In this Eat Stop Eat review, I look back at my experience with Eat Stop Eat, what it is all about and how it worked out for me and others, and results we got from it.
What is Eat Stop Eat?
The program is based on intermittent fasting. It was created by Brad Pilon who’s been into body building since he was a teen and in the process has been researching on ways on how we are able to get rid of the fat and lose the extra weight we don’t want to have.
The program comes in the form of a downloadable PDF ebook. The book covers all the different details about the program as well as how to properly fast for weight loss. I encourage you to read through it because there’s a lot of scientific research and reasoning behind the process and Brad Pilon goes to lengths to explain the different nuisances of intermittent fasting.
Done incorrectly you could be starving yourself and depriving your body of enough nutrition. That’s why there’s a particular length of time set and what you should and shouldn’t do.
The Schedule
What happens in the E.S.E diet program is you choose a day or two during the week where you will do your fast. This fast will go for a good number of hours where you won’t eat and only drink non-caloric beverages. I was actually surprised how easy the day went even the first time I tried it. I guess that was because I was able to plan ahead thanks to the flexibility of the program.
- You get to choose when you want to start, it can be before or after breakfast, lunch or dinner, you get to choose. Also you choose on which day you want to do it.
- After the fasting window, you can eat a regular sized meal. Note that you shouldn’t go on an eating splurge or make up for the time your fasted.
- One the other days of the week you get to eat as you normally would. This makes the program unobtrusive since it doesn’t get in the way everyday.
- The final addition was to include regular exercise as you did E.S.E. Though there weren’t any tips, programs or rules to follow here.
Over the years, the program has been used as a base by other diet programs, one such example is Jason Ferruggia’s Renegade Diet, where part of the his system uses a method similar to the intermittent fasting introduced here.
My Eat Stop Eat Results
I’ve tried a lot of different diets over the years. I’d admit some were crazy, some were so difficult and some just weren’t practical. This one was one of the better ones in terms of my schedule. It did not get in the way of my daily life and schedules.
But I must admit that it isn’t made for everyone. Not everyone can go without eating food for long hours and would prefer eating smaller more limited portions throughout the day. If you fall under the latter then Eat Stop Eat isn’t for you. For me it worked just fine since I was used to eating later while I was at work so fasting for few hours wasn’t such a big deal. P I N K diet
During the two months I used the program, I lost close to 15 pounds. I’d have to admit that this isn’t the greatest results I’ve had but one thing I can say is that following the program and sticking to it was much easier than the others.
The other thing I enjoyed was I didn’t have to keep preparing meal plans and going through specific food lists when I was at the supermarket. I could eat the normal things I was used to and not deprive myself from the foods that I enjoyed eating.
The one last tip I would give is that you should always remember that this isn’t a short term sprint. It takes time to get the results and you will need to stick with the program for at least a few weeks. If you need to lose a lot of weight you’ll be using it for months and even beyond a year so discipline and following the rules is key.
Summary of My Review
The Drawbacks of E.S.E.
- I always believed that a good diet program was a combination of eating and exercise. Adding an exercise program or recommendations on how to go about it would be something I’d like to see.
- It isn’t for everyone. To do intermittent fasting, you need to be able to function with long hours of not having food. Some people prefer not going through this.
Things I Enjoyed About E.S.E.
- I enjoyed the simplicity of the program. The rules were simple so anyone could follow them and not get confused about things.
- You could eat regularly on other days. This made work or office meetings or times when you had to go to a restaurant much simpler. I didn’t need to change the meals I was eating on non-fasting days.
- The flexibility of the program made it much easier to insert into my lifestyle. There was no daily counting of calories, limiting of carbs, avoiding certain foods or anything else like that.
- There are no special meal planning or preparations needed. This was something I didn’t like doing. It often took more time and became a chore after a while.
- There is a lot of research based information in the book. You can jump straight into the rules, schedule for the results, but I found that spending time reading the why’s of the fasting and the reasons behind why Eat Stop Eat works really helps you understand what’s happening.
