I am sometimes asked, “How much should I eat on the days I’m not fasting?”

I don’t like complex equations used to count calories, so I have a simple approach to this dilemma.

Eat normally – that is, don’t fast – for two weeks.

Weigh yourself on the third and fourth days. Calculate the average of those two numbers. Weigh yourself again on days 13 and 14, and calculate the average of those two numbers. (Remember to weigh yourself in the morning before you eat.)

If your weight went up more than three or four pounds from your starting average to your final average, you’ll know you’re eating slightly more than you need to eat.

If your weight stayed approximately the same, you’re eating the right amount.

If your weight went down by three or four pounds, you have room to add more food to your life.

This technique is very accurate for men, but women should allow themselves four pounds from their starting average because of the way their body water levels change throughout the course of a month.

This exercise works well for individuals who have lost considerable amounts of weight through fasting and who need to determine how much food they should be eating based on their new weight.

We’ve probably all asked ourselves why we eat so much at one point in life.

After all, most of us don’t have the bodies we want to have because we eat too much.

Some answers to the question make it sound like it’s not our fault. We can blame it on hormones like ghrelin and adiponectin. Other answers, such as a complete lack of will-power, make it sound like it’s all our fault. And many other answers lie somewhere in between.

Here are five little-known reasons why you might be eating more than you need. Some of the answers are blunt, but they need to be considered.

1 . You are thirsty. Many times, thirst can be mistaken for hunger.

•    Quick fix – Drink some water. It can’t hurt.

2. You are covering for something. Be honest. We eat because we need the stimulation. A person who is about to go skydiving for the very first time won’t step off the plane and think, “Gee, I could really go for a muffin right now.” If you find that you constantly need to eat, it may be time to look at your life and ask yourself if you’re bored with your job, your relationship, or your friends. If you give yourself more stimulation, you might eat less.

•    Quick fix – When you eat, stop and ask yourself whether you’re hungry – or whether you’re just bored. If you consistently answer that you’re bored, find a different way to pass the time.

3. You are trying too hard to be healthy. In reality, if we ate all the foods we’re supposed to eat, we’d be overeating. Even if you’re following a low-calorie diet, the calorie count easily sneaks back up on you when you throw in some almond butter, goji juice, coconut oil, or an organic-fair trade-wheat grass shake.

•    Quick fix – Ignore “super foods.“ If you want to try a new food, replace an old one. Don’t just add it to your diet.

4. You are being mindless. Have you ever sat down in front of the TV with a full plate of food, and then, before you knew it, you reached for your plate, and it was empty? Chances are, you – not the cat – ate the food without even realizing it.

•    Quick fix – Don’t eat in front of the TV or computer.

5. You’re paying too much attention to your pre, during, and post workout nutrition. I know the theories and the “science” behind the claims that eating during, before, or right after your workout can be beneficial, but if your goal is to lose weight, those meals could be keeping you from reaching your goal.

•    Quick fix – Cut back on your “around workout” meals and see what happens.

I have some bad news.

In order to look better than most people, you have to do things differently than most people.

You’ll have to eat less and exercise more than most people – because most people just don’t do the job well enough.

Look at this shocking example:

You can learn three things from looking at these statistics:

1. The North American population has a fairly evenly distributed percentage of body fat.

2. A man’s average body fat percentage is around 25, while a woman’s body fat percentage is around 40.

3. If you want to have less than 12% body fat (for men) or less than 22% body fat (for women), you’re going to have to be an “outlier.”

What is an outlier?

out•li•er – A value that is far from the average or mean.

The statistics shown above were compiled from about 13,000 men and women between the ages of 20 and 80 using DXA.

If the thought of being “average” isn’t good enough for you, then you’ll have to commit to being different – very different.

Be your own outlier.

Take note of what everyone else is doing. Then do things just a little differently.

These statistics show that eating more than we need to eat while we obsess over healthy eating habits isn’t giving people the results they want.

Watching TV shows about other people who are losing weight isn’t giving people the results they want.

Having the desire to lose weight is much different than taking the action that is needed to make weight loss happen.

Do things differently.

Be your own outlier.

While others talk about losing weight, read books about losing weight, and watch TV shows about losing weight, you need to be the one to take action.

That’s what will make you different.

In the words of the famous Nike slogan – Just do it. No more talking. No more reading. No more thinking.

Eat less, move more – and be your own outlier.

**Am J Clin Nutr 2009;90:1457–65.

For many people, losing weight and becoming lean are easy tasks. But many people find it difficult to get really, really lean. Here are five tips that will get you “super shredded.” (This doesn’t apply to individuals who are taking steroids.)
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1. Let yourself get “light.”

Attention men: If you want to lose body fat, you’re probably going to have to lose body weight too. Unless you are very young or just started a weight training program, you likely won’t be able to pack on 20 pounds of muscle while you lose 20 pounds of fat.

Gaining muscle is a possibility, but it’s more likely that you’ll gain a pound or two of muscle while you drop 10 to 20 pounds of fat. Therefore, you’ll probably have to weigh less than your “ideal” body weight in order to get leaner.

Here’s a rule of thumb to remember: Think of the weight you want to be when you get “shredded” – then think lower than that number. You will be considered lean when you weigh 90 to 95 percent of what you think you should weigh.

Thinking “light” will rescue you from the mental block that is keeping you from being truly shredded. Do you want to be shredded, or do you want to weigh in at a predetermined number?

2. Let your diet work for you.

A super lean body comes from a restriction of calories. You must take in fewer calories than you burn during a day. “Protein guilt” and “muscle anxiety” put roadblocks in your path to being lean, whether you’re following the Eat Stop Eat program or a different program.

If you feel guilty about not eating enough calories or protein while you are dieting, you’ll likely ingest an extra nutrition shake with 50 grams of protein and 100 grams of carbohydrates after you workout. If you do that, the calorie deficit you’re trying to create will disappear.

If you want to get really lean, do your best to block out “protein guilt” and “muscle anxiety.” Let your diet help you get lean. If you are weight training properly during the time that you’re dieting, you will not lose muscle.

3. Don’t compensate with cardio.

Many people, afraid of dieting “too hard,” don’t cut many calories and instead try to create the remainder of their calorie deficit with cardio exercise.

But the truth is, many people overestimate the number of calories they burn during a workout session. You can’t become “shredded” by doing only cardio.

Lose fat with the help of your diet.

Maintain muscle mass with the help of workouts.

4. Don’t be fooled by the Sine Wave:

What is a sine wave?

The dotted line represents your normal activity level. Hard core workouts help you burn extra calories. The top of the red line indicates your activity level during your workout.

If you exercise and then crash on the couch for the evening, your activity level, or the bottom of the red line, will actually be lower than normal. Doing nothing will make your workout less effective. In order to make your workout effective, you should pretend like they never happened and keep moving like you normally would.

5. Measure, measure, measure.

If you want to get shredded, measurements become your best friend. Measurements tell you whether you’re progressing. You should measure your arms, legs, waist, hips, shoulders, and everywhere in between.

If you keep track of your measurements, you can refer to them on the days when you look in the mirror and think you’ve lost muscle mass or gained weight. Besides, if you’re losing weight in your waist and keeping mass in the areas you want to keep, does the rest matter?
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Those are my five tips for anyone who wants to get truly “shredded.” Follow these tips, and you’ll see results.

What is the best thing to eat after I fast?

The answer is simple. Pretend that your fast never happened. Don’t compensate yourself. Don’t reward yourself. Don’t eat special foods, shakes, or drinks, or take any pills.

Simply erase the fast from your memory, and begin eating responsibly again – the same way you would normally eat at that specific time of day.

If you end your fast at dinner time, eat dinner. If you end your fast a 4 p.m., but don’t normally have dinner until 7 p.m., eat a light snack, but nothing larger than you would usually eat at that time of day.

There is nothing magical to ending a fast. Pretend like it never happened, and resume eating in your normal way.

One of my most favorite e-mails came from a friend of the family who lost her post-pregnancy baby fat by using Eat Stop Eat.

It takes some women a few months – and for some, it takes years. But all women who have given birth can tell you that losing weight after having a baby is an important, yet difficult, goal.

For many women, post-pregnancy fat is a source of anxiety and embarrassment. But who has time to follow a strict diet plan when an infant’s routine runs the household?

This is where Eat Stop Eat fits in.

The Eat Stop Eat plan, which incorporates intermittent fasting into a normal eating routine, is the perfect solution for women who need to shed pounds, but who have very little time to invest in dieting.

Eat Stop Eat requires no investment of time. There are no special meals to prepare, no additional food shopping trips, and no supplements to maintain. Babies are time-consuming – and the Eat Stop Eat method can actually help give women more time to devote to the care of their new baby.

Eat Stop Eat is also a very private dieting method. No one will see a woman who is using the Eat Stop Eat method eating special foods or diet bars. Other women will be left wondering how a woman following Eat Stop Eat lost her baby fat so quickly.

Finally, Eat Stop Eat apparently works incredibly well for women who want to get rid of baby fat. My wife followed Eat Stop Eat after the birth of our first child, and she is now following Eat Stop Eat to get back to her pre-pregnancy weight after the birth of our second child. And, as you can see from Lindsay’s e-mail, she also realized great results using Eat Stop Eat to get rid of her baby fat.

Lindsay’s Email:

Hi Brad,

I’m not even sure if you knew I was doing Eat Stop Eat, I didn’t really mention it to many people, not for any particular reason, except that I just usually keep eating and exercise routines to myself unless someone asks.

You may or may not know, but during my pregnancy with Owen I gained a LOT of weight.  It was/is extremely stressful for me and gave me substantial motivation to lose it all.

I began Eat Stop Eat in November ’08 and I am still following it.  I’ve mixed Eat Stop Eat with a resistance training and intervals program and so far I’ve managed to lose 72 pounds since my heaviest weight during my pregnancy.  I’ve set a weight goal that is actually less than my pre-pregnancy weight and I was going to email you when I reached that goal, just to let you know that Eat Stop Eat worked for me!  But since I’m pretty close to the goal anyway, I’m emailing you now.

I am proud of how far I’ve come so far, but it’s still a little tender for me to discuss specific numbers of pounds gained during my pregnancy.  I am willing to share photos if you need some.  I don’t have any crazy photos of myself in a bikini or anything, but I have a photo of my at the hospital with Owen the day he was born and I like to call myself unrecognizable in it.  I’d be willing to send you a photo of myself once I reach my final weight goal

I hope this helps you Brad.  Eat Stop Eat has truly helped me in many ways.

Please let me know if you need any further details and/or if you would like me to send you pictures.  I’m willing to help in any way I can.

Thanks,

Lindsay