular diet on the turbulence training forums. Some people are adapting it fulltime. Once you get to you goal weight its recommended to do 1 fast per week. Its very flexible.

I'm 10h in my first fast now, i am alittle hungry but that's expected.

Its a pretty simple way to reduce calories.

If this works it will be the best thing i ever done for my body because its so easy. I never could get into calorie counting.

What do you guys think of this?

http://eatstopeat.com/eat-stop-eat-vs-6-meals-a-day.html

Eat Stop Eat vs. The 6 Meals Per Day Approach: Which Will Help You Lose Weight the Best
By: Brad Pilon, MSc
EatStopEat.com

The common idea of eating 6 small meals per day as a way to lose weight has never sat well with me. More than anything I have always thought of it as a major inconvenience. I think it is a real hassle to eat that often. It's hard enough to eat three meals a day if you are preparing them well with fresh ingredients and as little processed foods as possible, I couldn’t even imagine doing that much work 6 times every day!

I also don’t like the hormonal effect of this style of eating. Eating several small meals per day does reduce insulin spikes (slightly), however it does this by substituting in an almost constant flow of insulin (with lower peaks). So instead of a couple high peaks, you end up having your total insulin increased over the course of the day. And total daily insulin is more important from a health and weight loss standpoint.

If you’ve read Eat Stop Eat, you will know that the most basic yin and yang of our metabolism is the opposing effects of Growth Hormone and Insulin.

Growth hormone is secreted when we are fasting and directs nutrients toward our muscles. Insulin is secreted when we are fed and sends them the other way toward fat.

Insulin plus excess calories equals fat storage. There is no way to avoid it. So keeping your insulin elevated over the course of a day just seems like a bad idea to me, especially if you are trying to lose weight. In this style of eating you need to be bang on perfect with your caloric consumption. Any mistake and overeating will almost certainly cause you to store fat.

This is reason enough for me not to bother with the 6 meals a day mantra, however it’s NOT the biggest reason why I don’t like this approach. The number one reason I don’t like it is because it is not fair to women.

That’s right, six meals a day is sexist.

The diet style of eating six small meals a day started with bodybuilders. And it is traditionally men who read about and follow bodybuilding. So when magazine writers are trying to think up new nutrition stories for their readers, they are doing it for guys who are into bodybuilding and who typical have much larger muscle mass and bodies than average.

This is where 6 meals per day comes in. When it was originally pitched as a way to lose weight, it was in
bodybuilding magazines, directed specifically to bodybuilders. This idea made sense to them and didn’t seem too hard.

After all, when a 260-pound heavily muscled bodybuilder is trying to lose weight he might start by lowering his calorie intake down to around 2400 (which is more than most people need in a day to begin with). Divide this by 6 and he is eating around 400 Calories at every meal.

Based on this math, this bodybuilder could lose weight by eating a 6-inch “steak and cheese” sub from Subway for every meal! Now that sounds like a diet I could handle no problem.

However, a 5 foot 4 woman who weighs a 130 pounds isn’t so lucky. For this woman to lose weight her caloric intake is going to have to be much lower than the bodybuilder in the example above. If her dieting caloric intake was 1300, and she was eating 6 meals per day then she would get to eat a whopping 220 Calories at each meal!

This is the caloric equivalent of eating one medium sized banana and a half-cup of yogurt at every meal…pitiful. Now think of this, if that medium banana is just a little larger, then she will have already gone over her meal allowance of 220 Calories! So in order for her to stick to the diet she would need to eat even LESS than 220 calories at her next meal.

Think of how wrong this sounds; Start your day off with a “large” rather than “medium” banana and a yogurt and you are already on track to overeat for the day! This style of eating requires you to be impossibly strict.

Since there really is no scientifically proven weight loss advantage to eating multiple small meals per day (this includes any supposed metabolic advantage), why do this to yourself?

I can’t imagine eating multiple small meals the size of a banana and some yogurt for weeks on end…it would be torture! Especially since their is no weight loss or health benefits to eating this way.

So this is why I don’t agree with the weight loss strategy of eating 6 small meals per day. It was designed for a very specific, very odd, very heavily muscled, and unique group of people (bodybuilders) but somehow is pushed on the rest of us.

Not only was 6 meals per day designed for a very unique group of people, but in order to be done properly, you need to give in to Obsessive Compulsive Eating. You start worrying about how much you ate at every meal, and what the exact nutrient breakdown was for every single thing you ate, and the minute you are finished one meal, you immediately have to begin planning the next one. This is a very toxic way of living with food.

There is no benefit, and for most people who don’t weight 250+ pounds, it just makes life very difficult. Eating only 200 to 300 calories per meal is very hard to do, and because nobody can spend 6 hours a day preparing these meals, you end up having no choice but to rely on supplements and protein bars to get all your meals in without going over your calorie amount…and most likely this is the whole purpose of this style of eating.

It was bodybuilding magazines who first made this style of eating popular, and it is these same magazines that serve as the main advertising source for sports supplements.

So if following 6 meals a day is only really possible when you use protein shakes and protein bars it makes perfect sense that this style of eating is promoted so heavily by the bodybuilding/supplement/magazine industry in order to sell more supplements, protein powders and protein/nutrition bars.

Once again, we see how Obsessive Compulsive Eating benefits the food industry and how the food industry can effect the way we eat.

Here’s my advice. There is nothing wrong with supplements, but don’t let the way you eat be dictated to you by the profit needs of the supplement industry. If you want to lose weight then you need to reduce your calories by the method that suits you the best (whether it’s by following Eat Stop Eat or any other diet method). I’m sure there is a small group of people who might even do very well eating 6 meals per day, and actually have the time to do it…but please, if it doesn’t work for you then let the 6 meals a day idea fade away just like every other industry driven fad.

Find the simplest easiest method of reducing the amount of food you eat, while still allowing you to actually enjoy the foods you eat, then use that method.

Brad Pilon

FYI i don't feel there's anything wrong with eating 6 meals a day but i just don't like counting calories and measuring food.

What do you guys think of this?

http://eatstopeat.com/eat-stop-eat-vs-6-meals-a-day.htmlI don't like that guy's logic. :( He's not a 130 pound woman, so I'm not sure why he thinks he can judge that a 220 calorie meal is "pitiful". Difficult to manage when eating at restaurants, but entirely plausible on home cooked foods. Does he not realize that those people who are on 1300 calorie diets have less appetite than those on 2400 calorie diets?

I have other complaints about this rant:
a) It wouldn't be smart for a 130 pound woman want to lose weight on a 1300 calorie diet unless she was less than 5 feet tall
b) It's not fair to women who are experiencing premenstrual cravings to be fasting. Or to women who are menstruating. Fasting can upset your chemical balance (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51906).

One big set of chemicals that control mood are the neurotransmitters in the brain led by the pleasure "drug" serotonin. These substances determine whether you feel good and energetic or tired, irritable, and spacey. They run on sugar, preferably the form that comes from low glycemic carbohydrates, according to Molly Kimball, RD, sports and lifestyle nutritionist at the Ochsner Clinic Foundation and Hospital in New Orleans.

The idea, she says, is to maintain a stable blood sugar level through the day, slowly feeding these substances into the brain. Low glycemic carbs include whole grain bread, beans, whole grain crackers, soy, apples, pears, peaches, and other fruits.

The bottom line is, I think intermittent fasting is a perfectly reasonable way for a person to eat, but I also think 6 meals a day is a perfectly reasonable way for a person to eat. I don't think we need to tell people that they must eat a certain way. It's upsetting for me to see someone coming along and saying "you shouldn't be doing it that way" to a person who is on track to meet their goals with their current meal plan.

I think if you're bored with your current method, or not getting the results you want, then it's a great idea to try new things, but I don't think that it's smart to change a successful diet and exercise plan just because someone else claims that it's not a successful plan.

I don't like that guy's logic. :( He's not a 130 pound woman, so I'm not sure why he thinks he can judge that a 220 calorie meal is "pitiful". Difficult to manage when eating at restaurants, but entirely plausible on home cooked foods. Does he not realize that those people who are on 1300 calorie diets have less appetite than those on 2400 calorie diets?

I have other complaints about this rant:
a) It wouldn't be smart for a 130 pound woman want to lose weight on a 1300 calorie diet unless she was less than 5 feet tall
b) It's not fair to women who are experiencing premenstrual cravings to be fasting. Or to women who are menstruating. Fasting can upset your chemical balance (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51906).



The bottom line is, I think intermittent fasting is a perfectly reasonable way for a person to eat, but I also think 6 meals a day is a perfectly reasonable way for a person to eat. I don't think we need to tell people that they must eat a certain way. It's upsetting for me to see someone coming along and saying "you shouldn't be doing it that way" to a person who is on track to meet their goals with their current meal plan.

I think if you're bored with your current method, or not getting the results you want, then it's a great idea to try new things, but I don't think that it's smart to change a successful diet and exercise plan just because someone else claims that it's not a successful plan.

He lost me frankly when he started talking about 130lb women. I'm twice that. :)

I've read alot about IF the last fews days, i really can't believe i never bumped into it before. Its perfect for me!

I've done 2 15-18h fasts now and i find them easy and feel find.

The leangains.com site has a bunch of impressive body transformations using IF.

When i was in high school i kind of followed the daily fast lifestyle and i was my leanest then.

I just like to add i'm not following ESE but rather a different variation of intermittent fasting - 16-18 hour fast followed by a 6-8 eating window.

So far i feel great and my performance or mood hasn't changed much. I do feel more energetic sometimes though, during the fast.

I'm starting to believe this might be an excellent way for me to eat. I'm rather big, don't like counting calories and i drink alot. No drinking on a fast.

I feel much tighter the last 3 days. The biggest factor being water lost i'm sure.

If 6 meals a day isn't working (fatloss) for you don't be afraid to try this.

However, train hard and heavy.

Here are links to two of my favorite blogging sites that encourage intermittent fasting.

http://fitnessblackbook.com/

and

http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/

Hey Bradh -- I took a look at the leangains site and the pictures are of course very impressive. Keep us posted with how you do.

Very good writeup on insulin, sugar and IF.

http://projectfit.org/iflifeblog/2008/07/11/insulin-and-sugar-the-one-hormone-you-need-to-control-and-the-one-enemy-you-need-to-avoid/