Eat Stop Eat: Net Effect for Me
Fasting is an interesting idea. The way Brad Pilon explains it in his Eat Stop Eat program, you should be able to eat at maintenance most days of the week, fast for 1 or 2 days, and be able to lose weight. The theory mostly makes sense to me. I still have some questions about how many calories your body really uses when you fast or what effect this may have on your metabolism. But when you think about the number of calories you generally eat in a day, not eating for 1 or 2 days per week should equate to at least a pound of weight loss.
I have only tried fasting twice, so I am far from an expert on the subject. All I have is my own experience on which to comment. But so far, I’m really not impressed with my own weight loss (which I’d really prefer to think of as fat loss) experience with fasting. The data:
Fast #1
- Length: 24 hours
- Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
- Time of day started/ended: 9:00 am
- Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: maintenance
- Weight loss at end of fast: 1.5 lb.
- Weight loss as of 3 days later: 0.
Fast #2
- #Days since prior fast: 6
- Length of fast: 24 hours
- Calories consumed during fast: whatever is in a couple packets of Splenda
- Time of day started/ended: 9:00 am
- Eating at maintenance/deficit on other days: slight deficit
- Weight loss at end of fast: 3.5 lb.
- Weight loss after 3 days: 0
The bottom line on my two fasts: no effect at all. Again, this only represents two fasts, and things may change as you fast more. However, given that fasting is something of an extreme experience, it is not something I want to jump into regularly without due analysis. It is strange to me that there would be no net loss after two fasts within a week. (The weight lost right at the end of the fast could be attributed to there being no food in the digestive system at that point and although attempts were made to avoid it, slight dehydration.)
To verify that there were no changes that the scale alone couldn’t detect, I also measured body fat using digital calipers and took measurements. The measurements were exactly the same, taken 3 days after each fast, and body fat was up by around 1% after the second fast. That of course, is well within the margin for error for the device.
There are some other benefits to fasting which cannot be overlooked. During both of my fasts, I enjoyed a terrific night’s sleep. In addition, I was generally free from the hassle of cooking for about a day each time. Some people report being more creative or more alert, although I never experienced that. I did feel refreshed and somewhat “cleansed” after each fast, as if I had reset my system. That part was great.
I’m not sure why I didn’t have success with my two attempts. My instinct is that I burned so many fewer calories because of the lack of the thermic effect of food (the calories expended by consuming and processing food) that a large enough deficit was never created by the fasts.
Maybe the next fast would be different. I am not convinced that fasting won’t work for me. I will probably try again at some point. Some people do seem to have success with intermittent fasting for weight loss or management, so there must be a way to make it work.
For the meantime, I am putting intermittent fasting on hold, except to the extent that I may try eliminating an occasional evening meal. My strength and endurance goals take priority over fat loss at the moment, and my weekly workout schedule doesn’t leave room for being low on energy. However, the subject is intriguing, and I would like to collect more information about others’ experiences with fasting. Please comment and let me know how it has worked for you.
Remember: Consult your doctor before starting a new exercise or nutrition plan, including a fast. My experiences should not be considered recommendations for anyone else.
Great post Sarah! I share alot of your feelings after only one fast. Thanks for doing all the stuff I didn’t, like use the fat caliper test. Awesome info!!
Great post! I like the scientific approach with the weightloss after the fast and the weightloss 3 days later.
Lately I’ve been really interested in “Primal” living, and exercising and eating how I’d imagine our ancient ancestors would. I’ve been reading a lot of Mark Sisson’s stuff at http://www.marksdailyapple.com and his articles on intermittent fasting made me want to give it a shot. My rationale for only skipping a meal or two randomly is that I feel that’s pretty close to what Paleolithic humans would have faced. If you think about it, just because you go hunting doesn’t mean you’ll always succeed…that’s why they call it hunting and not catching, haha.
Here’s Mark’s article in case you hadn’t read it: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting/
Cath – Thanks! Some things are easy to evaluate, without the science. I thought the fasting would be one of those things, but I was wrong. I’m glad this helped.
Jerry – Glad you liked!
I had noticed that you are into the Primal living lifestyle from your blog. Some of those ideas make sense to me. And I can confirm, from having done a couple of fasts that you can actually feel good after a period of fasting. Like many have noted, we are used to eating out of habit rather than hunger much of the time. It’s good to get past that, at least on occasion. I will be interested to follow your progress, and thanks for sharing the link to Mark’s site. 
Hi Sarah
Interesting to read your take on fasting. As you know I have fasted a few times now, including twice in the past two weeks. I didn’t record my stats quite as religously as you, but I did take some. Unfortunately we are not quite the same, as I did not fast for a day, and then maintain for the rest of the week. I fasted for a day *during* a calorie controlled diet and exercise regime. I even exercised on my fast days. Like you however, I did record large weight drops immendiately after the fast, 4lbs in both cases, and like you I regained weight within a couple of days, but not all of the 4lbs, just 2lbs in fact. Of course, my diet and exercise confuses the issue somewhat with regard to attributing change, or indeed anything, to the fast alone, but I did drop 4lbs overall last week, and I am looking like dropping at least 3lbs this week too. Whilst the fast clearly helped me achieve that significant calorie deficit it also gave me a feeling, a good feeling, of “reset”. Not quite “detox”, a phrase I detest, but it felt good to feel empty and then to re-fuel again from scratch with quality, healthy food.
In summary, I will be doing it again, maybe not on a weekly basis, but occasionally. It’s not as difficult to do as some may think, I think the key is making sure that you have plenty planned on that fast day to occupy your hands and mind, and it does make achieving a calorie deficit for diet purposes much easier over the course of a week. That is, the remaining 6 days are easier to stick to the diet on as you have more leeway, calorifically speaking.
I’ve tried intermittent fasting a few times and haven’t cared for it. I like the idea of giving my body a break from the “work” of digesting food and eliminating whatever toxins are in my food, but in practice I find I feel too debilitated during the fast and for a day or two afterward to consider it a good way of eating for me. I certainly don’t think it’s unsafe or ineffective for weight control, but for me it just doesn’t seem to be a good fit.
fasting. ah yes. something i rarely do now. with all the vigorous training, i definitely need sustenance. while there are rest periods, i usually do fluids – juices and lots, lots, lots of water. water is integral all the way around.
fasting, if it is relevant to your lifestyle, then i say go you.
I respect your experience. You approached it in a scientific manner. I would suggest that there are a few things that you may not have taken account of, to this I offer my own experience and ideas below.
1. Did you control for over all caloric consumption that week?
MY experience with Eat Stop Eat is that there is a tendency on my part to over-eat not out of physical necessity, but out of psychological habit, on subsequent days. This tendency has to be watched for and if I recall correctly the author of the book mentions it. The trick is to fast during the fast days, and THEN make sure that you do not over-eat over your normal caloric maintence level. Make sure that you eat your normal quantities on non fasting days, not eating a wee bit extra out of a psychological compensation.
The point of ESE is to create a net caloric deficit in a structured way, as well as turning the body into a fat burning mode due to metabolic changes, but the small initial effects of one or two days of fasting can be over-turned by eating over maintence mode caloric requirements on other days.
2. You really cannot gauge the effect of the practice with an initial one or two gives. Like ANYTHING it needs to be sustained over a period. For example, you are into fitness and strength training.
If a friend came up to you and judged the effects of strength training after a lifetime of neglect based on 2 workouts with a baily’s guest pass, wouldn’t you think she was being premature?
After only 2 workouts? No one remotely gets any effect of strength training or cardio that quickly. Things do not work that fast in nature.
My own initial experience with Eat Stop Eat took place over 4 weeks. I set 2/3 days each week in which I did a 24 hour fast, while doing my regular exercise routine (nothing added nothing subtracted). On the first week I noticed NO WEIGHT LOSS WHATSOEVER. The second week, I had lost a couple of pounds, the 3rd and 4th week. The loss became more noticeable. My exercise was mild, I walked 45 minutes a day, and at the gym did 5 sets of 5 reps of deadlifts and 2 sets of 10 reps of bench presses. Three days a week. And twice a week I did a couple of nonchalant sets of 10 kettlebell snatches. Nothing strict, if anything I was sloppy and skipped a couple of workouts that month.
I still had a net weight loss effect going on by week 3.
3. There’s nothing extreme about it, it is our modern mindset that makes it seem extreme.
Fasting is an intrinsic part of many non Western cultures. If anything you could argue that our modern Western modes of eating, even at their mildest, are extreme. I have a Moroccan friend that I discuss diet and exercise with. When I was excitedly described the experiment in Eat Stop Eat that I was considering his only response was a ‘nothing special’ shrug and a terse blunt: “Well, you American’s graze too d*mn much anyway. You should fast more often, it will shrink that belly of yours.”
And, well, blunt and harsh as it was, he was right.
If you go into anything thinking “this is extreme” then your initial attempts will reflect this. Giving ANY dietary or nutritional change a perfunctory once or twice test will accomplish nothing, because the body does not work this quickly.
I, personally, got more rapid results because I gave it 4 weeks, and instead of 1/2 fasts a week, I averaged 2-3. After a couple of weeks, it felt so so comfortable that I just integrated it into my lifestyle. It feels natural to me to fast 24 hours here and there, there is no discomfort whatsoever. What IS hard (mentally) for me is a 48 hour fast. Every time I try it, I break down at 32 hours or something. There is nothing truly physically uncomfortable, it’s all mental and as an experiment I am pushing through this block just for giggles.
But two or three 24 hour Eat Stop Eat fasts a week produces effects in me and I’ve been able to successfully integrate it into my general lifestyle. It’s been about 4 months now since I started it and frankly I would not go back to my earlier eating habits, no matter how healthy they seemed at the time, because my body is so accustomed to the level of Eat Stop Eat that I am doing, I feel greater clarity and vigor on my eat stop eat days, and I am experiencing a sustainable degree of weight loss after having hit some plateaus years ago. It works for me now.
But I had to give it more than just a week’s go at it.
These are my experiences, others may differ. Something that may affect my observations over others is that the initial idea of fasting never seemed extreme to me anyway, and I had naturally stopped eating breakfast a decade ago.
I noticed that heavy breakfasts made me feel sluggish through the day and over time I just stopped the practice of eating breakfast. So cutting out lunch to make a 24 hour fast seemed less extreme. So I went into it with a more relaxed attitude than I would have if I wasn’t already used to the idea of cutting out one meal.
Hi Sarah. I have done the eat stop eat diet with mixed results. At first I was 155 pounds and my healthy body weight was supposed to be around 127-145, my goal was to get to 130 pounds with the diet. I did the diet for 5 weeks(fasting for 2 days a week) and was losing 2 pounds every weeks until I arrived at my “healthy” 145 pounds, I continued the diet for three weeks after that passed with no apparent weight loss. That leads me to conclude that the diet does not work after you get to a healthy weight.