Eat Stop Eat

The name of Eat Stop Eat pretty much tells the story.

This somewhat unusual and probably somewhat controversial diet program recommends what it calls “flexible intermittent fasting” combined with exercise. People on the program fast for 24 hours, usually from dinner to dinner, once or twice a week.

Here’s how the creator of the program introduces himself and his program:

“Well let me be right up front with you. My name is Brad Pilon and I wrote Eat Stop Eat to help people understand the amazing weight loss results they can get by using a simple combination of flexible periods of intermittent fasting and weight training.”

“Now, I know what you are thinking, ‘Did he just say fasting?’ Yes, fasting. But before you read any further, let me assure you that with Eat Stop Eat your metabolism will not slow down, you will not lose muscle, your workouts will not suffer, and you will not become a ravenous eating machine. You will simply lose weight, quicker and easier than ever before.”

And, he adds, the program won’t make you lightheaded or cranky.

Pilon lists these “facts”:

** A true weight loss plan does not have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler the program the better the results will be. The more restrictive the diet, the more likely it will fail you.

** The bottom line is that to lose weight you must create a caloric deficit (eat fewer calories than you burn off). As soon as you find a simple way to eat fewer calories you’ve won the battle; stressing over special ways to eat and special types of food to eat will not improve your weight loss.

** Flexible intermittent fasting is supported by a large amount of research and is effective for many people of all different ages and walks of life.

** Fat is not bad, protein really isn’t that special, and carbohydrates are perfectly fine to eat, even sugar.

** You will not lose muscle if you miss a meal. In fact, you won’t even lose muscle if you miss an entire day of meals as long as you follow a well designed workout plan. The bottom line is that weight loss does not have to be frustrating, complicated or involve secret combinations of foods.

See below for a closer look at Pilon and what went into his creation of Eat Stop Eat.

Price

The heart of the Eat Stop Eat program is a 90-page downloadable ebook. The program has two buying options.

Option 1 includes:

** The Eat Stop Eat ebook.
** “The 10 Day Diet Solution”
** “Why Diets Stop Working + Transcripts”
** “The Eat Stop Eat Advanced Audio Files + Transcripts,” which is described as a crash course in fat burning, fat burning hormones, blood sugar and insulin and how Eat Stop Eat helps burn fat.
** "Expert Interrogations of Eat Stop Eat," which discusses changes that make big differences to your body, tips for effective grocery shopping, the “truth about breakfast,” how to use Eat Stop Eat with bodybuilding and powerlifting, and supplement recommendations.

“Today's Price” is listed at $57.

Option 2 includes only the Eat Stop Eat ebook.

“Today’s Price” is listed at $39.95

Note: The Eat Stop Eat sales website is divided into two sections, one for men and one for women. The only difference we could detect between the two sections, however, is that the testimonials in the men’s section are all from men, and the testimonials in the women’s section are all from women.

Our Recommendation

I am looking out the window from where I am sitting at my computer and I see our neighbor’s horse maybe a quarter mile away running back and forth in his field, which is an awfully unusual thing for that horse to do. I tell Mary about it, and she takes a carrot and walks over to make sure everything is OK. When she returns, she tells me the electric fence was touching the snow and that maybe the horse got shocked. Because she (Mary) did. Get shocked, that is. Maybe the lesson is that you should not be kind to animals. I’m kidding, I’m kidding!

By the way, she also fed the horse the carrot.

12:15 p.m.: The hunger pangs have returned. They are not any stronger as such, but they do seem to be implying, “Hey, I mean it. Seriously.” Does that make sense?

Only four more hours till I can eat again. Four measly hours. When compared with the geologic stretch of time, that is not even a blip on a blip on a blip on a nanosecond to the 16^th power. There, take that, hunger pangs.

I am looking up the definition of the word “pang.” Here is the first meaning: “A brief piercing spasm of pain.”

Whoa. That way, way overstates what I am feeling. I shall never use the phrase “hunger pangs” again. From now on, only “feelings of hunger” maybe. Or “a mild to medium inclination to ingest some food.”

I am drinking so much water today that I am running (actually walking) to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Is that a good idea? I mean drinking all that water? My idea is that I can trick my stomach into thinking it’s full. So far the only thing it is doing is overworking my kidneys and overloading my bladder. Oh well, I figure it never hurts to give your system a good flushing once in awhile. But I do wonder: Do they sell do-it-yourself catheters?

2:25 p.m.: About time to walk down and get the mail. The mail box is about 200 or so yards down the road. The temperature is in the 30s. There is snow and ice on the ground. I hope I don’t freeze to death.

5 p.m.: I made it! I’m sitting down to a dinner of shrimp stir-fry. Eat your heart out, pizza lovers.

Conclusion: I had virtually no ill effects. There was some slight chilling, but that has happened to me before when I was on a conventional diet plan. The feelings of hunger were far milder than I had expected.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, and I no doubt will, because I am now officially jazzed about Eat Stop Eat.

After all, the 24-hour fast was, if you’ll pardon the expression, a piece of cake.

In his own words:

I have spent my life studying nutrition and weight loss, and I have taken a very unusual path that ultimately led me to writing Eat Stop Eat.

For starters, I have an honors degree in nutrition. So I understand the classic academic approach to how we should eat. I spent four years of university studying all of the typical “eat less calories than you burn” type of stuff you need to know to become a dietitian.

… right after university, instead of becoming a dietitian, I started working in the weight loss industry. From managing the R&D department of a very successful sports supplement company to consulting startup companies, manufacturers and top fitness magazines, I have seen the inner working of the industry that only a privileged few have ever seen. …

During my time in the industry part of my responsibilities included traveling the world learning about potential cures for obesity (weight loss supplements are big money, so the first company to come out with a new ingredient that actually worked would be making billions).

From China, Germany, Scotland, England and all over North America, I have had the privilege of meeting some of the world’s greatest minds in nutrition and weight loss.

Not only have I been lucky enough to travel the world but I have also had unlimited access to state of the art exercise physiology equipment, the kind of equipment that would make many University laboratories green with envy.

With this equipment I was able to conduct multiple body composition tests on numerous athletes and top level bodybuilders and monitor them while they dieted and tried new experimental weight loss programs. …

In fact, it was these experiments that ultimately led me to leave the industry and pursue graduate studies in human biology and nutritional sciences.

Many of the experiments I conducted had results that were VERY different from what I expected, and I soon realized that if I were to truly understand nutrition’s role in weight loss, then I would have to start from the very beginning and study what happens to the body when it goes without ANY food.

Believe it or not, Eat Stop Eat is actually all the research from the scientific reviews I completed in graduate school.

That’s right, my research was on “The Metabolic Effects of Short Periods of Fasting in Humans and its Potential Application in Weight Loss.” So in essence when you read Eat Stop Eat what you are really reading is an easy to read version of my graduate education