Individuals who are curious about the Eat Stop Eat plan often ask whether it’s possible to gain weight while fasting.

The answer is yes.

Fasting is not magic, although it is a very effective way to create a calorie deficit and lose body fat.

Let’s say you’ve been gaining weight for the last couple months, and, through several scientific methods, we determined that you have been overeating by about 30%, which means you’re eating 30% more calories than you actually need to maintain your weight.

Because you’ve been gaining weight, you decide that it’s finally time to try the “Eat Stop Eat” diet that everyone else is talking about.

You fast twice a week, every week, for seven weeks – but in the end, you learn that you gained two pounds.

How could this be? Is Brad Pilon a liar? Is it a waste of time to fast? Is your metabolism ruined?

The answer is probably very simple.

The fasting might have actually worked incredibly well for you. The two fasts per week might have reduced the amount of calories you consume in a week by 22%. That’s a big drop, but it just isn’t enough.

If you had been overeating by 30%, a 22% decrease still means you’re eating about 8% more than you need to eat.

Fasting won’t work magic for you. The need to eat responsibly remains. You don’t have to avoid sugar or dairy products. You don’t even need to eat healthy (although it’s good to get a good variety of foods). In order to lose weight, you simply need to eat less.

Small changes are important.

Examine your diet and find small changes you could make that will cause big results. A few small changes should get you back into a caloric deficit and help you drop pounds.

It’s very easy to overeat. Some people overeat by thousands of calories every day. If fasting isn’t getting you the results you want, try studying the way you eat when you’re not fasting.

Small changes can have big results, especially if you’re already fasting.

It may not be great Eat Stop Eat marketing, and it’s definitely not some MSN style cure all weight loss technique (ice water anyone?), but it’s honest and it’s true.

I want to share some reader mail with you regarding using Eat Stop Eat to get six-pack abs.

“Hi Brad,

I Recently bought your book “Eat Stop Eat” and just started applying it by fasting once a week. I am not an obese person but have some fat around my gut.

Every week I exercise for 3 times using weights , swim for 30 min and skip rope for 30 min .

I also watch what I eat and monitor my weight. My One and only goal is to have a 6 Pack. I can feel I have it but the fat around my gut hide it from showing.

My Questions are:

1) Is a 6 pack reachable if I continue doing what I am doing ? Or is it that some people can never see their 6 Pack ever.

My Answer – A six-pack is definitely obtainable. I believe that everyone has the ability to have a six-pack, especially if they’re following Eat Stop Eat and weight training. But be patient. It will require some time and some changes to your current lifestyle.

2) Will your Eat Stop Eat plan help me in seeing my 6 Pack?

My Answer – It will help, as long as you are fasting, weight training, eating responsibly, and follow these five tips.

3) What’s the Body fat percentage that I must have in order to see my 6 pack.

My Answer – Air Displacement measurements show that men typically have visible abs when their body fat is under 10%. Some men have more or less subcutaneous fat covering their abs, though, so it depends on how you measure body fat and how you carry your fat.

4) How thick/thin does the fat around my gut need to be in order for me to see my 6 Pack?

My Answer – Here is a simple way for men to measure their body fat: Multiply your height in inches by 0.447. This is your ideal waist circumference – approximately 45% of your height. In order for you to have visible abs, you’ll need to have a waist circumference that is 46-47% of your height at the most.

5) I am afraid of taking any supplements. Can I reach my goal without taking any supplements ?

My Answer – It is completely possible for you to get six-pack without taking supplements.

6) I heard you have to take growth hormone while you are following Eat Stop Eat, is this true?

My Answer – This is not true at all. The Eat Stop Eat method naturally increases your Growth Hormone while you are fasting. You don’t have to take any drugs or supplements to make the plan work for you.

(As always, my answers apply to “natural” individuals, not to those who are taking steroids.)

Yesterday I released the newest version of Eat Stop Eat.

There’s a lot of new info in this edition, most notably the information on autophagy and gaining muscle while fasting.

So what’s the connection between autophagy and muscle?

Well, if you wanted to sum up weight training in one poorly written sentence it would be:

Breaking down muscle so that we can build it back up again.

I think most people understand this, but what gets very little attention is the role our diets play in this process.

Autophagy is the internal ‘maintenance system’  that your body uses to identify and discard the damaged or malfunctioning parts of a cell.

Simply put, autophagy is ‘cleansing’ on the cellular level – the clean up that needs to happen before growth and repair can occur.

Autophagy is actually necessary for the proper maintenance of  healthy muscle mass, and inhibition/alteration of autophagy can contribute to muscle degeneration and weakness in certain types of muscle disorders.

This is where your diet comes into play. Fasting is a very potent promoter of the autophagic process.

The strong connection between autophagy and fasting is due to the fact that the principle signal to turn up the ‘autophagy dial’ is
the act of entering the fasted state, and the principle way to turn down the ‘autophagy dial’ is by eating.

Sadly, it doesn’t take a feast or a junk-food binge to negatively affect autophagy.

Recent research has shown that as little as 10 grams of amino acids is enough to decrease markers of autophagy in fasting humans.

This means that even a small meal in the middle of a fast may be enough to blunt the increased autophagy associated with fasting.

So it’s not just your workouts that break you down and build you back up – your diet does the same thing.

By allowing for growth when we eat, and the autophagic process of cleansing and repair when we are fasting, we help restore a balance in the muscle building process.

The key is there needs to be a balance – You can’t overeat all the time or fast all the time without expecting some sort of negative repercussions.

It is the optimal balance of these processes that allows for the breakdown of damaged muscle proteins, and the build up of new, bigger, healthier muscles.

To learn more about fasting and autophagy check out the NEW 5th edition of Eat Stop Eat here ==> www.EatStopEat.com