If you think about it carefully, EatStopEat is basically 5:2 with a single meal at dinner time.

Example:
5:2: Last meal Sunday evening, fast all day Monday.Then 500 kcal dinner. Do it twice a week. Since we do not usually eat during our sleep, we have a 24 hour period without food.

ESE: Last meal Sunday dinner, then 24 hour fast. Monday evening “normal” dinner. Do it twice a week. Brad Pilon suggests normal size meals, which for most people will be 400 – 600 kcal.

Summary: in both cases Sunday evening dinner, then fast until Monday dinner with ca. 500 kcal. If you look around the forums here you will find that most people fasting for health benefits go for a single meal on a fast day, as do those who get very hungry once they start to eat.

be careful with this diet. The truth is that it’s very possible to GAIN weight on eat stop eat. Even author Brad Pilon talks about it in his article – http://eatstopeat.us/can-you-gain-weight-while-you-fast/

And remember that fasting is not magic!

HI, simcoeluv

Yes, exactly.

Hi Jo and welcome:

If you eat your TDEE or more before 6 pm, and eat your TDEE or more after 6 pm the next day, you will not lose weight despite your 24 hours of ‘fasting’. That means you will have to count calories and eat less than your TDEE four days a week, minimum, if you want to lose weight.

Research has proven that time between meals is irrelevant for weight loss, and there is no research that proves time between meals is otherwise beneficial (although many seem to believe it is). See number 6 in this post for more information (and my 3 Jan 15 post in that number 6 thread): https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Hi all,

I’m an avid reader but this is my first post on the forum! I have been on and off the 5:2 for more than 18 months now (breaking for holidays, last minute celebrations/outings or illness). It has definitely helped me lose and keep off upward of 5kg.

I have not lost any weight for over 5 months now but I am keeping up the 5:2 to maintain my current weight. I am certainly not over or under weight. Average and healthy BMI of 20.3.

However, I have recently started to really, really struggle. I feel weak, lightheaded and shaky on my fast days. It may be that I have increased exercise (although I never fast and exercise on the same day).

This has led me to think about doing the 24 hour fast, or the Eat Stop Eat.

I totally get what keef66 and Dummerchen are saying about fast from Sunday evening to Monday evening (500 cal meal) and then fast & sleep 12 hours till Tuesday morning – the ESE and 36 hour fast are exactly the same in that sense.

But what if I was to stop eating after Monday lunch and break my fast at Tuesday lunch time? Do you think this would give me more fuel during the day and stop my attacks of “weakness”? And how would it affect my weekly calorie intake/deficit? I can’t see to figure it out!

Sorry, this evidently proves that I’m terrible at maths!

Any advice or help would be REALLY appreciated.

I’m guessing you only drink water during your 24 hour fasts? I work out 6 days a week and can not stand the thought of missing my protein shake before and after my weight routine. Any suggestions? Maybe make it a 6/1 and make the one day fast on my day off????

I am a bit confused by this. I understand that 5.2 means not eating more than 500/600 calories 2 days a week but at the same time not going over your TDEE on the other 5 days. It shouldn’t make any difference to your weight loss in the long run whether you have all your calories in one sitting or spread over the day. The weight loss comes from restricting your total calorie intake for the week, not what time of day you eat. Personally I tend to have all my calories in the evening, but during the winter months, when it is cold, I have soup at lunchtime and something in the evening.

Hi Lucylaw thanks for that explanation. As you say everyone’s body is different. I must not have high insulin then as I am losing, on average .75 lb to 1 lb per week by following the 5.2 as it was originally written i.e. eat 500 calories 2 days a week (at any time of the day) and eat normally the other 5 days. From reading these forums I know lots of people do pure water fasts etc and have modified 5.2 to suit their needs and that is the great thing about this WOL, it can be adapted to suit oneself 🙂

Hi Everyone,

I started my eat stop eat diet exactly a year ago. I usually wake up at around 7am, take kids to school by 8am, and drive myself to work. I would have lunch at 1pm, very light, 600 calories or so, mostly salads and sometimes sandwich. Then I would have dinner at 8pm, very light, sometimes just banana and apple. When I started I was 96kg, I am 180cm. Usually Monday and Thursday I wouldn’t eat anything. I would fast from Sunday 8pm to Monday 8pm, and on Monday evening I would just have 2 poached eggs and some ham. I was doing this for 12 weeks and I lost 4kg. Than I started running 3km a day in the morning, every day except the Mondays and Thursdays when I was fasting. In those 12 weeks I lost 7kg. For the last 24-26 weeks I was fasting just one day in a week, Monday. The thing that I noticed I eat very little now, sometimes just a sandwich and banana for a whole day. I am 72kg and I run about 8km a day now (still don’t run on Mondays). Now I will start eating even on Mondays and increase my runs to 10km a day.

I lost 24kg, but the discipline was there, even when I was on Holidays I would still run and fast 2 days a week.

I am surprised how my body works now, I can seriously eat less than 1500 calories a day and have more energy than when I was eating 3,000+ calories a day.

My BMI now is 22, it used to be almost 30.

Oh yes, I forgot, I made one mistake, I was only drinking sparkling water and 2 weeks ago I had to take out kidney stone! I just couldn’t drink still water. My doctor says my stone either formed in the years when I used to drink Coke ever day (1,5 litre a day) or when I was drinking sparking water (2,5 litres a day).

I never thought I could lose weight. But if you can get a habit to eat less, I don’t think that one needs to fast even.

I’ve been maintaining my 5:2 weight loss for two years now. This year I’ve started doing one 24 hour fast per week or so, followed by a ‘normal’ evening meal. This obviously cuts calories (but not to quarter TDEE) but also results in a low insulin state for a number of hours. Having read Jason Fung’s The Obesity Code I’m even more convinced of the benefits not only of intermittent calorie restriction but also of extended fasting windows.

I’ve just started fasting using this method, mostly because it’s easy and I don’t have to worry about any food. I find it easier eating nothing as opposed to eating little bits of food throughout a day.

Twice a week, my last meal of the day is lunch. Then nothing until lunch the next day (save for tea and water). It’s easy because I sleep 9 hours of the fast away.

After about 20 hours I’m ready to quit, but I can usually hold out for a couple more.

So far it’s proving a nice process for me. I’m eating a lot less overall, it’s helped reset my hunger signals.

I’m intending to do this for another 4 weeks minimum, happy to update with progress if anyone is interested.

I’ve been doing the basic 5:2 for almost 13 weeks and have had dependable weight loss. I eat lots of carbs in the form of fruit and some bread. I never go more than 16 hours without eating and usually it’s more like 14 hours, overnight and into the morning. I always count calories for the 500 on FD’s and rarely count them on NFD. I probably go over my TDEE on most NFD’s because my TDEE is so low now, around 1400. I have no idea where my insulin levels are, only that they’re in normal range when I tested once per year.

Fasting for 24 hours would seem like a chore for me. That’s too long with just liquids. The 5:2 is fairly easy and I’m getting good results so I plan to stick with that.

I’ve actually read Brad Pilon’s “Eat Stop Eat” and several later books. When he wrote “Eat Stop Eat” he was primary still of the belief that is was just the calories that mattered. He was also concerned about the effects of fasting while doing hard workouts. His views have changed since then although he still really likes the 24 hour fasts. My take is if that approach allows one to get more pure fasting time, then go for it.

He is now very much in the camp that what type of foods are eaten being more important than the actual calories. In his “Good Belly Bad Belly” book he focuses on gut health and form that perspective even believe it is better to drink orange juice with a heavy greasy meal because it reduces endotoxins and is better for your gut regardless of the sugar in the juice. Although in general he is in the sugar isn’t good for you camp. He also believes many eat too much protein. Basically he spends his time studying research being done and writes books about it for a living. His books aren’t free but they aren’t horribly priced, he just sell publishes. You pay and download a pdf of the book.

Some points:
* Meal timing isn’t a major factor if you are eating, however it is a HUGE factor when fasting. Basically the longer you can go without eating the better. Tiny amounts of food can stop things like HGH production, even if it doesn’t impact your insulin levels. However once you are eating that is no longer a factor.

* Fasting does put some strain on you body so it is even more important to eat healthy foods if you are fasting. While I’m a long ways away from believing it is just about the calories, calories are a factor so don’t waste them on things that don’t give back to your body. The body needs fiber and it doesn’t need empty calories.

* Exercise creates additional demands on your body and can increase your protein requirements. However one only has to have just enough nutrition to build muscles, throwing more at it has only marginal benefits for people that don’t live in the gym.

* Fasting helps many like myself listen too our bodies. It is surprising how much my body tells me when I’m willing to listen to it. However it takes time and practice to understand the signals.

Yep. Its very much what you eat and not just the calories. I can pretty much guarantee that if you ate 2000 calories worth of donuts for breakfast youd be “starving” by lunch time. Eat 2000 calories of broccoli (is that possible?) for breakfast youd not be starving by lunch time. Just ask the maintainers on this site what they do. I suspect the vast majority eat very little refined carbs and still practice fasting.

@dbd. Im pretty extreme in my views about what is a healthy diet. It tends to put some people offside with me. To those people all I can offer is to say, if its working for you then keep doing exactly the same. If its not working for you then change it up. I limit my processed grain based carbs to an absolute minimum. Low carb high fibre is a good thing. If it comes in a processed packet though Id have alarm bells rining in my head. I try and get the vast majority of my carbs from veggies (except potatoes). Locked up in fibre the carbs in veggies are taken up slowly. I use a few very simple rules: Try and avoid the central isles in a supermarket. If your grandmother wouldn’t recognise it as food don’t eat it. Don’t eat if youre not hungry. Avoid processed grain based products.

Ive arrived at my diet by some trial and error. I would have my bloods taken and then eat a fixed variety of foods for 6 months and then have my bloods taken again. If it worked I kept eating those foods. If it didn’t Id swap them out. Not really very astonishing but for me it was: No grain based products. No rice. Lots of veggies (except starchy veggie, I eat them very sparingly). Lots of legumes like beans peas and lentils. Some meat, fish, tuna, chicken. Some fruit, mostly berry type fruits and sour apples like granny smiths. I eat lots of nuts and seeds. Almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts. pumpkin seeds. Eat lots of different cheeses. Plain greek high fat low sugar yogurt. What’s basically missing is grain based products, sugar and alcohol. I need a real good reason to eat/drink those foods and its a very rare treat.

Good luck with it.

Agree with dykask about fruit juice. No go zone. Might as well be drinking sugar water. Ive measured the glucose response with a glucose meter and it sky rockets within minutes of ingestion. Its THAT fast. You want the benefits of fruit, eat fruit. It really is that simple. People tend to change their food intake for one day, it doesn’t agree with them and so they conclude that it doesn’t suit them. It takes several weeks to months for your gut bacteria to grow to sufficient levels to process different foods. Give it time. That’s why the tests I did were over 6 month periods.

If you drink you have to allow for it. Alcohol is 7 calories per gram. It must be processed by the liver and stored as fat. 2 x 200mL = 400 mL. So that about 280 grams. Lets say its 10% alcohol, so that’s 28 grams. 28 x 7 = 196 calories.

Ive been in maintenance since March 2016. Took me about a year to lose 48 lbs. 202 down to 154 lbs. I weigh what I used to weigh in my early 20s. Im 56 now. I used to water fast every Monday/Tuesday, so about 60 hours. I now water fast every Monday, so 36 hours. Took me 6 months before I found it easy. Its now ridiculously easy to fast. My liver flips over into ketosis after 24 hours. I measure this with a keto meter.

Sometimes I skip breakfast but not that often. My breakfast is greek yogurt, some almonds, pumpkin seeds and some berries. Sometimes I’ll have an apple and some almonds.

I lost a lot of weight (30 lbs.) just going low carb, high fat. After the initial big drop (over about 4 months), I stalled a bit, but after adding intermittent fasting have lost another 23. I really like fasting actually, and as long as I keep away from carbs I don’t have a lot of hunger. I have read the ESE protocol, and I think it really is similar to 5:2. read my story thetecnic.com