A Little-Known Weight Method You Can Try When Your Diet Stops Working
There are a lot of diet plans today that are claimed to be unique weight loss solutions. But in the past year, I have researched many of them and, unfortunately, I found that the vast majority of them differ only in their phrasing; the content remaining the same while any difference is limited to words, style and aesthetics.
So, for this guest post, I decided to find something truly unique. During my research, I used a unique list of criteria that every good diet must satisfy. They are presented below.
A diet must be easy to follow long term – that means it must be simple. Then it should allow you to eat your favourite food, if only from time to time. Also, it must be safe (noli nocere principle) and backed up by proven nutritional science. And, of course, weight loss must be constant and stable.
And guess what I found? Nothing. I found no one diet that meets all my criteria. Sure, this doesn’t mean they don’t work at all. One may work for some people, but it may not help you. It is all very individual, which I don’t think will come as a big surprise to you.
But nevertheless, my efforts were rewarded. No, I didn’t discover a perfect diet. In fact, what I found was not diet at all, but it did fit almost all of my requirements.
Just recently on the web I stumbled across a book called “Eat Stop Eat”. To be honest, after I read it, I couldn’t say that it is a totally unique weight loss approach – but I would say that it is little-known, and new to most people. Anyway, here is what Eat Stop Eat is.
In short, Eat Stop Eat is a weight loss method that teaches people how to get fit by using a combination of short-term (24-hour) fasting and weight training. It was designed in 2008 by Brad Pilon, a research scientist from Toronto, who had worked for almost decade in the nutritional supplement industry.
His approach offers a new way to cut calories. It preaches a change in focus whereby calories are counted weekly rather than daily. Unsure what that means? Let me give you an example:
Assume you need about 2,000 calories a day to maintain your bodyweight. This means that if you want to lose half a pound of fat a week, you’ll need to eat 250 fewer calories every single day for seven days, if you follow a traditional weight-loss regime. But you can do it differently. You can eat normally 6 out of 7 days, and then fast one day to burn 1,750 calories and lose that half a pound.
Both men and women who practice Eat Stop Eat method usually do 1 or 2 fasts during a week to burn fat, and exercise to build muscle mass if it’s necessary. They are totally free in planning their fasts during a week. Beginners can start with one fast a week; while more experienced practitioners can go through two fasts during the same period. Very experienced followers can even perform workouts during their fasting days.
Most people describe Eat Stop Eat as an “auto-pilot” or “brainless” diet. But in fact, there are no secrets to the Eat Stop Eat technique except one simple weight loss fact – the only scientifically sound way to lose body fat is by creating a calorie deficit. And intermittent fasting, as Brad says, is just an easy means to eat fewer calories, which leads weight loss.
The most common myth about intermittent fasting is so-called ‘starvation mode’. During starvation mode, the body supposedly slows its metabolism due to too few calories being ingested.
But Brad claims that a large body of scientific research shows that you can eat very low calories for extended periods of time with no change in your metabolism. Further, there is no decrease in muscle mass, as long as you do some form of resistance training.
Of course, if you were to continue fasting for days at a time, you would probably begin to feel tired and weak. However, fasting for one day only does not have this effect, especially if you take the time to perform some type of exercise or resistance training.
Will Kashis is a nutrition writer who freelances for niche publications and recently launched his site at www.Diets.md