Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss: The Eat-Stop-Eat Diet Explained - Empowered Beyond Weight Loss (2023)

FAQs

What is the eat stop eat method of intermittent fasting? ›

Eat-Stop-Eat: This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day. The 5:2 diet: With this method, you consume only 500–600 calories on two nonconsecutive days of the week, but eat normally the other 5 days.

According to Brad's website, Eat Stop Eat consists of fasting for 24 hours, twice a week, then eating "responsibly" for the remaining five days, but not necessarily "dieting." He writes, "You can have three meals per day or 20.

Eat Stop Eat works like any other intermittent fasting method. By applying the broad brush rule of “no food for X period of time” (in this case 24 hours, twice a week), Eat Stop Eat naturally reduces the amount of calories you eat overall. According to Pilon, just one 24 hour fast could create a 10% calorie deficit.

Traditional Nutrition knowledge will give you a very mathematical answer. It will go along the lines of this: "If you are in a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day with Intermittent Fasting, then you will achieve one pound weight loss per week. At this rate, you will achieve 4-5 pounds of weight loss in one month."

In the case of Intermittent fasting, skipping your dinner is better and easier. You can have your dinner either early or have a heavy snack and can begin your fasting. Research suggests that fasting in the evening and overnight, then eating early in the morning is the better way to follow this diet to lose weight.

Many people find the 16/8 method to be the simplest, most sustainable and easiest to stick to. It's also the most popular. There are several different ways to do intermittent fasting. All of them split the day or week into eating and fasting periods.

If you're using intermittent fasting to improve your gut health and symptoms, you may notice benefits after just a few days. For weight loss and improved metabolic health, it could take a month.

Consider a simple form of intermittent fasting.

Limit the hours of the day when you eat, and for best effect, make it earlier in the day (between 7 am to 3 pm, or even 10 am to 6 pm, but definitely not in the evening before bed). Avoid snacking or eating at nighttime, all the time.

As a guideline, you should stop eating two to three hours before bed. This will give your body enough time to digest your food, lowering your chances of acid reflux and digestive issues keeping you up.

Fasting 2 days a week can help obese people keep off the weight with modest results, study finds. The 5:2 diet, a type of intermittent fasting, is no more effective than traditional approaches to weight loss, according to what researchers said was the first study of the regimen in a “real-life setting.”

Can you drink water while intermittent fasting? ›

However, water doesn't affect blood sugar or insulin levels. Therefore, you can safely drink it while intermittent fasting. In fact, it's recommended to drink water to help you stay hydrated during an intermittent fast.

To prevent excessive muscle loss, the body begins to rely on fat stores to create ketones for energy, a process known as ketosis. During the first 5 days without food, a person may lose 1 to 2 kilograms (2.2 to 4.4 pounds) of body weight each day.

5:2 Intermittent Fasting. Weight loss studies surrounding intermittent fasting have typically investigated the 5:2 diet or alternate-day fasting interventions lasting three to six months. The research revealed that it takes four to six months to lose 20 pounds with no change in diet.

“Depending on the calorie amount you consume while intermittent fasting, you could experience an approximate one- to two- pound weight loss per week, which would mean it could take upwards of eight to 10 weeks to notice significant weight loss,” says Kristen Smith, MS, RD, spokesperson for Academy of Nutrition and ...

People who do alternate-day fasting usually lose about 10 to 30 pounds over a three-to-six-month period, says Varady.

Intermittent fasting is a convenient way to lose weight without counting calories. Many studies show that it can help you lose weight and belly fat.

Can You Drink Coffee While Intermittent Fasting? The short answer is yes, you can drink coffee while intermittent fasting. But, this answer comes with a big caveat: You can drink black coffee while intermittent fasting, but coffee drinks with cream, sugar, or other forms of calories technically break your fast.

Carbohydrates and protein

Upma, quinoa or oats with lots of nuts, seeds and Greek yoghurt is great for this. “[Eating] complex carbs and nuts together provides both instant and long lasting energy, while the protein helps to build muscle,” explains the nutritionist.

After the first week of intermittent fasting, you'll probably notice less bloating and a tighter, slimmer look and feel to your midsection. Some people will enjoy some weight loss by week two, but don't be discouraged if your weight scale hasn't budged. Continue for another 4-6 weeks, and you should see changes.

The three popular approaches to intermittent fasting are:

Usually, the small meal is fewer than 500 calories. Eat a normal diet five days a week and fast two days per week.

What can I drink in the morning while intermittent fasting? ›

No food is allowed during the fasting period, but you can drink water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages. Some forms of intermittent fasting allow small amounts of low-calorie foods during the fasting period.

So, can you have a cheat day while intermittent fasting? Yes, absolutely. An occasional cheat day will not hinder your weight-loss progress if you do it right. In fact, it's scientifically proven that intentional cheat days can even enhance your metabolism [1].

You can repeat this cycle as frequently as you'd like — from just once or twice per week to every day, depending on your preference. The popularity of this fasting method has grown widely among those looking to lose weight and burn fat.

How Long Does Intermittent Fasting Take To Show Results? You might begin to first notice a difference in your body about 10 days after you begin intermittent fasting. It could take between 2-10 weeks for you to lose significant weight. You might lose up to a pound each week.

The truth about lemon water and intermittent fasting

Lemon water contains almost no calories and zero sugars, it doesn't raise insulin levels, which means it will not break your fast (1). So we can conclude that it is absolutely safe for fasting to drink lemon water.

What is 'fasting' and how does it work? A good rule of thumb for those wanting to fast to improve their metabolic and overall health is to leave at least 12 hours between meals – ideally more – on a regular basis, according to Dr Adam Collins, Principal Teaching Fellow in Nutrition at the University of Surrey.

Experts say that having a late-night meal keeps the body on 'high alert' at a time where it should be winding down, which can have dangerous implications for our health. Researchers have now said that we should never eat within two hours of our bedtime, and ideally, nothing after 7pm.

Going to bed hungry can be safe as long as you're eating a well-balanced diet throughout the day. Avoiding late-night snacks or meals can actually help avoid weight gain and an increased BMI. If you're so hungry that you can't go to bed, you can eat foods that are easy to digest and promote sleep.

Besides the extra calories, eating too close to bedtime can have other health implications such as digestive issues. When sleeping, our digestion naturally slows down as our metabolism enters a resting state. Lying down in bed immediately after eating can lead to symptoms such as indigestion, acid reflux and heartburn.

Who should not do intermittent fasting? ›

Some people should steer clear of trying intermittent fasting: Children and teens under age 18. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. People with type 1 diabetes who take insulin.

Unfortunately, no. While you do lose weight when you consume fewer calories than you burn, losing fat, especially visceral fat, requires a combination of diet and exercise, particularly muscle-strengthening exercises.

The 5:2 diet is actually very simple to explain. For five days per week, you eat normally and don't have to think about restricting calories. Then, on the other two days, you reduce your calorie intake to a quarter of your daily needs. This is about 500 calories per day for women, and 600 for men.

Especially when doing intermittent fasting, a well hydrated body (meaning drinking more than the minimum amount!) is an important key to success! That is why you should pay attention to drink at least 85 fl. oz (2.5 liters) a day.

Is chewing gum or drinking coffee acceptable at any time of the day while on an intermittent fasting diet? Because both gum and coffee have minimal (if any) calories it is often considered acceptable to consume either of these in conjunction with water during your fast.

Like all produce, lemons contain phytonutrients, which protect your body against disease. These phytonutrients have powerful antioxidant properties, which prevent cell damage from oxidation, the same mechanism that causes rust. Juice half a lemon into your water and you'll add a mere 6 calories to your diet.

You may experience some fatigue and feelings of weakness, lightheadedness, slowness or lack of motivation throughout a prolonged fast, especially in the first few days. Fatigue in particular is normal as your body adapts to this period of low calorie intake.

The Research So Far. A systematic review of 40 studies found that intermittent fasting was effective for weight loss, with a typical loss of 7-11 pounds over 10 weeks.

Start with a small fasting window and work your way up from there. If you normally eat within a 12 hour window, move it up to 14 hours at first. Ultimately work yourself up to a window that works best for you. I feel my best with a 16-20 hour fasting window 4-5 days a week and a 24 hour window one day a week.

How fast can I realistically lose 20 pounds? ›

“A generally accepted rate of healthy weight loss is a half-pound to one-pound per week. So, budget five-to-six months to achieve a 20-pound weight loss,” she says. McAllistre explains that losing weight slowly helps you keep the weight off.

A combination of fasting and frequent high-protein meals may help burn fat, new evidence suggests. People on that diet lost more weight than those who just counted calories, researchers found. They also burned significantly more fat, including belly fat, while maintaining lean body mass.

It will go along the lines of this: "If you are in a calorie deficit of 500 calories per day with Intermittent Fasting, then you will achieve one pound weight loss per week. At this rate, you will achieve 4-5 pounds of weight loss in one month."

When trying to lose weight you must start exercising studies show that even walking a few times a week can help burn the extra calories that you want to burn. 30 + minutes a day is the best way to lose 7 lb in 2 weeks. If you can't find 30 minutes try splitting it up into two 15-minute periods of exercise per day.

As part of a 2019 study, researchers followed 19 adults with metabolic syndrome whose meals were spread over a 14-hour window and found limiting meals to a 10-hour window (followed by 14 hours of fasting) was associated with weight loss, smaller waist circumference, lower blood pressure and LDL “bad” cholesterol.

Put simply, when people practice intermittent fasting without exercising, they are losing weight, but much of it often comes from the muscle in the lean mass.

If you don't eat for 10–16 hours, your body will go to its fat stores for energy, and fatty acids called ketones will be released into the bloodstream. This has been shown to protect memory and learning functionality, says Mattson, as well as slow disease processes in the brain.

With time-restricted intermittent eating, you don't eat any food while fasting and only consume drinks with very few calories, such as water or black, unsweetened coffee and tea. During the periods when you do eat, try to follow a healthy diet rich in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and lean protein.

On the 16:8 diet, you spend 16 hours of each day consuming nothing but unsweetened beverages like water, coffee, and tea. The remaining eight-hour window is when you eat all of your meals and snacks.

Try balancing each meal with a wide variety of whole foods, such as: Fruits: apples, bananas, berries, oranges, peaches, pears, tomatoes, etc. Veggies: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cucumbers, leafy greens, etc.

Can I eat eggs while intermittent fasting? ›

During the fasting period, you can have hard-boiled eggs, vegetables, fruits and non-calorie beverages such as water. The idea is to snack on these low-calorie foods to help you get through the day, but not to overindulge.

A banana eaten on its own provides essentially zero protein and fat and very little fiber. For this reason, I typically don't recommend breaking a fast with a banana when eaten by itself.

The truth about lemon water and intermittent fasting

Long story short - the answer to the question “Does lemon water break a fast?” is no, lemon water does not break a fast. Lemon water contains almost no calories and zero sugars, it doesn't raise insulin levels, which means it will not break your fast (1).

Intermittent fasting is a convenient way to lose weight without counting calories. Many studies show that it can help you lose weight and belly fat.

The short answer is yes, you can drink coffee while intermittent fasting. But, this answer comes with a big caveat: You can drink black coffee while intermittent fasting, but coffee drinks with cream, sugar, or other forms of calories technically break your fast.