Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat Review

TLDR: Fasting allows you to tap into your fat stores quicker and more frequently

Many people hold too much body fat, and fail to lose any substantial amount of fat by using ‘diets’ that are not scientifically backed. Brad Pilon believes that a fat loss diet should adhere to 2 principles: prolonging calorie restriction, and prolonging fasting state.

The first principle is simple enough, by the laws of thermodynamics, a person eating less than what he expends will result in a net loss of energy stores (aka fat stores). The second principle, however, needs some explaining.

Looking back at our hunter-gatherer history, humans are meant to go through prolonged states of fasting followed by short periods of feasting to live. However, with the abundance and convenience of meals, we have started to eat more frequently, no longer in the fasting state that is beneficial for fat loss. Generally, consistently eating elevates insulin levels in the blood, which signals for storage and dampens the signal for fat consumption.

Moreover, fasting while exercising allows the body to tap into the fat stores quicker, as the extended fast beforehand has already brought insulin levels lower. The other benefit of fasting is the increased secretion of growth hormone and increased gene expression of UCP3, both beneficial for fat loss.

In a nutshell, the diet is basically eating normally 5 to 6 days a week, then fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week on non-consecutive days. By doing this, a substantial amount of calorie reduction is created, with all the health benefits of fasting compared to simply reducing calories daily.

Pros:

  • No brainer diet that is easy to set up and follow
  • Fat loss goal-driven

Cons:

  • The argument about fasting-feeding style dieting and its relations to our ancestors is a bit iffy; just because it is how our ancestors ate is not a good reason for why we should follow them, I don’t recall our ancestors trying to get down to 8% bodyfat

GET IT HERE

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