How many Calories?

Here is a great link for anyone who has ever wondered how many calories, protein, fat or even specific single amino acids are in any particular food.

The USDA provides the most comprehensive nutrient database I have ever come across, and it is the one I use most often.

You can check it out here:

USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory

BP

Eat Stop Eat Review by Emily

I'm out in Regina Saskatchewan right now, dealing with a little bit of jet lag, a sick wife and a very confused little baby (she's an all star traveler, but nap times are all messed up).

Mommy and baby have finally fallen a sleep, so I have managed to steal two minutes to check emails.

It's going to be a very busy day, so instead of a blog post from me, here is a really good review of Eat Stop Eat written by Emily, The winner of the first every Turbulence Training Transformation Contest.

You can read her review by visiting here ==> Emily's Eat Stop Eat Review

I'm off to find hot water for the baby bottles!

BP

31,000 Pushups

Here's a great idea from a friend of mine.

On Tuesday I had to drive down in Rochester for a meeting. Since it was an unusually warm and sunny day after our meeting my friend decided that it was in everyone's best interest to find a restaurant with a patio in downtown Rochester (which by the way, is beautiful!).

During lunch the issue of Birthdays came up. My friend was turning 31 this year. I asked him what he was doing for his birthday and his answer absolutely shocked me.

"31, 000 pushups"

Yep, that was his answer. He had decided to celebrate his birthday by committing to working out.

His plan is to complete 31,000 push ups in one year, starting on his Birthday. This averages out to be about 87 push ups per day.

Now, he isn't going to do 87 push ups every single day, but rather he is going try to average about 600 push ups per week, making sure to take days off, and to rotate between high volume days and low volume days.

There are a number of reasons why I like this plan so much. firstly, it has a goal, secondly his progress is measurable every step of the way, and it can be progressive.

On days were he feels like really challenging himself he can do spider-man push ups or decline push ups. On days when he wants a lighter workout he can do regular push-ups or close grip push ups.

A great and creative idea that is goal driven and measurable, which means my friend has a high chance of succeeding.

BP

Eat Stop Eat vs. The Warrior Diet

Here's an interesting question I received:

Brad, what's the differences between ESE and the Warrior Diet?

Both programs are based on the benefits of fasting. The main difference is, the Warrior Diet is a little more lenient that Eat Stop Eat, and Eat Stop Eat is a little more flexible than the Warrior Diet. (How's that for confusing?).

The Warrior Diet is more lenient because it allows for small meals during the fasting period, whereas Eat Stop Eat calls for nothing but calorie free beverages during the fast. Also, the Warrior Diet is 18 hour fasts, whereas Eat Stop Eat is 24.

However, Eat Stop Eat is more flexible as you only fast once or twice a week, whereas with the Warrior Diet you fast every single day for 18 hours at a time.

This is a very simplified answer, but the bottom line is that while they are both effective programs based on fasting for weight loss, they have very different philosophies.

I know of some people who have enjoyed success with the Warrior Diet approach, but I was only able to keep with it for a little under two weeks before it started getting in the way of my lifestyle (lunch meetings etc.).

Similar to my opinions on every other day fasting or even traditional intermittent fasting, I think that they simply are not flexible enough to maintain long-term. This is why Eat Stop Eat was designed to be flexible. The better you can fit your nutrition program around your life, the better it will work.

BP

Running for Weight Loss

I just returned from a very good lunch with a friend of mine who is an avid runner. He is the type of person who is fascinated by the sport of running, not one of those people who hates running but does it anyways because they want to lose weight.

I have always been an advocate of the saying "You can't outrun a bad diet". Meaning, unless you are training for an Ironman triathlon, running for weight loss is actually very ineffective.

The typical twice weekly 3 mile runs are not going to make up for a week where you have overeaten by a 1,000 Calories. Especially since, an extra thousand calories over the course of a week is only an additional 150 Calories per day - fairly easy to do, even for people who are 'watching what they eat'.

However, I will admit that if you are already following a good diet like Eat Stop Eat, and are in a caloric deficit, running will help you lose weight.

I know to most trainers and weight loss experts out there running for weight loss is practically a sin, but from my experience if you are following a good diet, running can be an effective addition to a weight loss program.

So I guess what I am trying to say is "you can't outrun a bad diet, but running can accelerate the results of a good one".

BP

PS- I should state that I still prefer training programs like Turbulence Training over running when it comes to promoting time efficient ways to lose weight, however running is definitely better than doing nothing at all!

PPS- If you are interested in seeing what the combination of Turbulence Training, sensible eating and following Eat Stop Eat can do to your body, you can check out the blog of the first ever Turbulence Training Transformation Contest Winner by visiting her BLOG HERE.

One Fast Per Week

Today I wanted to share an email I received showing that you can still see great results with only one fast per week.

Hi Brad,

Just a quick mail to let you know that I have completed
4 fasts (one a day for 4 weeks) and the results have
been very good indeed.

I guess for many the bottom line is how much weight has
been lost, and for me the answer is 6 pounds, which is
pretty good given that my previous regime (6 meals a
day at 300 calories each) would not have given this
dramatic a change. 

The more interesting thing for me is that my strength
and fitness hasn't suffered at all (no evidence of
starvation mode type shutdown), with me actually doing
a Personal Best in the bench press last Monday which
surpassed my previous PB set in...wait for it...1983!!

Thanks a million for the book (and the 40 min interview
last week, very "real world" good sense).

I'll be sticking with the eat-stop-eat regime for the
foreseeable future and so will my wife who has also
done it at the same time and loves the leeway to eat
"normally" on the other 6 days. She hasn't lost as
much (4 lbs) but she only weighs 125lbs anyway so I
guess that's to be expected. Neither of us find the
fast day difficult at all and as we do it on the
busiest day of the week (Tuesday-Wednesday). we find
we have more time for the necessary things that must
be done. 

All the best with the book and no doubt the world tour
to promote it!!!!

Karl. 

BP

PS- The world tour is actually a great idea!

PPS- If you want to learn more about the Eat Stop Eat program CLICK HERE.

Adventures with Eat Stop Eat

We all have good days and bad days. Good days at work, bad days at work. Good days in the gym and bad days in the gym. And, for those of us who practice Eat Stop Eat, we have good fasts and bad fasts (hopefully we all have more good than bad).

Sometimes the curve balls that life can throw you while you are fasting can be unbelievable.

For instance, check out the email I received on Monday about a truly unbelievable example of fasting and will power.

Hi Brad

I'm a TV reporter and I am following Eat Stop Eat. One of the city's largest and oldest bakeries burned to the ground on the weekend -- they produce something like 40-thousand loaves of rye bread every week.

So, I was assigned to go to their secondary bakery and do an interview with the owners about the future of the original plant and how they're going to keep up with their orders. But the owner was very late getting there... he kept me and my cameraman waiting for about an hour and a half... during which time I simply had to sit in the bakery store-front and wait, surrounded by -- and I'm not kidding you -- stacks and stacks of the most amazing cinnamon buns, pastries, cookies and bread.

It looked and smelled like heaven, you don't even know. You want to talk about iron will? *I* have an iron will!!

P.S. I accidentally swallowed my gum this afternoon too. Like a three-year-old. My cameraman laughed at me and said I broke my fast. Noooooooo!

Honestly, Unlike this emailer I probably would have caved. I am super impressed that she made it though this ordeal as fresh baked goods are my weakness.

The good news is that the fact that she made it through the entire interview without sampling any of the baked goods showed her just how strong she can be. You can bet the next time she's tempted while fasting it will be an absolute breeze for her to ignore the temptation.

What doesn't break our will, simply makes us stronger.

However, if you do break your fast prematurely don't worry. Remember the whole goal of Eat Stop Eat is flexibility. If you wake up one day and simply do not feel like fasting, or life throws you a curve ball that will make your planned fast difficult, simply reschedule.

There is no difference between fasting Sunday and Thursday as opposed to Sunday and Friday.

Keep your fasts flexible and make them fit into your lifestyle and you will see great results.

BP

Seth Godin vs. Eat Stop Eat

I woke up this morning to an email in-box that was full of emails about marketing guru Seth Godin's recent blog post titled "The (stupid) Diet".

In case you missed in, here is what Seth had to say:

My friend Chris told me about a diet he used to use to lose weight. He would eat what he wanted five days a week and fast two days a week.

No, that doesn't work.

The parallel to marketing seems pretty obvious, doesn't it?

Now I am pretty sure that Seth isn't talking about Eat Stop Eat. Especially since "Eat what you want five days a week and fast for two" would be an absolutely horrible description of the philosophy of Eat Stop Eat. (I would much prefer "Eat sensibly and responsibly while enjoying the foods you Eat. Follow a resistance training program and once or twice a week take a 24 hour break from eating").

Even if Seth was talking about Eat Stop Eat, he most likely has not read the book, and is simply basing his comments on the typical assumptions about the idea of fasting for weight loss.

I find this to be the one thing that every Eat Stop Eat naysayer has in common - They haven't read the book. Once they've read Eat Stop Eat, they almost always take a much more open minded approach to the philosophy behind Eat Stop Eat.

Don't worry about the naysayers. They are typically just scared by the idea of fasting and haven't actually read the research behind it.

BP

PS- If you would like to learn more about the benefits of fasting and the Eat Stop Eat philosophy of fasting for weight loss, please CLICK HERE.

Finally, a REAL transformation contest

Here are 3 quick reasons why I am so impressed by the transformations in the first ever Turbulence Training Transformation Contest.

1. No crazy after pics where the person is tanned, shaved, and posing perfectly. You can definitely tell that these are real people making real differences in their bodies. Unlike some transformations where the contestant is a fitness model and their before and after pictures are simply "in-season" and "off-season".

2. No massive bodybuilders. Ever notice how so many before an afters consist of guys who are absolutely massive but with a gut, then they trim down to be absolutely massive but with abs? In my opinion if you already have veins running through your arms, shoulders and traps, you don't need to be in a transformation contest.

3. They are Real! Finally, I can look at before and after pictures and say to myself "I absolutely beleive this transformation occured". No second guessing about drug use or faked before pics. In my opinion these are the real deal!

My congratulations goes out to all the finalists!

BP

Don't forget to vote on who had the most dramatic changes! Look for a combination of weight loss, muscle gain, and total body appearance!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE NOW ==> TRANSFORMATION CONTEST RESULTS

Listen to me being Interviewed About Eat Stop Eat

I recently discovered the miracle of Skype. I know that most people probably think Skype has been around forever, but for me this is some pretty new stuff.

I'm not sure if you are as in the dark as I am when it comes to this type of thing, but just in case you haven't heard of Skype, its a service where you can make phone calls using your computer.

As soon as I figure this out it was time to start calling people I knew who would otherwise be long distance. I ended up chatting with my friend Adam Steer from www.coachsteer.com and pretty soon our conversation turned to everything to do with Eat Stop Eat, fasting for weight loss and working out.

Luckily, Adam saw this as a great opportunity to do an impromptu interview.

Adam had some great questions for me, so if you want to hear what I think about detox diets, or how I stumbled into studying the benefits of fasting (or if you just want to hear my funny Canadian accent) then all you have to do is sign-up for the Eat Stop Eat newsletter.

(use the sign-up box on the right top corner ==>)


BP

Big News!

As you might have heard, my friend Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training fame has been running his first ever transformation contest.

The contest is now closed, the results are in and let me tell you some of these transformations are MIND BLOWING!

I am so proud and impressed by these people, they all truly did an amazing job transforming their bodies and their lives!

What's more, a couple of the finalists used EAT STOP EAT to get their great results ( I'm not going to tell you who, because I don't want to bias your choices).

What's even more exciting is that it is now up to you to vote for the winner!

Please visit Craig's transformation site and place your vote for who you should think the winner should be.

CLICK HERE ==> The Turbulence Training Transformation Contest

BP

Aspartame makes you fat

I woke up this morning to the sounds of Smashing Pumpkins coming through my radio. The song was 'today" from their 1993 album Siamese dream. This immediately made me think back to my high school days (yes, I'm dating myself here).

Back in high school my buddies and I were coffee house rats. Yep, my addiction to all things coffee started very early in life, mostly because there wasn't much else to do when you were 15 in Southern Ontario.

(album of choice while cruising in my 1986 supra..)

My high school crew are now all in different parts of the world these days. One is a chef in Toronto, another is a journalist in Japan and one is an architect in New York. So needless to say, none of them were about to meet me for coffee.

But since I do love coffee, I went anyways.

I noticed two interesting things while waiting in line for my coffee at a local Williams Coffee Pub. One, I realized I still had the chorus from 'Today' stuck in my head, and two I was eaves dropping on the people in front of me.

The lady in front of me ordered a coffee with one sweetener. The gentlemen with her ordered a large coke, then emphasized the word 'Regular'.

He then turned to the women he was with and said "I'm off artificial sweeteners, I heard on the news that research says they make you fat".

"really?" she responded

"Yeah, they just make you hungrier 30 minutes after you eat them, apparently you are better of drinking regular Coke". he replied.

So this man just ordered 16 ounces of sugar because artificial sweeteners might have slightly increased the chances of him ordering 16 ounces of sugar later in the day. The logic here is so messed up, it makes my nose bleed.

This is another reason why I now go out of my way to avoid nutrition advice that comes from the mainstream media.

I could understand ordering a water, or a black coffee..but a regular coke? because a diet coke will make him fat?

This is what happens when weight loss research that is cutting edge and novel is found by mainstream media. Something that is very exploratory, very new, and not conclusive at all can be turned into a completely backward nutrition "factoid" that serves to do nothing more than confuse us.

Losing weight would be easy if everyone didn't try to complicate it all the time. Find a simple way to reduce the calories you eat, find the time to exercise and ignore crazy nutrition factoids from the main stream media.

BP

All Natural Aspartame

Here's some pretty sad information that will ensure that food and food labeling will stay confusing for years to come...

According to food navigator.com, The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has no plans in the near future to establish a definition of the term 'natural', saying it has other priorities for its limited resources.

So really, every single food can be called "natural" as long as there is room on the label!

BP

Steroids in your Supplements?

According to a report on nutraingredients.com Greece's Olympic weightlifting team is blaming contaminated Chinese-made food supplements for some of its members being charged with doping violations.

Random testing resulted in 11 members showing positive results for steroids and other banned substances, according to media reports.

The Chinese manufacturer of the supplement has accepted fault for the contamination believed to consist of an anabolic steroid, an opiate designed to alleviate athletes' dependence on the steroid, and an estrogen suppressor.

I have spent a fair number of years not only designing sports supplements but also auditing manufacturing sites and I can tell you that from my experience, getting an anabolic steroid, an opiate and an estrogen suppressor into a batch of products without anyone knowing would have been down right impossible.

Maybe I just worked with really good companies, but that kind of think would have been spotted quicker than you can say "quality control".

Nevertheless, this type of report is scary. Whether you are looking for weight loss, fat burning or new ways to build muscle, be very suspicious of anything that promises you a quick fix.

BP

How to eat heathier foods

I just found the following in a recent article on food navigator USA.com:

According to a public opinion survey commissioned by the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), 82 percent of Americans think food companies should be making a greater effort to reformulate for more better-for-you products.

Although this is a high percentage, it compares with 90 percent in Britain, 89 percent in Spain and 87 percent in Hungary.

In my opinion this is a very backwards approach to improving health. The answer to eating healthier foods is not asking food companies to add even more things to our food, but rather to question the foods we are already consuming.

You don't need to add anything to an apple to make it healthy, and there is nothing better for weight loss than eating less food and exercising more.

I'm betting that we will soon see a green-tea enriched white bread.

BP

Weighted Ab Exercise

I've had another busy couple days helping John Barban film some video for his new project "The Adonis Effect."

Our latest shoot involved a series of weighted ab exercises.

Here's a pretty bold statement => A lot of people (guys and girls) want a 6-pack.

Well in my opinion they only have to do two things to accomplish this goal.

1. Get lean (I use Eat Stop Eat for this one)
2. Get well developed abs.

For number two, the trick is treating your abs like the rest of your muscles. Work them hard and work them against some form of resistance.

Check out the video below for a great weighted ab exercise

Booster Drink Sabotage!

I've noticed an interesting trend of 'Booster Drink' places appearing in all of gyms around where I live.

The idea is simple, go to the gym, get a great workout, then get a booster drink made with real fruit and fruit juice on the way out the door.

Sounds perfect.

Except there's a hitch. Their protein smoothies have between 390 and 500 Calories per serving. and their power smoothies have between 320 and 430 Calories per serving!

The idea of a great tasting drink made from real fruit is definitely sounds like a good one, but we shouldn't mistake the idea of something being healthy as also meaning it is always good for us.

500 really healthy all-natural calories are still 500 calories - and if you are trying to lose weight this is easily enough calories to erase all of the hard work you just did at the gym (even with the added 'goodness' of wheat grass and acai juice).

Who would have thought a delicious green tea power smoothie with 20 grams of protein could end up being weight loss sabotage?

There's nothing wrong with drinking a great tasting booster drink now and then, just remember the calories still count.


BP

How to lose weight properly

I've had my eyes re-opened the last couple days.

Somehow, I've had my own little personal epiphany regarding weight loss. Or, more correctly, I've had my own little epiphany regarding selling weight loss.

This is my ah-ha moment.

When I left the supplement industry it was because I wanted a change. I wanted out. After answering this mornings emails about Eat Stop Eat I suddenly realized, I'm right back into it.

Most of the emails I received this morning were actually not about Eat Stop Eat. They were about other people's diet programs. It seems that there are a lot of people who have been scared and pressured into eating in a certain way, or following a certain program.

This is something that really bothers me, and I think it signifies a lack of credibility and respectability (and is part of the cause of OCE) - If your nutrition/weight loss program is as good as you say it is you should not have to scare people into making a purchase.

Tell me how many times have you seen these scare tactics:

Eat multiple times per day or something very bad will happen to you (Metabolism goes down, insulin sensitivity goes wonky..)

Don't eat too few calories or something very bad will happen to you ((Metabolism goes down, insulin sensitivity goes wonky..)

Eat lots of protein or something very bad will happen to you (get fat, lose muscle, lose muscle and get fat)

Don't eat carbs or something very bad will happen to you (get fat, become diabetic..)

Eat carbs or something very bad will happen to you (performance will suffer, you'll become mentally slow, you will stop losing fat)

The list goes on an on...

The interesting thing is, there is nothing 'wrong' with some of these ideas and I have no problems with other authors promoting their products. As I've said before Eat Stop Eat is not the only way to lose weight. Any diet that reduces calorie intake will help you lose weight. The easier and more logical the program, the better your results will be. The problem I do have is with these ideas is the way they are pushed on you.

Instead of promoting the benefits of their diet program, many people are trying to scare you by telling you the horrible consequences of NOT following their diet.

This is scaremongering. When you see this be very weary.

There are a lot of good program out there. Look for the ones have logical explanations of their benefits and be very weary of the ones who use poorly explained "scare" tactics as their only explanations behind the value of their products.

The proper way to lose weight is by following a nutrition and exercise program that you are confident in because it was well explained and makes logical sense. The wrong way to lose weight is by follow a nutrition and exercise program because the author has convinced you that it is the ONLY way to lose weight, and if you don't follow it then bad things will happen to you.

BP

PS- In once sentence, the benefits of Eat Stop Eat is that is is incredibly easy to follow, very flexible and perfectly effective.