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

I just found this thread, very interesting!

jenjabbour: I believe that when she started this thread I remember reading that the fast starts to work at 18 hours so anything less than that would be a waste of time, I'd look into it. Also, I would really reconsider doing it three times a week, two is the max that they suggest in the actual program because your body needs more calories than that, it's up to you but I wouldn't.

Anyway, I started my fast last night at 8, I like doing my first fast from Sun-Mon to make up for the weekend when I don't drink enough water and am more lenient with what I'm eating. So tonight at 8:00 I will eat my homemade spaghetti, yum! And I will be going to Kickboxing and Core Pole tonight, lets see if I can make it through both while fasting. I'm also really sore from skating on Sat for the first time in prolly ten years, lol. I fell 4 times so I'm pretty bruised and sore, but it's not too bad! One of my reps (it was a work thing) shattered the bones in her wrist when she fell and is in a cast, so it could definately be worse!

Good luck to those who are fasting today! :bigsmile:

jenjabbour: I believe that when she started this thread I remember reading that the fast starts to work at 18 hours so anything less than that would be a waste of time, I'd look into it. Also, I would really reconsider doing it three times a week, two is the max that they suggest in the actual program because your body needs more calories than that, it's up to you but I wouldn't.

thanks, i know I've read in several places that some people do a 16 hour fast on a daily basis. basically, they eat for 8 hours and fast the other 16 and they've had good results from that. maybe the 24 ESE fast has better results, though...

The reason I think I would do 3 days (which i wouldn't do regularly) is because I think I"m getting too many calories on my nonfasting days. I think 3 would allow me to create the calorie deficit I need to lose my weight. Two days a week only creates about a 2,000 calorie deficit... Three days would create a 3,000 calorie deficit. Obviously, that's not undereating by any means. I would still need to cut/burn 500 cals...

I need to sit down and work out a plan. This is why counting calories while doing this is so important - I do not understand how people can do it and lose weight w/ out counting calories.

jenjabbour, I've been doing 3 days a week for about 4 weeks (minus last week, i only did 2) and I haven't been hungry, in fact, less hungry than I was before I even started ESE. I lost about 3 lbs within those first 3 weeks and I think it was because I was eating too much on the non-fast days, so I limited those days to about what you do, 1500 cals. In the last week I lost 2 lbs. The only reason the author of ESE says not to do 3 days per week is because he thinks it is too hard to do that in the real world, but if you are really dedicated and want to, I don't see why you shouldn't, it is not bad for you and may even be better for you!

jenjabbour, I'm glad that you're looking at it at a weekly basis to make sure that you're getting enough calories in. Your plan seems sound, and really, you can try it and decide how you feel. I count cals and eat pretty normal on my non fast days so this keeps me in check pretty well, maybe this will work better for you.
SkierElle thanks for letting us know why they don't suggest 3 a week in the plan, I knew I'd heard it but wasn't totally sure of the reasoning, if that's the only reason I don't see what it could hurt. :bigsmile:

Done, finished with a healthy spaghetti reward, AND I burned 1300 calories today, woo hoo, but man am I tired!!

This is like a LIGHTBULB just lit up over my head!! A big thank you to the thread starter! :flowerforyou:


Apparently it seems I've been doing intermittent fasting for years now. I eat when I'm hungry, and I don't eat when I'm not. 4 out of 7 days a week I actually only get max 800 calories through the day (mostly through green tea as I don't drink coffee). But I do have 2000-3000 calories on 2 out of the 7 days.

In early September I started to eat 3 square meals a day (1500-2000 cal per day) because I was told it makes me healthier and will help me manage my weight better. But all that happened was that I put on 1 kg every week, for 3 weeks consecutively! I initially only had 3kg to lose (and a lot of post-baby toning up to do), and now that's become 6kg in total.

All my attempts to lose weight since then have been futile. Which led me to MFP.

I'm going right back to where I started: Intermittent fasting. Except this time round I'm going to use MFP to help me chart my calories on eating days.

But i think there are other benefits to ESE rather than the calorie deficit, like giving your digestive system a break. learning how to sense when youre really hungry and I know there are many other benefits of fasting 18-24 hours. I,personally, feel really great towards the end of my fast, really energized. And I know I couldnt stick to a diet of 1200-1300 per day because ive tried it, and it didn't work. This method seems to be the only one I can stick to.

I agree. Even though I have reached my weight loss goal and am eating about 1600 plus calories a day to maintain, I still like fasting as it gives my mind a chance to reset and concentrate on more than food (I feel more focused on life on days I am fasting) and also gives my body a break.

That being said, today is my fast, but 20 hours til 4 p.m. So only 11.5 hours for me to go

P.S. i LOVE the support here. Thanks guys.

Nice Jenn, you got a good deficit today then!

jenjabbour, I think I have more of a calorie deficit than the "traditional way" I dont really know what you mean by that, but I am assuming if i was to eat like 1200 per day and that would make 8400 per week. With ESE I have about 7500 per week... which may be a little low, but I think having those days of 1500 will prevent the starvation mode from happening, as Brad says it wont happen unless you don't eat for 72 hours, or are continuously eating less than 1200 per day. I am still a little confused on that.

But i think there are other benefits to ESE rather than the calorie deficit, like giving your digestive system a break. learning how to sense when youre really hungry and I know there are many other benefits of fasting 18-24 hours. I,personally, feel really great towards the end of my fast, really energized. And I know I couldnt stick to a diet of 1200-1300 per day because ive tried it, and it didn't work. This method seems to be the only one I can stick to.

by "traditional" i mean by eating the 1200 cals a day every day... i know that supposedly while fasting you are able to burn more fat helping to become more lean, so i would assume that fasting helps you lose weight more quickly. not sure though. i guess i'm just hoping so...LOL... I do know that the day after fasting I feel so much skinnier...LOL... I guess if I fast 3 days a week, that should help to keep that look.

I also agree that fasting is beneficial in other ways. I feel great when fasting and I love that I don't have to think about what I'm going to eat!

I am finding coming off of a fast to be quite difficult though. I might need to change my fasting hours. I am at home when I come off the fast and sit down to a dinner and am tempted to snack and eat dessert as well. I went over my cals by 500 yesterday (even at my exercise cals) so today I have to eat 500 less than i had planned. however, I don't think it will be a problem to only eat 1000 cals today, even though yesterday it was tough to eat less than 1000... lol... maybe that's just the way it's going to be and I have to adjust my calorie distribution accordingly... what do you think?

it's not easy, that's for sure!!! i personally do so much better with my diet when I'm at work than when I'm at home... why do i eat so much and so much junk when I'm at home????

I'm starting my 2nd fast of the week today at 6 pm.

i need to have a plan in place for tomorrow when I come off of my fast though - planning a chicken and veggie dinner, that should help.

t-minus 4 hours til my next fast starts. I still have 700 calories left to eat! And that's with not eating 500 calories that I went over on yesterday! And I still gotta do a workout! I'm starting to see how ESE helps because when I get home I get to have a yummy bowl of homemade soup and can still put cheese and guacamole on it, and still have some sort of sweet treat and I'm not hungry and I'm eating healthy, but I also can eat some of the foods I love and know that it's not going to kill my diet!

Starting my 2nd fast today at 6 p.m. I hope it gets a little easier this time.

started fast #2 for the week last night at 6.... planning to run on my lunch break and possibly do a JM DVD tonight.

i jumped on the scale this morning (because that's what I do every morning) and i was down 1 lb from yesterday. the weird thing is that I should be gaining weight right now (water retention because AF is on her way) and I'm not! I actually do not know where AF is. She is officially late (no, no chance of pg), which is totally ok by me i hate her...LOL

I had about a 27 hour fast since i was at class. I didnt plan that very well but I wasn't even hungry at all today!! 3pm yesterday to 6pm today. Said no to starbucks latte( I did have a plain coffee) and pumpkin pie in class. go me! but then I went to dinner with my roommate tonight and had half of a monte cristo and sweet potato fries( we split the meal). Now i have to guess the calories... yay. probably a bad meal but what the heck, ive been pretty good lately and been workin out a lot.

jenjabbour, I am probably no help on TOM and fasting as when I have mine i have never ever gotten cramps, or feel any different. so I just go ahead with it and make sure to drink lots of water. Maybe you could adjust fasting so on the heavy days you are eating. that would be my best guess of what to do. just judge by how you feel though, and don't deprive yourself if you're feeling absolutely miserable.

steph, it does get easier in my opinion, and you will get full much faster on the eating days. this is just my experience, everyone is different.

was gonna start my 3rd fast of the day this evening, but we're having a Thanksgiving feast at work today, so I'm considering starting the fast after lunch. and then just going until whatever time that is tomorrow... It's a non-fasting day so I get 1500 cals and I might just use all of those in one sitting... so I guess I'll pay attention to what I eat, come back to my desk and input it all into my food diary and go from there.

I did great yesterday, despite starting TOM but we'll see how tomorrow's fast goes because today and tomorrow will be my heavy days. So far I'm feeling so much better than I usually do during TOM. I barely had PMS... honestly, the only thing that clued me into it was my food cravings and a bloated belly. Then i looked at the calendar and sure enough, but I was 2 days later than I've been being lately. I hope all this dieting/fasting makes my TOM much more pleasant (what an oxymoron!!!)

I agree that fasting has become quite easy. My only problem is sometimes I break it early while I'm cooking dinner because I have to taste the food to make sure it tastes all right for the family. But I figure if i'm half an hour away a little nibble isn't going to hurt anything... by time it metabolizes i'll be well into non-fasting period.