Fasting to lose weight has never been a method that I thought I would use to burn fat. I especially did not think that I would be endorsing it. After looking into Eat Stop Eat and reading some of the studies that proved intermittent fasting for weight loss to be healthy and effective, I decided to give it a shot for losing those infamous “last few pounds.”
Intermittent fasting is a bit different than the more traditional fasts that we are used to hearing or reading about. Instead of fasting for days at a time you only fast for 24 hours and then you eat a normal meal.
In reality you are only skipping two meals and any snacks in between.
I have found intermittent style fasting to be an easy way to “diet” without all of the restrictions that come with normal dieting techniques. The best part of all, is that you can actually get away with eating nachos, pizza, pasta and more (within reason) and still lose weight.
Reasons Fasting To Lose Weight Works
Here are just some of the reasons intermittent fasting for weight loss works. In fact, these are the topics for eight pages in the Eat Stop Eat book.
- Decreased Insulin Levels & Increased Insulin Sensitivity. When your insulin levels are high, you gain weight, or you are at least more prone to gain weight.
- Increased Lipolysis and Fat Burning. Lipolysis basically means break down of fat. In other words, your body uses fat as it’s energy.
- Increased Glucagon Levels. Glucagon is a hormone produced by the pancreas that opposes the action of insulin by stimulating the production of sugar.
- Increased Epinephrine and Norepinephrine levels. Epinephrine stimulates the breakdown of stored fat and of glycogen in active muscles to use as fuel.
- Increased Growth Hormone Levels. HGH (Human Growth Hormone) decreases the use of glucose and increases the use of fat used for fuel.
- Increased Weight Loss and Increased Fat Loss. Pretty self explanatory.
What I found to be the most interesting about this is that these are typically symptoms of working out. That means that during your fast, you body is reacting much like it would while you are working out except for a much longer period.
Checkout this quick video for more info on fasting and exercise.
Intermittent Fasting For Weight Loss – What To Expect?
An important thing to remember is that you should not overdue it. You are fasting to lose weight, you are not to starving yourself. The author, Brad Pilon, suggests fasting once or twice a week.
I like to work in one day a week using this technique. During this 24 hour fast you will be amazed at how easy it is, seriously. Not only is it easier than you would think, you realize that much of your eating is more habit driven than hunger driven.
By following the structure of fasting to lose weight as outlined in Eat Stop Eat you can eat a much more lenient diet than you can on most traditional low calorie, low fat or low carb diets.
By fasting twice a week and then eating a normal size meal of 600-1,000 calories you will reduce your caloric intake by about 10-20%. You don’t want to pig out at the end of the day, but you are free to eat a “normal” meal.
Will I lose All Of My Hard Earned Muscle By Fasting?
You will not. I would, however recommend incorporating a few resistance training days into the week. These workouts can include weight training, resistance bands, body weight exercises and more.
In fact, whether you are fasting to lose weight or simply on a low calorie diet, you need to be doing some type of resistance training. By doing so you are telling your body that you need the muscle it has and not to burn it for energy, but rather to burn your fat.
Should You Fast All The Time?
In a word – NO.
Eat Stop Eat works within it’s designed parameters. Our bodies can handle these types of low calorie days once in a while, as in 1-2 times a week, without a negative affect on our metabolism.
I am definitely not endorsing or encouraging any type of eating disorder. Fasting too much as a bad thing, intermittent fasting to lose weight 1-2 times a week is a good thing.
You are preaching to the choir here, my friend. I have been fasting for around a year now and absolutely love it. I went from 201 January 1, 2010 to 165 lbs, which I have maintained since around October. I am 42 and proof that you don’t have to get fatter each year.
If anyone hasn’t tried eat-stop-eat and are on the fence, try it! Your days of failed diets will be over for good.
-Kelly
Kelly – that’s awesome man, good work! It really is a pretty awesome diet plan – much more practical than I ever really thought it would be.
I’m with Kelly, fasting rocks!
I was a long way into my weight loss efforts before I discovered Eat Stop Eat though. I was worried about all the traditional arguments/dogma you often hear about losing muscle and slowing metabolism, but after reading ESE I was positively excited. It turned out to be just the answer I was looking for.
Michael
Exactly – until I read up on intermittent fasting and tested it out I really thought that my metabolism would just stop!
Can you have coffee or green tea while fasting? Or just water only?
Hi Lauren,
As far as IF for weight loss goes, yes caffeine is fine since it doesn’t spike up your insulin levels and take you out of a fasted state.
As far as the health conditions on your heart, please consult your doctor
I drink coffee on my fast days and it works fine for me. You will want to drink only black coffee, and unsweetened tea (no honey or anything else added). I would still recommend drinking a good amount of water to help your body flush out it’s toxins.
I’m one that loves food to much! I DO NOT eat a lot but the things I do eat are not so good for you. I’m thinking that this 24 hour fasting may be good for me though. It may make it so that I don’t need that “not so good” food because lets face it, 24 hours without eating may make ANYTHING look good!
haha! Good point. My only caution would be to not let the fast serve as an excuse to overeat or eat poorly on purpose. It works best by eating a “normal/healthy” meal after your fast so that the total calories for the day remain very low.
Losing weight should not be a quick fix thing to lose a couple of pounds just to gain the weight back and a few pounds more. Losing weight takes determination and a permanent change of habit or lifestyle to keep the weight off. A little fasting to clean the system is fine as long as you do not go overboard…
I totally agree, in fact, I don’t recommend fasting for more than 24 hours at a time. The hormonal benefits are at their peek at 24 hours (16-24 are when they’re most amplified) but after that they start to die off.
Thanks for the comment Teddy!
So im thinking to start the fasting thing! Even though i havent read ESE, so how does it work basically just go through a whole day without eating anything but only drinking water right? and i shouldnt do any mild work out? So its best if i fast on my rest day right? Thanks for the help much appreciated.
Yeah, that’s the basic idea. You can have any non-calorie drink like plain tea and/or black coffee as well. Actually, you can workout on a fast day too.
I’m very happy to have come across this information. As a body builder and fitness instructor for over 30 years, one of my favorite and most effective diet regimens was a two week high calorie diet followed by a two week extremely low calorie diet. The idea being that such extremes in your caloric intake caused profound hormonal changes because your body was having to compensate for the stress being placed on it. I can see where a combination of fasting and eating would logically create the same hormonal response, especially growth hormone, as the body is tricked into believing it needs it. I’m bookmarking this site to study further… thanks for the info!
Awesome George, I’m glad you stopped by and left the comment! I too have played around with high calorie weeks alternated by low calorie weeks. For me, Eat Stop Eat is a great way to eat more on the weekends with your friends and still lose or maintain weight throughout the year.
This is a wonderful idea! I’m a big eater. I’ve decided lately to lower down the amount of carbo I take in at first and get my body used to taking in only the needed amount of food. After reading this, I wonder if it was a good a idea to lower down calorie intake gradually or maybe the abrupt change for a day is the key to fooling the body.
Francis,
I think that just depends on the person. Me personally, I like the cold-turkey approach. I’ve found that you do need to adjust to eating less … fasting or not. Once your body adapts, which can be as quick as 2 or 3 days, it gets MUCH easier to diet.
I have more than a few pounds to lose. Approximately 40 pounds. Would this type of diet work for me? I am at the stage that I know I have to get this weight off, so I am looking for a diet that will without question, help me.
Hi Lorreen,
I’ve got a few friends who’ve lost more than that following the Eat Stop Eat diet. It’s awesome because it’s simple and works. I recently wrote an Eat Stop Eat review if you want to read a little more about it.
I recently started every other day fasting but the way I do it is I allow myself to eat anything during the first 24 hours, none the second, etc. etc. As opposed to a “smal meal” I would say I eat about 2000 calories on eating days. Is this going to work at all or am I doing it wrong?
That should work … Brad doesn’t recommend more than 2 fasting days per week in his book because that could a bit hard to maintain long-term. What I really like about ESE is that isn’t a crash course diet so try not to burn yourself out.
Again, I’m no doctor but I would say that’s fine; just pay attention to your body and how you’re feeling. The main goal is to create a calorie deficit over the course of the week so you’re good there.
Hi Kevin,
I use to work out religiously two years ago and stopped (but maintained a pretty healthy diet) and recently (about a week ago) started back at the gym everyday doing both cardio and weights, and planned to continue. The reason I stopped is I was never able to drop those last couple inches/pounds. I am extremely eager to try this method and am wondering if this is something I can start right away in my training, or should wait, say a month, to begin? Thoughts?
BTW – love the blog
Thanks,
Shannon
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for the kind words!
As far as you implementing the intermittent fasting, go for it. Give it a shot and see how you like it. Some love it, while others seem to struggle with it.
If you’re having trouble shedding those last few pounds even after sticking with a good diet and routine then I’d have to suggest upping your cardio a little. I know for me, I’ve struggled to lose those infamous last 10 lbs – even though I thought I only needed to lose 5 to get where I wanted. But by upping my cardio frequency and routine (I ended up following Visual Impact Cardio) I was able to get some pretty good results.
Checkout question #7 in this interview with Rusty Moore to see his suggestions … definitely worth doing.