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

Fasting today until 10pm. I actually started my fast at 5 yesterday, but then my coworkers wanted to go out an grab dinner and a couple drinks for happy hour...... So we'll see how it goes today. Heading to the gym now!

Hey everyone,
seems like you all have been having success with this so far which is good!!

Today i am fasting till 6:00 or so... I have this dinner to go to at Olive garden for a club im involved with... ugh. not that I don't like olive garden, but it's SO expensive for a poor college student!! and i'll probably get the cheapest thing on the menu

It's my only day off from school and work today, other than Saturday, and I am canning applesauce I am making from my tree in my backyard. it IS hard making all this wonderful smelling applesauce and not having any! But that made me think about there is a time and a place for everything, and I will get to enjoy this applesauce in January or February! it's kind of like the just-because-it's-there-you-don't-have-to-have-it mentality. Which is good for things besides food as well.

For Casi23, I haven't been doing this that long so I'm no one to talk, but I am guessing that after I lose what I want then I will go down to one day a week of fasting. For maintenance, but also to give my digestive system a break and for emotional reasons as well.

Troutman, not eating for 24 hours is fasting. Look up the definition. it's a period abstaining from all food. The ESE way of fasting is less extreme than not eating for a full day (ie. what you said: going to bed, getting up the next day & not eating the whole day. Going to bed without eating. Getting up the next day then you eat, because that would be about 36 hours rather than 24, which is a bit long for doing 2-3x a week (I think). But yes, it is the same as skipping meals... any length of fasting is skipping meals.

And I made it! :bigsmile:

You know what? I think I'm down for a Halloween fast! I'm going to start at 11 am on Sunday and go till 11 am on Monday. Thanks for the suggestion! I wish I could start earlier, we will see when I make it downstairs for some breakfast. I work till 5 am on Sunday morning.

Rinellen, I don't know how you fast 3x per week. Only 2 is recommended. I am trying three for the first time this week and I actually don't like it. It's not enough of a break since you fast every other day. Plus, I gained a pound overnight despite being within my calories yesterday. Granted, I spent half those calories on movie popcorn :blushing: , so there is probably some sodium involved, but it's frustrating to be trying this hard and see that happen.

My fast is supposed to be over at 9pm thanks to the aforementioned popcorn but I may not last the whole time! I've got half a mind to go to the farmer's market and binge on kettlekorn

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

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.

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

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!!

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!

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:

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/

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?

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?

Thank you, that makes great sense!