Update 1: Brad Pilon just released his new and improved expanded edition of Eat Stop Eat. It includes all new chapters on leptin, fasting and women, longer fasts, fasting as training, and more.
Update 2: For those that decide to purchase Eat Stop Eat through any of the links in this article, I am offering an exclusive workout program as a bonus. I designed the program with Eat Stop Eat in mind and it’s perfect. Just forward your receipt to [email protected] and I’ll send the bonus over.
Fasting is a dirty word. You tell someone that you’re fasting for fat loss or weight maintenance and they look at you like you’re some crazy motherf*cker.
But tell them that you fast because of your religion or because you need to do so more medical reasons, and boom, you’re Mr. Normal again. Why is this? Is fasting for non-medical/non-religious reasons really that bad?
Or are we just brainwashed by the media and less than reputable fitness professionals into believing that you need to constantly eat every 2-3 hours. This is where Brad Pilon and his masterpiece Eat Stop Eat comes in. Brad Pilon is who many consider one of the leading advocates behind intermittent fasting (check out my interview with Brad Pilon).
While fasting itself is nothing new, the act of using it for fat loss and physique development has only begun gaining popularity the last few years.
Eat Stop Eat Review: What is Eat Stop Eat?
A book written by Brad Pilon that covers all facets of intermittent fasting as well as his approach to fasting which involves 1-2 fasts per week done for 24 hours.
Why should you practice intermittent fasting?
For those that don’t know what intermittent fasting is it’s essentially a system where you have periods eating and not eating (fasting). It basically means you’re going to wait much longer between meals. You can read more about it on my post here.
You tell someone that you’re fasting for fat loss or weight maintenance and they look at you like you’re some crazy motherf*cker.
This period can last anywhere from 8-24 hours. This is nothing fancy but considering how often eating every 2-3 hours is preached, this is a breath of fresh air. This is what Eat Stop Eat boils down to, flexibility.
Eat Stop Eat removes the stress of meal planning and timing and teaches you to eat when you’re hungry and not just because you’re bored.
What does Eat Stop Eat cover?
To give you a general idea, here are a just a handful of topics that Eat Stop Eat covers:
- Fasting and Exercise
- Fasting and Your Brain
- Fasting and Women
- Health Benefits of Fasting
- Misconceptions About Fasting
This is just a taste of what’s in the book. Pretty much anything you’ve ever wanted to know about fasting and how it affects your body, training, and fat loss is in this book.
Is it easy to use?
Like all diets, you need to eat less calories to lose weight and Eat Stop Eat is no different. This means you’re still likely to feel the mental strains that most diets have. 99% of dieting psychological. When you start cutting back your calories over time, you begin to rationalize different reasons for why you shouldn’t even be dieting.
Hunger pangs start settling in. You try to convince yourself it isn’t worth (when it really is), then 10 minutes later, boom! You’ve polished off half a can of Pringles and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
And the cycle repeats itself. Where Eat Stop Eat tries to fix this is by having you fast for 24 hours. When you go 24 hours without eating, you experience all the highs and lows of hunger and after a while you begin to truly understand when you get hungry vs. when you simply get bored and want to eat.
True hunger doesn’t happen for at least 72 hours (provided you are drinking water). Hell, I’ve gone 67 hours without food and it really wasn’t that bad once I crossed the 36 hour mark (but I don’t recommend this).
How should I workout?
When using intermittent fasting it’s recommended that you do some sort of resistance training. You should aim to do the minimum amount needed to preserve muscle mass. And as Brad says in his book, you shouldn’t be going overboard with cardio.
And if you pick up Eat Stop Eat through any link on this article, I’ll give you the exact workout blueprint to follow. Scroll down to the bottom of the article for more info.
The majority of your weight loss is a result of your diet and cardio will simply burn you out if done too frequently. So limit the use of cardio if possible.
Book snippets
- “Fasting automatically rules out the use of any sort of food, health supplement, or newly touted “functional foods”.”
- “From a marketing stand point fasting is boring. It does not have a sexy marketing angle and it certainly does not do anything to improve the bottom-lines of food companies.”
- “In fact, many people stumble onto fasting when they very first attempt to lose weight, and they usually see some success. They only give up on fasting after being convinced that it is bad and wrong by anti-fasting propaganda.”
Eat Stop Eat review: Should you buy it?
Pros
- Easy and fun to read.
- Well-referenced with scientific studies.
- Does a great job at crushing many commonly accepted nutrition myths such as “starvation mode”, muscle loss while fasting, skipping breakfast, etc…
- Intermittent fasting will teach the difference between being truly hungry and simply being bored and wanting food.
- Flexibility allows you to stop stressing over what and when to eat.
- Great new expanded info on fasting and women, muscle building, and more.
Cons
- No exact nutrition or meal plan is given. Like myself, it’s creator, Brad Pilon is keen on keeping things super simple and flexible. And for that reason, Pilon didn’t include any meal plans in his book. Now this can be seen as both good and bad. On one hand, it’s good because it allows for greater amounts of flexibility. On the other hand, I know how much some people love to be told exactly what to eat. So yeah, take that for what it is.
- Your first time trying intermittent fasting may or may not be a bitch. Some people find fasting extremely easy, others find it hard. But it gets easier over time. And there are ways (like drinking coffee or green tea) to help suppress hunger to make it easier.
Score: 9/10
So, should you pick up Eat Stop Eat? Absolutely! If you’re on the fence about giving intermittent fasting a shot and are worried about what it may do to your body, then this book will definitely calm your nerves. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend Eat Stop Eat is if they’ve tried intermittent fasting in the past with no success.
If this is the case, then Eat Stop Eat won’t change your mind. If you have any questions about my Eat Stop Eat review or intermittent fasting in general, feel free to ask me in the comments.
How to get my free bonus workout
Like I said earlier – if you pick up Eat Stop Eat through any of the links on this page, I will send you an exclusive workout program as a bonus. I designed the program with Eat Stop Eat in mind and it’s perfect for burning fat and maintaining muscle.
Here’s what’s included in the bonus workout:
- The best way to structure your workouts with Eat Stop Eat for maximum fat loss.
- A highly customizable workout program that can be done in 45 minutes or less.
- My favorite 3 minute metabolic finisher to help you torch fat.
- Printable workout charts.
Just forward your receipt to [email protected] and within 24 hours I’ll send the bonus workout over.
Nice review. I love what you said about how people look at you if you tell them you’re fasting! IF is one of those love it or hate it type of calorie restrictions. I personally like the freedom to eat what I want (within reason) when I’m not fasting.
I have ESE, but it’s the older edition. I’m a woman, so I’m curious to know what info Pilon has about fasting and women. I may have to check the new one out…
Thanks Vickie. I’m pretty sure Brad sends out the updated version to all his old customers. Just ask him.
Hi Keith,
This is Shawn here. Appreciate the many giveaways from your page. Any chance of offering a couple of gym workout tips to execute in parallel with the ETE diet program from Brad Pilon? I’ll be grateful for it 🙂
Hey Shawn,
Well the most important thing to do is lift weights and more importantly, always maintain your strength. I would also try to workout at least 3 times per week minimum.
Hey Keith,
Thanks for coming back. For the lifts you pointed out, what are recommended ones as a routine – squats, bench press & deadlifts? Also, is there a sample workout program out there to look up for this? Appreciate the help man.
Yeah that’s a good start, plus I would add in some rows, military press, and a few isolation exercises.
Here’s a article I wrote that might interest you – https://www.fitmole.org/maintain-muscle-mass/
Hi Keith
I stumbled upon your blog and your P90X review and have since spent a whole lot more time than I was planning reading several of your articles.
I’ve been doing Brad’s Eat Stop Eat program off and on for several years and I really like it. I find it much easier to fast 24hr 1 or 2 times a week, than produce that same calorie deficit by being super strict all week long.
Anyway, since I obviously bought the ebook years ago, I’m not going to buy it again, but I was wondering if there was any chance you’d consider forwarding me your companion workout anyway. I would really appreciate that.
And I’m going to go order an Ab Wheel now – guess which other article I read? Ha ha! 🙂
Email me Tammy, I’ll see if we can work something out.
Can I build a lean body with body weight exercises? I’m 65 years old this June. I have done fasting in the past but had problems with loose bowels and some headaches. What do you suggest for this? Also, do you have a specific body weight type program for someone my age? My husband and I walk around a mall daily in the winter to help keep active. I want to avoid the expense of a gym membership. I am interested in your book. Thank you for any advice you can give. Nancy
yes you can. not everyone can fast for extended periods of time, if you get headaches don’t do it. What book? I don’t have a routine on bodyweight stuff.
I’d recommend checking out turbulence training.
Recent scientific studies suggest that there are no clear benefits of IF over conventional dieting (apart perhaps from compliance) with regard to fat loss. Thus, there is nothing ‘magical’ about IF. Ultimately, losing body fat simply comes down to overall energy expenditure:
Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2015 Dec 15;418 Pt 2:153-72. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2015.09.014. Epub 2015 Sep 16.
Do intermittent diets provide physiological benefits over continuous diets for weight loss? A systematic review of clinical trials.
Seimon RV1, Roekenes JA1, Zibellini J1, Zhu B1, Gibson AA1, Hills AP2, Wood RE3, King NA4, Byrne NM3, Sainsbury A5.
Author information
Abstract
Energy restriction induces physiological effects that hinder further weight loss. Thus, deliberate periods of energy balance during weight loss interventions may attenuate these adaptive responses to energy restriction and thereby increase the efficiency of weight loss (i.e. the amount of weight or fat lost per unit of energy deficit). To address this possibility, we systematically searched MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, PubMed and Cinahl and reviewed adaptive responses to energy restriction in 40 publications involving humans of any age or body mass index that had undergone a diet involving intermittent energy restriction, 12 with direct comparison to continuous energy restriction. Included publications needed to measure one or more of body weight, body mass index, or body composition before and at the end of energy restriction. 31 of the 40 publications involved ‘intermittent fasting’ of 1-7-day periods of severe energy restriction. While intermittent fasting appears to produce similar effects to continuous energy restriction to reduce body weight, fat mass, fat-free mass and improve glucose homeostasis, and may reduce appetite, it does not appear to attenuate other adaptive responses to energy restriction or improve weight loss efficiency, albeit most of the reviewed publications were not powered to assess these outcomes. Intermittent fasting thus represents a valid – albeit apparently not superior – option to continuous energy restriction for weight loss.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2015 Nov 25. doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2015.195. [Epub ahead of print]
Intermittent energy restriction and weight loss: a systematic review.
Davis CS1, Clarke RE1, Coulter SN1, Rounsefell KN1, Walker RE1, Rauch CE1, Huggins CE1, Ryan L1,2.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES:
Intermittent energy restriction (IER) is an eating pattern of regular daily periods of restricted energy intake followed by periods of unrestricted energy intake. This is gaining prominence as an alternative weight-loss strategy to daily energy restriction (DER). The aim of this systematic review was to determine the effectiveness of IER on weight loss in overweight and obese adults and compare this with DER.
SUBJECTS/METHODS:
A systematic literature search was conducted using the CINAHL, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, Cochrane and Scopus databases. Eight studies that assigned overweight or obese adults to IER or to a DER ‘control’ were deemed eligible for inclusion.
RESULTS:
All studies reported significant weight loss for IER groups. Average weight loss was approximately 0.2-0.8 kg per week. IER resulted in comparable weight loss to DER when overall energy restriction remained similar between diets. The majority of studies that reported body composition outcomes have shown equal efficacy for fat mass, fat-free mass and waist circumference.
CONCLUSIONS:
Weight loss was achieved in overweight and obese adults following IER and this loss was comparable to a DER diet. IER may be an effective alternative strategy for health practitioners to promote weight loss for selected overweight and obese people.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition advance online publication, 25 November 2015; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2015.195.
Clin Obes. 2014 Jun;4(3):150-6. doi: 10.1111/cob.12052. Epub 2014 Mar 6.
Effects of intermittent compared to continuous energy restriction on short-term weight loss and long-term weight loss maintenance.
Keogh JB1, Pedersen E, Petersen KS, Clifton PM.
Author information
Abstract
Effective strategies are needed to help individuals lose weight and maintain weight loss. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intermittent energy restriction (IER) compared to continuous energy restriction (CER) on weight loss after 8 weeks and weight loss maintenance after 12 months. Secondary aims were to determine changes in waist and hip measurements and diet quality. In a randomized parallel study, overweight and obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 27 kg m(-2)) women were stratified by age and BMI before randomization. Participants undertook an 8-week intensive period with weight, waist and hip circumference measured every 2 weeks, followed by 44 weeks of independent dieting. A food frequency questionnaire was completed at baseline and 12 months, from which diet quality was determined. Weight loss was not significantly different between the two groups at 8 weeks (-3.2 ± 2.1 kg CER, n = 20, -2.0 ± 1.9 kg IER, n = 25; P = 0.06) or at 12 months (-4.2 ± 5.6 kg CER, n = 17 -2.1 ± 3.8 kg IER, n = 19; P = 0.19). Weight loss between 8 and 52 weeks was -0.7 ± 49 kg CER vs. -1 ± 1.1 kg IER; P = 0.6. Waist and hip circumference decreased significantly with time (P < 0.01), with no difference between groups. There was an increase in the Healthy Eating Index at 12 months in the CER compared with the IER group (CER 8.4 ± 9.1 vs. IER -0.3 ± 8.4, P = 0.006). This study indicates that intermittent dieting was as effective as continuous dieting over 8 weeks and for weight loss maintenance at 12 months. This may be useful for individuals who find CER too difficult to maintain.
I agree. Assuming calories/macros are equal, there isn’t really a difference a difference besides diet adherence which is a huge problem for many people, and for some, IF solves that.
I bought this book to iBooks for $10.00. Where is it
Not sure…I didn’t write the book.
Hey Keith, I bought this book about 3 years ago and Im very curious on your bonus book with what workouts to use with eat stop eat. How can I get that bonus? I don’t have a receipt but i am willing to pay for this bonus book. Let me know thanks!
Email me, we’ll work something out 🙂
I emailed you.
I am also interested in your book. How can I buy it.
which book? The link to ESE is all over the post. Once you buy it, you can email me your receipt and I will email you my bonus workout 🙂
Hi Keith, thanks for a thorough review of the book. I agree what you said about “truly understand when you get hungry vs. when you simply get bored and want to eat.” And also what you say about how IF helps with diet adherence – it makes it easy to remember what you should eat – which in this case is nothing!
Ya you don’t even need to follow ESE to the letter. What it teaches you about yourself and hunger is worth the price alone .
Hi,
How many pages does Eat stop eat have?
Thank you.
I believe it’s around 100.
Hi.. quick question. Can I fast 24 hrs everyday? Or is that not beneficial? Or can I fast 24 hrs 2 days and 16 hr fast the other 5 days?
Thank you
Sharon
Yes you can, but this would be closer to the one meal per day approach i outline here – https://www.fitmole.org/eating-one-meal-a-day-diet/
If you fast 24 hours a day, every day, you will literally NEVER eat. Ever. 😛
Is it a hard copy or digital?
digital.
I’m prone to headaches when I skip a meal. Is the ESE good for me?
Definitely not, if you get headaches when you skip meals.
Can I drink tea with skimmed milk or must I stick to black tea without milk though out the day?
a little skim milk is fine as long as long as it’s not adding hundreds of calories per day.
Can i drink as much water as i want while fasting so its no food just looks of water
of course, you should always drink water.
I love this! Everything else I have looked at says that skipping meals is bad but I finally found something that actually encourages it! Thank you so much. I tried the Eat-Stop-Eat fast, btw, and it was very hard. I got very hungry, but I’m really tried to focus on other things and ignore my hunger. I only did it once.
yup it’s awesome!