Saturday, August 3, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

2200 calories, 100g protein

I broke the fast at 4 PM with a protein shake, which is technically a 27-hour fast. As I follow it, ESE is about returning to your normal eating habits after the fast, so in my mind, I would not eat just because it's been 24 hours. Life happened and I didn't get to work out after I drank the shake, so I could have skipped it, but c'est la vie.

Some Things to Ponder

  • Protein Intake. Most plans will swear that you need 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight. Personally, I don't worry about protein intake. Brad (ESE's creator) wrote a book about it, if you want justification for not worrying about your protein intake. You can also find a ton more information ranging from the bodybuilder/broscience recommendation of 1 - 2g per pound of bodyweight to the "medical" (i.e.non-weightlifting) that advises 30-40% of your total intake. I know a lot of this site promotes Brad's work, but that's only because (a) it's the simplest thing I have found and (b) it has worked for me without fail.
  • Why Simple? There are complex plans that require micromanaging what you eat, when you eat it, etc. You can check out The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook (it isn't safe to do it for very long and you'll understand what I mean by "complex") or Berkhan's LeanGains site for examples. Caveat: both Lyle and Martin (the respective authors) have some personality issues. Lyle has been a real jerk to people, to the point of misanthropy (though he'd say they were idiots and he was being honest, and if he finds me saying this, he'd probably go on some rant intended to hurt my feelings), and Martin, since about 2012, has just been weird. If I was in college or single, I could very easily follow these plans. I'm a details-oriented person, I work well with notes and flowcharts and spreadsheets, I can be happy with whatever I'm eating, etc. Most people just aren't that into this stuff, so they're not going to weigh out food and track it. If you have a family and a social life, sticking to ANY complex plan is going to be extremely difficult. ESE is so simple that it can work around anyone's life (except an alcoholic... if you HAVE to drink heavily every night, well, no diet plan is going to work for you and, as I'm sure you know, you're probably creating worries for yourself beyond looking good).
  • Alcohol and Dieting. I know alcohol is taboo in our society. I don't know why that is since so many people actually drink more frequently than they let on. Personally, I've never been concerned with covering up the fact that I like dark beer and bourbon and red wine. I've always kind of laughed at people who came up with the "Well, I feel sorry for you if you need alcohol to have fun." It's such a stupid argument. If you want to drink, fine by me. If you don't, fine by me. It's like same-sex marriage and having kids: some people do it, some don't. But understand that alcohol will affect how you lose weight. I'm going to make a page about this, but for now, just count your alcohol calories.
  • Diet Tracking. You should do it. I kept a diary similar to this one when I went from 215 to 170. I didn't share it with anyone except the people in the forum I was in, but it helped. I'm sharing this now because I'm confident in what I'm doing and where I'm going and how I'm putting it all together. You need to track your eating, at least in general, if you're not following Eat Stop Eat. And if you're totally new to this whole diet thing, I think you should track your calories anyway, until you have a sense for how many you're eating in a normal day. MyFitnessPal and LiveStrong are great sites.
  • The 24-hour Fast. If you notice, I started my fast on Thursday at 1 PM and ended it Friday at 4 PM. This is technically 27 hours without food entering my stomach. However, it's probably closer to an actual 24-hour fast because the first few hours were spent on digestion. Now, ESE is not about getting a literal, exact 24-hour fast; in fact, such worrying would violate the spirit of ESE and derail you if you're just starting out (imagine your mind, 16 hours into your first full fast, trying to give you permission to eat: Oh, I won't actually be doing a 24-hour fast ANYWAY...) However, as I did ESE for two years and followed it off and on through my confused period, these are the sorts of things I think about. Brad wrote that you should "resume eating as you normally would." Well, I don't normally eat at 1 PM. My usual schedule is 6 AM breakfast, noon lunch, 4 PM protein shake and broccoli, late dinner (8 PM). That's why I didn't eat until 4 PM. I resumed my normal eating pattern. And in doing so, I gave my body 24 hours worth of its TDEE to burn from reserves, of which I have plenty!

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