Eat Stop Eat..how it's worked for me.

SkierElle

Well, like i said, if it seems to take a toll on me, I'll go down to 2 days a week. i have been doing it for 3 weeks now and it's been great, though, hardly ever hungry, and lots of energy!

stacywood, im glad you're in on the Halloween fast!

cutmd

Somehow I made it the whole 24 hrs and got my cardio in!
Now to relax with hubby till he leaves on Thursday. Will decide at that point whether to repeat

Casi23

Alright. Today is day 1....

Casi23

Alright. Today is day 1....well, Kind of anyway. I started the fast at 6 pm last night. I'm a little worried because I worked out for 75 minutes after dinner....so last night my stomach was yelling for food. But it's pretty quiet after waking up this morning. So we'll see.

It's 10 am and I have to last until 6 tonight. I'm going to go work out now and try to break up the hours left with some exercise.

A few questions about lifting hard on these days.

1. I take a Glutamine blend on lifting days (Xtend from Scivation). Is this going to affect my fast? I don't think it has any calories in it and it helps with muscle soreness and recovery (since I'm not going to be having my post-workout protein)...I figured this would help.

2. Do you notice more muscle soreness or fatigue hitting you on workout days because of the lack of food? I'm planning on doing my upper body lift today...followed by 45 minutes of cardio and my ab routine. That's my normal Sunday anyway....we'll see if I can get through it.

Fingers crossed! : ) I'll let you know how it goes tonight....looking forward to hearing people's thoughts and similar experiences.

chrisdavey

When I did weights and didn't have my regular post workout shake I REALLY felt it the next few days. I would try and time the workout so the end of your fast is the post workout shake.

SkierElle

So halloween fast is going good and strong despite cookies at work AND church!! Ahh yes! how's everyone else doing with the fasting?

lulabellewoowoo

Today is my first fast of the week. I'm not sure what time I stopped eating last night as I was watching a movie, but it was before 7, so I'll call it 7. As I have kids tonight, this will probably be a 22 hour fast with dinner around 5 or after. But I won't eat anything until we actually have dinner and stretch it out as far as I can.

SkierElle - Great job on your fast. What time is it over?

Casi23 - How is your fast going?

Awesome job everyone. My timer says 13 more hours for the full 24 hours. I'll keep you posted

cocodp

I've been reading the threads of this forum for the past 2 weeks and have attempted it at least once a week and then fall off. It's so hard when you love food. I only have 10 lbs to lose and of course it's the last stubborn 10 lbs.

Anyway, I just finished breakfast so I'm going to try it again and go until breakfast tomorrow.

M-U-S-T S-T-A-Y O-N T-R-A-CK!!!

Wish me luck!!

lulabellewoowoo

I've been reading the threads of this forum for the past 2 weeks and have attempted it at least once a week and then fall off. It's so hard when you love food. I only have 10 lbs to lose and of course it's the last stubborn 10 lbs.

Anyway, I just finished breakfast so I'm going to try it again and go until breakfast tomorrow.

M-U-S-T S-T-A-Y O-N T-R-A-CK!!!

Wish me luck!!

I find it easier to do it dinner to dinner only because I can keep myself busy during the day usually, but the nights when my family is around or friends, I have no will power.

I wish you all the success. If 24 hours does not work. Start with 16 and work your way up. After you are successful with 16, next time do 17, and so forth. You'll do great.

lulabellewoowoo

My timer says 6:18 for the full 24. So at least within 4 hours, I'll be eating. Haven't really been hungry today, but probably because I'm running around a lot. I can do this!

SkierElle

It went great and I wasn't really hungry today (usually I am pretty hungry the day after).
I feel that since I was successful with Halloween fasting, I'll have more willpower to not eat so much on other holidays!! We'll see.

I like the fact that with fasting, I can still have tea or coffee (try not to have coffee though) so I can still go to coffee with my friends. They always want to go out for coffee!!

Oh, another question for everyone, how many calories do you eat on the non-fasting days? do you keep track of it? I am trying to keep it below what MFP says I should have daily (for 2lbs/week loss) but maybe that is too extreme? I dunno!

cutmd

Oh, another question for everyone, how many calories do you eat on the non-fasting days? do you keep track of it? I am trying to keep it below what MFP says I should have daily (for 2lbs/week loss) but maybe that is too extreme? I dunno!

I'm glad you are doing well. You are supposed to eat normally on non-fasting days. I think eating below a 1000 calorie deficit is way too extreme, the whole benefit of this program is avoiding metabolic shutdown by keeping calories normal on non-fasting days. :flowerforyou:

treezeemd

I am glad that you found something that worked for you and for just a couple of stubborn pounds perhaps its not that bad but just as a disclaimer to anyone else who might be considering doing this for more than 5lbs I think its a terrible mistake. When you go more than 12 hours without food your body goes into starvation mode and anything you eat after that your body stores. We all know what the storage form of the body is...EXACTLY, FAT!! Since its not sure where the next meal is coming from, the body must preserve itself at all costs and so it stores before it burns if you constantly throw it into a starvation situation. Just my professional opinion. Again, Congratulations!! and Good Luck!!

trw:flowerforyou:

cutmd

I am glad that you found something that worked for you and for just a couple of stubborn pounds perhaps its not that bad but just as a disclaimer to anyone else who might be considering doing this for more than 5lbs I think its a terrible mistake. When you go more than 12 hours without food your body goes into starvation mode and anything you eat after that your body stores. We all know what the storage form of the body is...EXACTLY, FAT!! Since its not sure where the next meal is coming from, the body must preserve itself at all costs and so it stores before it burns if you constantly throw it into a starvation situation. Just my professional opinion. Again, Congratulations!! and Good Luck!!

trw:flowerforyou:

Can I ask what your professional opinion is based on? Mine is based on reviewing several research articles, which show that short term fasting actually increases the metabolic rate :flowerforyou:

Am J Physiol. 1990 Jan;258(1 Pt 2):R87-93.
Enhanced thermogenic response to epinephrine after 48-h starvation in humans.

Mansell PI, Fellows IW, Macdonald IA.

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Abstract

The effects of 48-h starvation on the physiological responses to a 30-min infusion of epinephrine at 25 ng.min-1.kg body wt-1 were studied in 11 normal-weight healthy young subjects. Starvation led to considerable alterations in basal metabolism including a significant (mean 3.6%) increase in resting metabolic rate. During the infusions, plasma epinephrine concentration rose less in the starved state (+1.47 nmol/l) than in the normally fed state (+1.73 nmol/l) (SE 0.06 nmol/l; P less than 0.05). The maximum increments (mean +/- SE) in heart rate induced by epinephrine were 11.9 +/- 1.3 beats/min in the normally fed state and 20.1 +/- 2.0 beats/min in the starved state (P less than 0.001); the corresponding mean increments in blood glycerol concentration were 0.07 and 0.14 mmol/l (SE 0.01 mmol/l; P less than 0.01). The increase in the metabolic rate above base line during the final 10 min of the epinephrine infusion was 0.58 +/- 0.18 kJ/min in the normally fed state and 0.78 +/- 0.14 kJ/min in the starved state (P less than 0.01). The chronotropic, lipolytic, and thermogenic effects of infused epinephrine were therefore enhanced by prior starvation, despite the lower plasma epinephrine levels.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jun;71(6):1511-5.
Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine.

Zauner C, Schneeweiss B, Kranz A, Madl C, Ratheiser K, Kramer L, Roth E, Schneider B, Lenz K.

Intensive Care Unit, the Department of Internal Medicine IV, Universityof Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract

BACKGROUND: The effects of food restriction on energy metabolism have been under investigation for more than a century. Data obtained are conflicting and research has failed to provide conclusive results.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that in lean subjects under normal living conditions, short-term starvation leads to an increase in serum concentrations of catecholamines and thus to an increase in resting energy expenditure.

DESIGN: Resting energy expenditure, measured by indirect calorimetry, and hormone and substrate concentrations were measured in 11 healthy, lean subjects on days 1, 2, 3, and 4 of an 84-h starvation period.

RESULTS: Resting energy expenditure increased significantly from 3.97 +/- 0.9 kJ/min on day 1 to 4.53 +/- 0.9 kJ/min on day 3 (P < 0.05). The increase in resting energy expenditure was associated with an increase in the norepinephrine concentration from 1716. +/- 574 pmol/L on day 1 to 3728 +/- 1636 pmol/L on day 4 (P < 0.05). Serum glucose decreased from 4.9 +/- 0.5 to 3.5 +/- 0.5 mmol/L (P < 0.05), whereas insulin did not change significantly.

CONCLUSIONS: Resting energy expenditure increases in early starvation, accompanied by an increase in plasma norepinephrine. This increase in norepinephrine seems to be due to a decline in serum glucose and may be the initial signal for metabolic changes in early starvation.

This website quotes tons of articles

http://www.leangains.com/

fitbot

ya this is hard to do but really healthy. as an alternative I have tried in the past to have mono food days. for example for a whole day you eat nothing but apples, or watermelon, and water or tea. this totally works and gives your digestive system a break.... it is usually really overworked anyhow..... of course it is much easier to have these kinds of days in the summer when it is hot...

Casi23

Well I made it the whole 24 hours on the first day. I kind of feel like I cheated though...I ate dinner at 5 pm on Saturday night, started the fast after that and then slept in on Sunday...so my day began around 9-10 am and then I worked out, showered, etc. By the time I got into work it was already around noon and then I only had another five hours to sit through. It wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow is going to be a challenge. I have to be at work at 0730, and then last until 5 or 6 at night. But I'm going to give it a shot. Def gonna wait to workout until the end of the fast though...so that way I can feed my muscles right away. My arms/back were kind of sore when I worked them on Sunday. And the stiffness carried on into Monday....which normally doesn't happen when I have some protein immidiately after.

Haven't seen/felt any real results yet. Of course my stomach felt flatter on Sunday night....but I'm hoping that my appetite starts to fade a little bit on the fast days. I was ravenous on Sunday night. : ) How long did take you guys to really get into a groove and start losing some of that insane hunger on the fast days?

firedragon064

The 1st time is hard specially the last 4 hours. 2nd time is getting easy. The 3rd time it becomes part of the routine, I stopped feel weak or much hunger since I know I can eat in the evening.

think48

I'm glad you are doing well. You are supposed to eat normally on non-fasting days. I think eating below a 1000 calorie deficit is way too extreme, the whole benefit of this program is avoiding metabolic shutdown by keeping calories normal on non-fasting days. :flowerforyou:

Cutmd - How many calories do you eat on fasting days when you break your fast? This is what I'm confused on and would like some help. I do eat normally on non-fasting days, but how many calories should I eat on my fast days when I break the fast?

cutmd

I'm glad you are doing well. You are supposed to eat normally on non-fasting days. I think eating below a 1000 calorie deficit is way too extreme, the whole benefit of this program is avoiding metabolic shutdown by keeping calories normal on non-fasting days. :flowerforyou:

Cutmd - How many calories do you eat on fasting days when you break your fast? This is what I'm confused on and would like some help. I do eat normally on non-fasting days, but how many calories should I eat on my fast days when I break the fast?

The author says to eat as if the fast never happened. What I do is try to create at least a half pound deficit when fasting. Usually I finish with dinner towards the end of my calories the day before, and then workout enough to burn at least 500 calories or so. Then I eat a 400 or so calorie dinner, depending on how many calories I burned so that I'm down at least 1750, or half a pound in calories That way I should lose at least a pound with 2 fasts a week. Hope that makes sense.:flowerforyou:

Casi23. I still get hungry, I just use water and plain green tea to suppress it. Hunger is your body saying it needs some calories, next thing you know it will dip into the fat stores.

think48

Thank you, that makes great sense!