For almost 2 decades now, Eat Stop Eat has stood the test of time as a highly effective style of eating that has been able to help so many people lose weight in a manner they found to be relatively easy.

In fact, since the initial writing of Eat Stop Eat in 2007 there really has never been a reason to change this approach.

It is what it is, and it works.

When combined with a solid resistance training Eat Stop Eat allowed you to both build muscle and burn fat.

Now, what we do around our fasts… This is an area that has puzzled me for some time.

Basically…. What to eat, why and when.

This is the area where many people have difficulty, and up until recently I never really had a solid answer for the people who needed a bit more help.

I knew our diets should contain a fair amount of fruit as I’m a big fan of the polyphenols found in fruit, and I knew the importance of protein and its role in both muscle building and fat loss, but beyond that I never really had something that made sense to me other than simply “Eat like a responsible Adult”

And generally, this is good advice, but it’s also far from complete.

Then, in a bit of an embarrassment of riches, I found our answer in two very different sources.

Firstly, there was the research from 2023 that illustrated the amazing effects that happens when you START your fast with a large dose of protein.

[[ Your fast is much easier and you are able to build muscle, while burning fat at the same time. ]]

This was a groundbreaking piece of nutrition research out of a very prominent laboratory in the Netherlands, and it very quickly accelerated our ability to get results with Eat Stop Eat.

The next piece of research was actually a study on lions of all things…

It was in this study that I learned about the term “Naturalistic Eating”

If “Nutritive Eating” is the focus on the Calories, Proteins, Carbs and Fats in your food, then “Naturalistic eating” takes this one step further and focuses on the order of things, how you eat and when.

Plus, it goes EVEN another step further, examining what you do BEFORE or AFTER eating as well…

When it comes to Lions, Naturalistic Eating involves a period of physical activity, or a physical challenge, followed by very large protein meal, followed by a purposeful period of fasting and resting…

This was the ‘set up’ that Lions needed for optimal health. Not just the Proteins, Carbs and Fats in their diet, but the how and when of their diet AND the ‘what comes before’ and ‘what comes after’ of their diet.

A holistic, naturalist approach to nutrition.

These two studies perfectly illustrate the Anabolic Fasting approach.

Now obviously, we are not lions, but the theory behind Naturalistic Eating clearly explains why Eat Stop Eat has progressed to Anabolic Fasting and why we now START our fasts with a workout, followed by a meal that is very high in protein.

This approach to naturalistic eating works whether you are trying to build muscle or lose fat, whether you are a man or woman, 18 or 81 years old.

I’m going to explain this further in the Anabolic Fasting Diet, which will be a Free gift to anyone who has purchased the Anabolic Fasting program.

So, if you don’t have Anabolic Fasting yet, consider this a two for one, get in on Anabolic Fasting now, and get the Anabolic Fasting Diet in the next two weeks (we’re just finishing off some of the edits).

If you are already on Anabolic Fasting, please check your email for the Anabolic Fasting Diet sometime next week.

You can get Anabolic Fasting here —> Anabolic-Fasting

Your friend,

Brad

If you’ve been following along for any length of time, you know I’ve spent most of my career digging into how the body works—intermittent fasting, metabolism, training, recovery, the whole deal.

I’m always looking for real signals of what’s going on under the hood, not just superficial stuff.

We’ve dug into intermittent fasting before it was popular, heat like saunas and infrared lights before they became popular, and even gut health before the microbiome was a thing.

A while back I stumbled across something that, at first glance, I honestly thought had to be a joke. It was a site for a semen volume enhancing supplement. 

My immediate reaction? It sounded like one of those late-night infomercial products promising the world with zero science behind it.

But here’s the thing…

They had a research page full of references on the link between semen volume and health that I could explore. And honestly? It makes a lot more sense than I expected. Not from a ‘bedroom’ point of view, but as an overall marker of a man’s health.

The first thing is the research is very clear that many lifestyle factors can acutely effect semen volume. The second thing is that this is actually important…

Turns out, semen volume isn’t just about “bigger loads” in the bedroom (though that’s obviously what gets the headlines). It’s a pretty solid downstream indicator of several key systems in a man’s body working properly.

* Diet and Nutrition: Your semen production pulls from what you’re eating. If your diet is off, or you’re missing these building blocks, volume drops. Simple as that.

* Hydration: This one’s obvious but easy to overlook. Semen is mostly fluid. Chronic low-grade dehydration shows up here.

* Overtraining and Recovery: If you’re pushing hard in the gym (or on the track, in my case), without enough recovery, your body prioritizes other systems. Reproductive output is one of the first things that can take a hit when you’re overreaching.

* Sickness: Your immune system is tied to your reproductive system, and your semen volume is a marker over overall oxidative stress in your body, so when you’re sick or when your health is compromised, your volume goes down.

* Overall Hormonal and Metabolic Health: Volume correlates with things like testosterone status, prostate function, and even broader health and longevity markers. It’s not the only signal, but it’s an honest one your body gives you without needing bloodwork.

The research Baker’s highlights lines up with what I’ve seen in the literature over the years suggesting that your body is an integrated organism, not a series of independent systems. And your reproductive system is highly sensitive to changes throughout the rest of your body.

And paying attention to signals like this can be a useful feedback loop. The bottom line is, as taboo as it may sound, monitoring changes in semen volume can tell you a lot about hydration, diet quality, training load, stress, and overall health.

My Takeaway- If you remove the taboo, semen volume is a practical, measurable, marker that is tied to the fundamentals we should all be optimizing.

BP

Friends don’t let friends skip leg day, or so the saying goes…

Small legs, chicken legs, the triumphant retort of any one to any body with a good bench or built upper body…

But is it justified?

Legs are important to sports performance and good physique, not to mention your long term health (A smaller thigh circumference is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases in both men and women) but what’s an appropriate ratio?

After all, you know me, I’m all about ratios

Well, let’s look at the research. We can look at the body shape of top level athletes to figure out what is a reasonable thigh size. I’m going to focus on men just to simplify the process a bit.

Let’s start with a study examining 30 competitive male middle-weight power lifters

These men were average 38 years old, with a height of around 5’9” and weight of around 190 pounds with a percent body fat of 13%.

Their average squat was 470 pounds, average bench was 315 pounds and average Dead lift was 505 pounds, so these guys were pretty strong to say the least (I’m guessing these were competition numbers so probably not ‘raw’).

On average these men had thighs with a circumference of 24 inches.

Their hips had a circumference of 39-40 inches, giving a thigh to hip ratio of  60-62% (thighs were 60-62% of hip circumference)

Next let’s look at elite cricket fast bowlers, athletes that are typically much taller and leaner than a power lifter…

Here we have men who are 6’2” and around 193 pounds, these guys were younger than the power lifters averaging 24 years old. Their thighs were 24 inches and their hips were 39-40 inches. So roughly the same size as the power lifters, only stretched out over 5 more inches of height.

Again a thigh to hip ratio of 60-62%

We can also look at a group of elite Australian road cyclists who were roughly 23 years old.

These cyclists were 5’10″ with a thigh measurement of 24.5 inches. Unfortunately they didn’t measure hip circumference or body fat, but at least we know that we’re falling into the 24 ‘ish’ range in men who are 5’10” and based on their sport of choice we would assume to have well developed thigh muscles.

Next we can look at Elite male alpine skiers.

These men were 5’11 and 190 pounds, 27 years old and 16% body fat. Average thigh here was 25.4 inches.

This is the biggest so far, but it is worth noting that this data set also had some of the heavier and fatter men we’ve seen studied with one man having 26 inch thighs, but also being 6’5” 225 pounds and over 20% body fat. Still, we’re getting a good idea of thigh size in elite athletes of different shapes and sizes.

Finally we have a stronger and larger group of male power lifters.

These guys had an average squat of 570 pounds, and were also shorter (5’7”) heavier (average 210 pounds) and fatter (average 16% body fat) then the previous group.

These men had 41 inch hips and 25.7 inch thighs for a hip to thigh ratio of just a bit over 62.5%

Based on these findings it seems that a hip to thigh ratio of just about the golden ratio, where your thighs at their widest point are 61.8% of your hip circumference seems to be possible, and judging by pictures of pro-athletes such as rugby and football players also very aesthetic.

Also we can see that generally a well built man between the heights of 5’7″ and 6’2” with lower levels of body fat (around 10%) can have a target of thighs that are roughly 24-26 inches in circumference. Granted there are always exceptions to the rule, but if you are worried about the size of your legs, this is a good bench mark to use.

However, it should be noted that it may not be the maximal circumference that makes a thigh appear big or small… it might be the lower circumference more towards the knee.

In research looking at rugby players who were 21 years old, 5’11 and 195 pounds, the average thigh at it’s widest point was 24.5 inches in circumference, at mid thigh (mid way between the knee cap and hip) the thigh was 22 inches, and bottom of the thigh, down near the knee was 16.5 inches… so it may be this ‘right above the knee measurement’ that biases us towards thinking a thigh is big or small.

So even if you are 5’10” and have 25 inch thighs at their largest, they may still look ‘smallish’ if the majority of the mass is up closer to your butt as opposed to down by your knee.

Also, it seems that the thigh is viewed relative to your hips and waist, so big butt or big waist (either by being overweight or muscular imbalance) will make you thigh look smaller by comparison.

BP

This means glycogen replenishment  is essential for exercise recovery

Now, you may be wondering, what the heck is glycogen?

Most of the carbohydrates you eat are converted to glucose. When the body doesn’t need to use all of this glucose for energy, any extra is stored in the liver and muscles for future use.

This stored form of glucose is made up of many connected glucose molecules and is called glycogen.

When the body needs a quick boost of energy, your muscle glycogen particles are broken down, freeing glucose molecules that muscle cells then oxidize for fuel.

The rate at which muscle glycogen is broken down depends primarily upon the intensity of physical activity, meaning the greater the exercise intensity, the faster the rate your muscle glycogen is being broken down.

The ability of athletes to train day after day depends in large part on their ability to recovery, which means adequate restoration of muscle glycogen stores, a process that requires the consumption of sufficient amounts of dietary carbohydrates.

Immediately after physical activity, muscle cells that sustained a substantial decrease in glycogen content are metabolically prepared to take up glucose from your blood and make glycogen – a process called glycogenesis.

(Glycogen use during exercise turns on glycogen synthesis during recovery.)

Thus for anyone who exercises regularly, glycogen replenishment is vital to maintaining performance, and a vital part of exercise recovery.

Interestingly, heat may help.

In a 2014 study nine recreational active males cycled for an hour and a half and then were studied as they recovered for 4 hours.

During recovery, the subject’s legs were randomly assigned as the heated limb (heat pack application directly on the leg) and control limb (exposed to room temperature air).

During this recovery period, they received 2 carbohydrate feedings (over 100 grams of carbohydrates per meal) right after their workout and then again after 2 hours of recovery.

What they found:

Muscle glycogen concentration increased with recovery and carbohydrate feeding in both limbs (p < 0.05), but it was 22% higher in the heated limb compared with the control limb (p < 0.05).

Why this is useful for you:

For anyone who has to compete or perform at a high level within 24 hours of their last workout, a 22% improvement in exercise recovery is a big deal, and thus heat should be part of your exercise recovery plan in these situations.

Now, not every study has found these results.

One particular study had cyclists perform exercise is 32 degree heat, then recover in either 32 degree heat or in 22 degree heat, and in this instance, the recovery in the heat saw blunted glycogenesis. However, this may be due to the elevated temperature throughout the exercise period as well as the recovery.

In fact, the ideal glycogen recovery situation may be one that provides for a cool core and a warm muscle. This could be accomplished with heating pads, or possibly continued low intensity exercise.

The bottom line is temperature exposure is a variable of recovery that must be considered, and it times when you have to compete in multiple events in a short period of time, heat could be a way to help you recovery faster.

BP

Häggström, Mikael (2014).Glycogen Structure. “Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 2002-4436. Public Domain.

Have you ever wondered how and why your body regulates how much you eat and how much you weigh?

It’s a really interesting question and one I think we’ve been looking at backwards for far too long.

We know that our bodies have internal ways to regulate how much we eat, and it seems that the main drive behind how much we eat (beyond taste and social issues) is our bodies attempting to maintain an ideal amount of body fat.

Which begs the question… ideal for what??

Traditionally, we’ve said it’s for ‘energy storage,’ allowing us to have enough body fat to get us through a famine…

Yet, a 170-pound man with 10% body fat has enough body fat to last well over a month without eating at all, which makes this seem like a strange reason to continue to store copious amounts of body fat.

It also doesn’t really explain the large amount of variability when it comes to the different body fat levels.

Why do some people easily maintain a body fatness of around 10% body fat, while others maintain at over 50%?

Instead, what I’m going to argue is that we optimized our body fat for temperature, or more precisely our ability to thermoregulate in a given ambient temperature, and I’ll tell you why I’m making this argument.

How Does Temperature Affect How Much We Eat?

To start, when it comes to the ‘energy in’ side of the equation, we can only control how much we eat at a meal, and how often we eat meals.

To accomplish this, our brains receive continuous information about energy stores and energy fluxes in critical organs as well as information about food that is being eaten and absorbed, and about basal and situational energy needs.

Let’s start with the regulations of how much we eat at any given meal…

When we think about how much we eat at any given meal, we know that our meals end long before any physical limit of the stomach is reached.

In other words, we get full, yet if someone forced us, we could keep eating…

This happens because during meals, signaling molecules such as cholecystokinin and PPY are released and cause us to feel full and thus stop eating.

Their secretion tends to be proportional to the caloric content of meals, with larger meals eliciting a significantly larger response and thus a stronger feeling of being full.

Interestingly, you release less cholecystokinin and less PPY when you are in a cold environment. So you eat more in the cold, and you feel ‘less full’ because of the cold.

Conversely, you eat less and get fuller quicker in the heat.

This creates an interesting connection between how much you eat and the temperature you are exposed to.

However, there is another hormone that actually causes you to become hungry and to begin to eat; this hormone is ghrelin.

Fasting increases plasma ghrelin, and injecting people with ghrelin increases food intake.

Ghrelin is lower in the heat, and higher in the cold. So the drive to initiate eating is higher in the cold and lower in the heat.

This means that the current ambient temperature affects how much you eat and how often you eat on an acute level, which is excellent evidence that temperature plays a pivotal role in your overall levels of body fat.

Does Body Fat Determine How Much We Eat?

However, your body fat levels also play a role in how much you eat. Your body and your body fat produce signaling hormones that provide your brain with an ongoing signal that is in direct proportion to total body fat.

These signals are insulin and leptin.

Insulin is secreted in basal amounts throughout the day, with large spikes occurring during meals, and both components of total insulin secretion (i.e. basal and meal-stimulated) are directly proportional to body fat levels.

Leptin is secreted in direct proportion to total body fat levels, following a diurnal pattern with less direct connection to meals than insulin.

Intriguingly, both basal insulin and leptin levels are influenced by ambient temperature, effectively muting the signal when you are cold, and turning up the signal when you are hot.

More direct evidence that your body fat and how much you eat is directly related to the ambient temperature of your environment.

The other evidence we have is animals who live in the cold have higher metabolic rates, higher activity levels, yet higher body fat and body mass than those that live in the warmth.

This suggests that fluctuations in body fat may be tied to changes in temperature exposure, and not just to protect us from famine.

The bottom line is temperature matters.

BP

Firstly, let me be clear – Diets work.

Saying anything less is disingenuous.

They may not work as well as we would hope, but they absolutely work.

All those ‘Diets Don’t Work’ headlines are nothing more than clickbait.

However, there is a problem with diets… and that problem is what happens after the diet.

At any given time, more than a third of Americans are on some sort of diet.

Sadly, most are going to be disappointed, because even when successful (which is rare), most of the weight they lose will be regained within a few months after the diet ends.

And this really shouldn’t be surprising.

After all, If you think about it, this is what most bodybuilders, movie stars and fitness influencers do. They lose weight, get in great shape, take a bunch of pictures, then gain some of the weight back while they live a somewhat normal life…. We just only focus on the ‘inshape pics,’ forgetting that they spend much of their time in shape, but not photo-level in shape.

Even when research studies confine study subjects to a highly controlled research setting — with carefully-controlled calories, exact food types, and measured amounts of physical activity, and even with intensive monitoring, any weight lost tends to reappear soon after the study ends.

The weight comes back when the food comes Back.

This isn’t a secret. Not by any means.

In a large systematic review recently published in the British Medical Journal, researchers analyzed 121 research studies that examined nearly 22,000 overweight or obese adults who followed one of 14 popular diets, including the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, DASH, and the Mediterranean diet, for an average of six months.

To be frank, the results were underwhelming.

While the diets, no matter if they were low-carbohydrate, low-fat, or low calorie, all resulted in weight loss of about 10 pounds after six months, most of the lost weight was regained within one year.

The question is why? Why does the weight come back?

Yet, it’s not just that the weight comes back, it’s that it comes back with a vengeance.

There is evidence showing that, in a way, diets are actually making us fatter.

So yes, diets work in the short term, but if done improperly (more on this in a minute), then they may predispose you to gaining body fat.

Since the early 1990s, there have been more than 15 prospective studies, conducted over anywhere from 1 to 15 years, that have suggested that dieting to lose weight is associated with future weight gain and obesity.

It should be noted that in some of the above-mentioned studies where body composition was assessed, the amount of fat gained after dieting was greater than the amount of overall weight that was gained.

This suggests that fat-free mass (FFM) or Lean Mass was still not fully recovered.

This may be our clue into not only why ‘diets’ don’t work, but why we gain more weight after we have dieted.

The problem is as you lose weight, especially when you lose weight without weight training, you lose body fat, which is a major source of insulation, and you also lose lean body mass, a major source of heat production.

(You can think of your body fat as insulation and your lean mass as your ‘furnace.’)

The end result of a diet then could be not only less insulation but also less heat production.

This is by no means ideal, especially if you do not alter your environment or behaviour to address this change in thermoregulation.

After all, you had the amount of body fat and lean body mass that you had because they were the optimal amount to keep you at the optimal temperature given your environment.

Then, without changing your environment, you forcefully overrode your body’s attempt to maintain these optimal levels in order to change the level of fat mass you have, and accidentally your lean mass.

This does not please your body… and it needs to be fixed. Quickly.

The problem is, we build lean mass very slowly

And we can store fat much quickly and easily than we can rebuild lost lean body mass.

Furthermore, muscle mass doesn’t really increase in adults without some form of strength and conditioning, so if you lose muscle mass during a diet this loss can last for a long period of time if you are not regularly exercising.

So when we diet, we lose our insulation and some of our ‘furnace’ (our lean body mass), but we don’t really change our environment (temperature of our home) or our behaviours (how much clothes we wear), resulting in a massive drive to regain our equilibrium between our internal temperature and the external temperature.

The drives become a strong desire to eat and a strong metabolic drive to store.

Only since the furnace is now smaller, we have no choice but to add more insulation than we had before in order to reach our new optimal equilibrium.

And here is where the slippery slope begins.

If after dieting and then resuming normal eating, you become unhappy with the way your body looks, you might decide to diet again, losing fat and lean body mass, ultimately you will make the situation worse.

So what’s the solution?

Firstly and most importantly – IF you’re going to diet, you MUST do some form of resistance training.

This is essential.

It will help preserve your Lean Mass, and to build it back after a diet.

Secondly, you must alter your environment.

You absolutely must stay warm while giving your body a chance to build back its lost LBM.

Turn up the heat in your home slightly, wear an extra layer or two, sauna when you can. Stay active, generate heat, and eat (digesting creates heat) and of course continue to do resistance exercises to build back your internal furnace.

When in doubt, stay warm.

BP

Typically, when we talk about ways to increase Growth Hormone levels we discuss fasting, sleep and exercise. However temperature, and specifically HEAT can also play important roles in increasing your Growth Hormone levels.

Let’s start with Exercise:

Growth Hormone is known to increase following endurance and resistance training workouts in both men and women, young and old.

And, while the role that growth hormone plays in muscle growth remains in debate, its role in fat loss is undeniable.

Growth Hormone release is an ESSENTIAL part of your body’s ability to mobilize your body fat stores so they can be used as fuel.

Interestingly, regardless of exercise intensity, exercising in the cold has been shown to reduce and delay the typical GH response to exercise, leading to the speculation that the increase in core temperature may be the more important regulator of growth hormone release.

Also people who are Highly Heat Tolerant tend to have an exercise induced increase in growth hormone that is significantly more pronounced than people who are not as heat tolerant.

Based on this, it seems that the heat created by exercise may be what initiated the increase in Growth Hormone levels.

In fact, Heat alone is able to increase Growth Hormone levels as shown with the GH response to Sauna use. Interestingly, this effect is more pronounced in younger people, but is still evident in older populations.

Also acute cold exposure created by sitting in a 10 degree (50 Fahrenheit) room for 2 hours caused an 87% decrease in Growth Hormone levels, suggesting that cold exposure alone can decrease GH levels.

This is important because it suggests that heat may be an interesting way for people who cannot exercise to still increase their Growth Hormones periodically throughout the week.

Instead of exercising with enough intensity to raise GH levels 3 to 4 times per week, people who cannot exercise could attempt to sauna 3 to 4 times per week to get an occasional spike in Growth Hormone levels.

Finally, I think it’s really important to note how cold exposure can blunt the GH release caused by exercise, raising questions about the use of cold baths post exercise.

BP

To learn more about how heat can help you lose body fat, check out my new book here ==> The Book on Heat

FURTHER READING:

Leppäluoto J, Korhonen I, Huttunen P, Hassi J. Serum levels of thyroid and adrenal hormones, testosterone, TSH, LH, GH and prolactin in men after a 2-h stay in a cold room. Acta Physiol Scand. 1988 Apr;132(4):543-8.

Wheldon A, Savine RL, Sönksen PH, Holt RI. Exercising in the cold inhibits growth hormone secretion by reducing the rise in core body temperature. Growth Horm IGF Res. 2006 Apr;16(2):125-31.

Niess AM, Feherenbach E, Roecker K, Lehmann R, Opavsky L, Dickhuth HH. Individual differences in self-reported heat tolerance. Is there a link to the cardiocirculatory, thermoregulatory and hormonal response to endurance exercise in heat? J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2003 Sep;43(3):386-92.

Leppäluoto J, Tapanainen P, Knip M. Heat exposure elevates plasma immunoreactive growth hormone-releasing hormone levels in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1987 Nov;65(5):1035-8.

Allen’s Rule is almost wholly dependent on environmental temperature; that is, a secondary growth response in mammals to help maintain constant core body temperatures, and is not a result of nutrition or exercise practices of the animals in question.

Allen’s Rule also makes itself apparent very quickly.

When researcher Maria A. Serrat housed mice at cold (7 °C), room temperature (21 °C), or warm (27 °C) ambient temperatures from weaning through maturity (3.5–12 weeks age), it was confirmed that the ears, limbs, and tails of the mice kept in the warmth were significantly longer than those of siblings raised in the cold, but with no change in total body mass.

Differences in core organ size appeared to account for the latter—hearts and kidneys were enlarged in cold-reared mice so they weighed as much as the warm-reared mice.

Most interesting was that the differences in limb length were not explainable by difference in diet and/or activity level, because cold-reared mice consumed substantially more food and were more active than their warm and control counterparts.

Yet the bones of the warm mice were in fact larger than the bones of the cold mice.

This has a few very interesting applications, starting with osteoporosis…

Osteoporosis is the most prevalent metabolic bone disease in the world, with one third of postmenopausal women affected. It is characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration, leading to weaker bones and an increased risk of fractures.

In humans, populations under chronic cold exposure generally exhibit an overall lower bone density and cortical thickness as well as accelerated rates of bone loss during aging, when compared to populations in warmer living areas.

Further studies have found cold-dwelling humans have lower cortical thickness and bone mineral density as well as accelerated bone loss with aging, showing that prolonged exposure to low temperature is deleterious to overall skeletal health and to bone mass.

Conversely, warm temperature exposure seems to be able to improve bone mass.

This research is early, and has mostly been completed in animal models, but it does hold promise as a non-invasive way to hold off, or at least lesson, the bone density losses we typically see with aging.

For more information on the health benefits of heat exposure, please check out The Book on Heat.

BP

It has been a great year for Eat Stop Eat.

Lots of people tried this way of life, and almost as many fell in love with its simplicity and effectiveness.

And, I heard from a lot of people following Eat Stop Eat…

Almost 10,000 emails about Eat Stop Eat, and over 1,000 comments on this blog.

From all of these emails and comments, what I find the most interesting is the number one complaint I get about the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle:

“Do I really have to drink my coffee black??”

This is the biggest push back I get.

I tell people not to eat for 24 hours, to only go to the gym to build muscle, to avoid OCD eating, to avoid doing cardio (unless they enjoy it) and to drink calorie-free beverages like water and black coffee during their fasts…and it’s the black coffee that get people all riled up!

Go Figure.

Interestingly this causes me to ask the following question:

“If it is the caffeine in coffee that we are addicted to…why do we seem to be much more addicted to the cream and sugar than the actual caffeine?”

If the recommendation in Eat Stop Eat was to drink decaf coffee, and that you could have cream and sugar… I doubt anyone would complain.

So here’s my message for today. You are allowed to have vices…we all have them (mine are coffee and ice cream).

We are also allowed to have quirks (I drink apple juice out of a cappuccino cup every morning..it makes me feel sophisticated).

The important thing is to recognize the true reason behind our vices and our quirks and to make sure they don’t lead to overeating.

Eat in a way that you enjoy.. but be honest with yourself about the reasons behind your vices and quirks.

This one simple step can help you identify the little things in  your life that cause you to overeat.

BP

I often get asked my opinion on the optimal length of a fast, unfortunately I don’t ever have a clear answer.

To be honest, a 24-hour fast isn’t THAT much better than a 20-hour fast, in the same way that a 20-hour fast isn’t THAT much better than a 16-hour fast, which of course isn’t THAT much better than a 12-hour fast. However, this doesn’t mean that a 12-hour and 24-hour fast are basically equal.

The same logic can be applied to longer fasts that go beyond 24 hours.

The way I see it, the optimal length of fast is largely dependent on what you are expecting that particular fast to do for you.

If you were to try and find an optimal fast length based on fat burning, or autophagy, or Growth Hormone response or insulin levels, they all might have answers that are close to one another, but they probably won’t be exactly the same. And the answer you find may not be optimal for you and your current lifestyle.

In other words, it simply may not “fit well” with you.

And herein lies the problem – There probably isn’t an exact optimal fast length that is right for everyone, every time.

So in the end what we’re left with is the basic idea of “taking a break from eating” as being the goal of our fasts – a way to reduce overall calorie intake and as a way to pause and then reset our daily eating habits.

A pattern interrupt of sorts that allows our bodies to take a break from eating and digesting, and that allows us to segment our eating periods down to manageable periods of a few days at a time.

So on any given fast, the right length is the length that allows you personally, at that specific time, to reach these goals. For me, sometimes it’s 24-hour fast and other times (when I’m in a really good flow) 20 hours may be optimal.

Looking back, I think the idea of “Interrupt, Pause, Reset” is maybe the most important aspect of this style of fasting. It reinforces the idea that with Eat Stop Eat it is still about eating, and the fasting is a way to balance out our eating, rather than a way to get rid of it completely, or to push it into a small little window.

Interrupt, Pause, Reset.

BP