Book review: Eat Stop Eat

I have had this e-book on my laptop for the last year and I finally came around to reading it.

The basic idea behind Eat Stop Eat is to introduce intermittent fasting one to two times, to your weekly eating schedule. Each intermittent fast last a 24h period.

Brad Pilon (author) first dispels the need of constant eating, and points to the fact that the marketing of the food industry has lead us to believe many myths like that fasting is bad for your body and metabolism, because if your fasting, you’re not eating, and if you’re not eating, you’re not buying someone’s food product.


Pilon states that On top of that, 10 billion U.S. dollars per year goes into the advertising and promotion of this food.

I like this quote from the book:

"This is why the food and nutrition industry is willing to suggest many different theories on how to lose weight, as long as it means we continue buying and consuming foods. Think of all the diet suggestions you know. They all rely on the continued intake of food. Eat six small meals a day. Eat high protein. Eat breakfast (It’s the most important meal of the day). Eat cereal. Eat high calcium. Eat whole wheat. Take diet pills. Whatever the recommendation, it always revolves around making sure that the population is continuously consuming food and food supplements.

Pilon states that there is two absolute truths when it comes to nutrition and weight loss.

1)Prolonged caloric restriction is the only proven nutritional method of
weight loss

and

2) Human beings (nutritionally speaking) can only be in one of the following
states: Fed or fasted.

Pilon calls this fed and fasted state, the yin and yang of nutrition. Pilon says that nearly everyone is in a constant fed state. This doesn’t allow us to burn off the food we have already store.

Pilons dispells the belief that fasting is bad for your body (muscle mass) and metabolism, and in fact goes on to show the many health benefits that happen from intermittent fasting. Such as:

•Decreased body fat & body weight
• Maintenance of skeletal muscle mass
• Decreased blood glucose levels
• Decreased insulin levels & increased insulin sensitivity
• Increased lipolysis & fat oxidation
• Increased Uncoupling Protein 3 mRNA
• Increased norepinephrine & epinephrine levels
• Increased Glucagon levels
• Increased growth hormone levels.
• Decreased food related stress

Pilon goes on to say that once you are involved in some from of resistance training at least 2-3 times a week that you will at the very least maintain (if not slightly increase) your muscle mass.

I find this sort e-book to be a very interesting read.

Stay Strong,
RB