I'm starting to feel like I'm doing something wrong.

Eat Stop Eat first week loss: 4 pounds.

Second week: gained .2 pounds.

Third week: stayed the same.

I'm not joking when I say the fasts are not as hard as they used to be, that I'm handling them better; but given the choice between fasting and eating, I'll choose eating. I mean—food, nom nom. Want. Love. The only reason to continue on with fasting twice a week is to see some serious weight loss. Serious. Not just a pound or so a week, the sort of weight loss that one can achieve simply by eating a little less and moving a little more. I'm eating a lot less. And the needle on the scale is not moving.

If you visit the Eat Stop Eat website, you can sign up for periodic emails from Brad Pilon. I'd say they come at least three times a week, and they're very educational. The one that came to my inbox today was titled "How many calories should you eat per day to lose weight?" Here is a partial quote from that email, and I really hope Brad doesn't mind me sharing this here.

It doesn't matter at all how you get to this [calorie] deficit. It just
matters that by the end of the week you have eaten less food than you needed to stay the same weight. That's it.

The real trick is finding a way to do this consistently. Most popular diets give you a set of rules to follow every day, every time you eat, taking all the fun and spontaneity out of eating. These diets are doomed to fail because they are too restrictive.

Food is supposed to be fun, and social, and nobody wants to be told they can't eat their favorite foods or that they can't go out and eat when everyone else is and enjoy the same foods and not feel guilty about it.

So back to the original question: how many calories should you eat per day to lose weight?

Answer: It doesn't matter, and it is too difficult to monitor how much food you eat on daily basis. Instead set your goal to be less food over a week, not a day. This will take the guilt away on days when you go out and eat socially, or just want to have some ice cream and burgers. So the new question is this; How do you do this? And I think I have the answer.

This is precisely why so many people are having tremendous success with Eat Stop Eat. It is an extremely easy way to achieve a weekly caloric deficit that produces lasting weight loss and does not restrict you from eating any of the foods that you like to eat or when you can or can't eat them!

So far, I'm not having tremendous success. And it isn't so easy for me, I guess, to eat "normally" on non-fasting days and have the fasting days create the calorie deficit. I'm not gorging on non-fast days, I'm still avoiding so much, and I certainly can't have a candy bar or cookies or "eat whatever I want." *heavy, dramatic sigh*

Am I somehow doing something wrong? Or—and this would be interesting—am I proving that starvation mode actually does exist?

Must I take into account that I've stayed at the same weight despite experiencing, in a single 10-day period, Halloween (chocolate nom nom) and two birthdays with three homemade cakes?

Not giving up yet.

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