EAT STOP EAT

Eat Stop Eat works like any other intermittent fasting method.

1. It reduces your caloric intake

By applying the broad brush rule of “no food for X period of time” (in this case 24 hours, twice a week), Eat Stop Eat naturally reduces the amount of calories you eat overall. According to Pilon, just one 24 hour fast could create a 10% calorie deficit.

2. It (potentially) shifts your metabolism into fat-burning mode

When you eat through the day on a regular breakfast-lunch-dinner pattern, your body gets the energy it needs from the food you eat.

By contrast, when you fast for 12+ hours, your body has to draw energy from the glucose it has stored on previous days. Once that’s used up, it shifts to burning fat for energy.

This metabolic shift is called ketosis, and specifically targets fat cells. That is part of what helps you to lose weight via fasting (more on this later).

Now, fasting for 12 hours can trigger this metabolic shift, but it may take longer than that. The idea behind Eat Stop Eat is that a 24 hour fast increases the likelihood that you’ll enter a ketogenic state.

Logically this makes sense, but there’s no real evidence to support this claim. Bodies are unique and your body will respond in its own way.

Can you exercise on Eat Stop Eat?

Exercising while on the Eat Stop Eat plan is possible. That said, we’d encourage you to take care.

Alongside eating nutritious food, exercise is a wonderful way to maximize your Eat Stop Eat fasting results.

Just go steady as you work it in.

Train when you’re on an eating day so you’re able to replenish your energy, recover well, and satisfy any post-training hunger.

Skip the high-intensity stuff until you’re experienced at fasting and know how your body feels and responds to it.

And always drink plenty of water to keep yourself well hydrated.

Is the Eat Stop Eat diet right for you?

If you feel a sense of kinship with the idea of two days a week when you don’t have to worry about food, and you feel like you could make a good go of hitting all your nutritional bases on the other five days, Eat Stop Eat could be your intermittent fasting go-to.

It’s flexible, you never have to count a calorie (although getting cozy with nutritional labels to learn the protein content etc., of foods you like is the move of a champion), and it could line up nicely with your health goals.

However, if the idea of a 24 hour fast puts the fear in you, and you yearn for something less… extreme, there’s a bunch of other intermittent fasting options you can try.

Let’s see what you might enjoy:

-5:2 fasting. The unofficial baby brother of Eat Stop Eat, 5:2 fasting is similar in structure with 2 fast days and 5 eating days, but easier as fast days include 500/600 calories.

-Water fasting. Not really our jam if we’re honest. For sustainable results and safety, water fasting is a no.

-Warrior diet. This IF method is a 20 hour fast with a 4 hour eating window, and the warrior diet is an everyday affair. Not for the faint of heart.

-Alternate day fasting. If 5:2 is the baby brother, alternate day fasting is the big daddy. Imagine Eat Stop Eat but on repeat through the week like eat-stop-eat-stop-eat-stop etc., and 500/600 calories on fasting days. (And more evidence to support its efficacy!)

- Intermittent fasting 16/8. A good entry point to IF. Intermittent fasting 16/8 is fasting every day for 16 hours. So, every day therefore also contains an eating window of 8 hours.

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