A bone to pick with Brad Pilon

NOTE: This is a Guest Post by John Barban, Science Editor of Eat Stop Eat and the Nutrition Help Blog.


As you know Brad does a wonderful job simplifying the concept of diet and weight loss to a point that is straight forward, easy to understand and frankly very difficult to argue with. But I have a bone to pick with Brad.

I feel like he stops short and doesn’t quite take it as far as it can go.

I think there is one more step Brad could take explaining how weight loss and diet really work. And so far this is most effective and simple way I can explain this (although it does seem to make some people uncomfortable)…so here goes.

Take 5 minutes at some point today (preferably alone) to take all of your clothes off and go stand in front of a full body mirror and then say this one simple statement out loud while you are looking at yourself in the mirror:

“The amount and kind of food I eat, and the amount of exercise and activity I do, make me look like this”

If by the end of this statement you are feeling pretty good about yourself and like what you see in the mirror then that is great. Give yourself a pat on the back even.

If on the other hand you see a few spots where you would like to see some improvement (specifically losing some fat, or maybe even building up a few muscles) then you only have two courses of action…and those are…

Eat slightly less calories (on average) than you are currently eating…to lose fat

Do more targeted weight training than you are currently doing…to build muscle

It really is this simple.

How you arrive at a calorie deficit is up to you. I personally choose Eat Stop Eat because A) I spent almost two full years editing the darn thing and B) it really is hands down the simplest way to eat less calories long term without going nuts about it.

And weight training is absolutely essential to building and maintaining firm and youthful like muscle long into your life.

This might be a bit harsh, but it’s really what we’re all dealing with. The way our bodies currently look and our ability to change and manipulate it with diet and exercise.

I have found Eat Stop Eat to be the only truly effective long term solution for lasting fat loss/weight loss. And as always weight training will be a staple in my weekly routine for the rest of my life.

Weight loss nutrition and exercise should never be more confusing or consuming that these two simple steps.

People like Brad have taken the burden upon themselves to sort through all of the nutrition and diet industry media hype and rhetoric as well as rooting through all of the dry and tedious research.

Once this information has all been analyzed and broken down we realize that our multiple ways to 'eat for weight loss' yet they all revolve around eating less (and hopefully weight training more).

When you simplify this down to it's core the result is the beautifully simple nutrition and lifestyle of Eat Stop Eat.

Dieting vs. Dieting + Exercise (and the importance of Activity)

I received an email yesterday titled "A Contradiction?"

Curious, I opened it, worried that I had somehow contradicted myself in a recent email or a blog post.

Luckily, it wasn't me, but rather a fitness celebrity who had written a newsletter that the writer thought contradicted the Eat Stop Eat philosophy.

Apparently, this particular newsletter was using data from a new research trial to suggest some things that go against the Eat Stop Eat philosophy.

Specifically, it was stating that dieting for weight loss was "bad" and that exercising for weight loss is "good". (I love definitive statements like these - talk about over-dramatization!)

And since I love nothing more than sharing my thoughts on research with you, I figured it would be fun to take a look at this study.

The paper was titled "Weight regain is related to decreases in physical activity during weight loss".

In this study a group of women who were obese and in their late fifties were asked to lose weight by reducing their calories by 400 per day for 20 weeks. Then, 6 months and 1 year after the trial the women were reassessed to see how much of the weight they had gained back.

-----

Here is the first claim that the fitness celeb made:

CLAIM 1: When you diet your level of non-exercise physical activity (NEAT) drops spontaneously, even if you don't realize it's happening.

FACT: In the 20 week study there were actually 3 groups of women,

1. The first group cut their calories by 400 Calories per day.

1. The Second group cut their calories by only 350 Calories per day, and increased the amount they exercised to make up the 50 calories by doing low intensity exercise

1. The Third group only cut their calories by 350 Calories per day, and increased the amount they exercised to make up the 50 calories by doing High intensity exercise

What the study found was that a CALORIE DEFICIT (whether by diet or exercise) was associated with a slight decrease in non exercise physical activity.

In this study this was defined as the energy you expend above your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) but does not include the energy you expend during your exercise periods. So this could be anything from bouncing your leg, to walking the dog or emptying the dishwasher. Basically, it was ANYTHING that caused you to expend energy other than your assigned workouts periods.

To give you an idea it was calculated as:

Total Energy Expenditure - RMR - the calories expended during exercise (as calculated by the read out on the treadmill.

The average reduction was about 160 calories worth of activity per day, about the amount of calories expended in a 20 minute brisk walk for these woman).

More importantly, the study found that there was NO DIFFERENCE between the group who was dieting and the groups that were exercising in ANY MEASURE.

This includes:

Total weight loss

Lean mass loss

Fat mass loss

V02 Max (surprisingly)

Resting metabolic rate

and

Non Physical activity induced energy expenditure

So when it comes to weight loss, it is the CALORIE DEFICIT that matters, not the way the deficit was created. However it is true that a being in a calorie deficit for 20 weeks seemed to cause these woman to reduce their non-exercise activity levels (But again, there was no evidence to suggest that this was caused by dieting)

CLAIM 2: The drop in physical activity during the diet was DIRECTLY RELATED to the weight regain 1 year after the diet.

FACT: In this study people lost an average of 27 pounds during the 20-week weight loss period. 1 year later the average weight regain was 11.5 pounds. Not bad, but not great either.

It is very important to remember that the purpose of this trial was to investigate whether or not things that occurred DURING a weight loss protocol could be ASSOCIATED with results 1 year later.

So they weren't looking for the absolute, definitive, you-bet-your-house-on-it cause for weight regain, they were just searching to see if they could find any associations.

In other words, they did not measure things like diet or exercise during that one-year time between the weight loss and the last weigh in one year later.

So while there was a slight relationship between the reduction in non exercise physical activity during the study period and weight regain one year later, this does not indicate a direct relationship.

Now, it gets a little tricky here because we start looking for correlations in data that isn't non-normally distributed. What was found was that while a significant finding, the strength of the correlation may not actually be that meaningful (for my fellow stats geeks we are only talking about a p of -0.4 for the pooled groups.)

So this tells us that what found was simply an association, suggesting that the people who tended to move around the least while they were dieting also were the ones who tended to put the most weight back on a year later.

CLAIM 3: There is a difference between losing weight from dieting, versus losing fat with dieting and exercise.

FACT: Not according to this study. The three groups saw almost IDENTICAL weight loss results. And, they saw almost identical weight REGAIN results.

CLAIM 4: if you want to maximize your fat loss and keep fat off permanently it is best to follow a reduced calorie diet and make a conscious effort to make sure your activity level does not drop as you lose weight.

FACT: I could not agree more. Exercise and staying active is still an important part of ANY weight loss program. However when it comes to weight loss, I think the benefits of resistance training FAR OUTWEIGH the benefits of cardio or endurance style training (as I'm sure the author of the newsletter in question would agree).
-----

So, there really wasn't that much of a contradiction. Our interpretations of the research are drastically different but our conclusions are the same.

The bottom line is (and always will be) that the best way to lose weight is to find a the easiest and simplest way to reduce the amount of calories you consume, and to follow a weight training routine.

While most people think of Eat Stop Eat as only flexible intermittent fasting, the truth is that the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle is the COMBINATION of flexible intermittent fasting and weight training. And, the weight training is very important!

You don't have to be a gym addict to get great weight loss results, but resistance training does have to be a part of your lifestyle for best results.

Now, lets take a closer look at this trial, as there were some 'gems' hidden in all of its data:

GEM #1- the people in this study were women in their late 50's and who were obese (almost 200 pounds) at the start of the study. By the end of the study they lost 27 pounds in 20 weeks, proving that no matter your age...weight loss IS possible!

GEM #2- Even one year later, with no diet counseling, they were able to keep more than half of their weight loss. Like I said earlier - not great, but not bad either.

GEM #3, There was no difference in weight loss between the woman who only dieted and those who dieted and exercised. Another example of classic "cardio" style exercise not being any better than simply dieting.

GEM #4, all groups lost Lean Body Mass, pointing to the importance of resistance training in a proper weight loss program (which they didn't do in this study).

GEM #5, RESTING METABOLIC RATE RELATIVE TO LEAN MASS REMAINED UNCHANGED! Again, so much for starvation mode!

So in my opinion this was a great study showing that creating a CALORIE DEFECIT will help you lose weight, and that it really does not matter whether or not you get that deficit from a combination of diet and exercise, or from diet alone.

BP

Coffee for weight loss?

I've been following my friend Adam Steer's battle with coffee for a couple weeks now.

Adam is trying to "give up the juice" for two weeks, before starting back up with a respectable 1-2 cups per day (a far more reasonable number than his previous average of 4-5 cups per day).

You can read about Adam's experiences by visiting his blog here ==> ADAM STEER

I've also been trying to alter my coffee habits . I'm a big believer in the idea that when you are following Eat Stop Eat, little changes in the way you eat on your eating days can have dramatic results in the long run.

So, I've cut the sugar out of my coffee.

Since I have 2 (sometimes 3) coffees over the course of the day, this small change should result in about a 50-100 calorie decrease in my daily intake.

Like I said, small changes can create big results with Eat Stop Eat.

If you are looking to make a change in the way you eat, start small and conservative. The easier the change, the more likely you are to stick with it, the more likely you are to see results.

BP

PS- Here's something odd, I still find my coffee to be noticeably sweet, even without the added sugar, perhaps its from the cream?

How Much Does Weight Loss Cost?

I took some time today to start getting caught up on work. After answering a bunch of emails, I start searching the 'net for fat burners.

Yep, I was looking at weight loss supplements.

One of the things I like to do is to make sure I keep up on the weight loss supplement industry.

I don't work in the weight loss supplement industry any more, but I find that it is beneficial for me to keep up to date on the latest products and their advertising.

From my experience, the supplement industry is always on the cutting edge for what is new and "in". If certain catch phrases are in a supplement ad, then you can bet they will be mainstream in another couple months. In fact, I think some of these companies are innovative enough that their marketing can actually create media trends.

As I was going through the ads and the products out there I realized two things - There isn't much new going on in the supplement industry, and the supplement industry has actually managed to put a price on weight loss.

That's right. With a quick little experiment we can actually figure out how much the supplement industry is charging you per pound of weight lost.

Assuming their weight loss claims are correct, and that if (and this is a big if) you were to take their products you would actually lose the amount of weight they say you will, then you can actually put a price on weight loss.

For instance, the very best claim that I have seen on a supplement is that you will lose about 15 pounds in 8 weeks. So, hypothetically if you took this product (we'll call it product X) for 8 weeks you would lose 15 pounds.

Now, with product X you had to take 4 pills per day and the bottle contained 80 pills.

Therefore, to take the product for the full 8 weeks you would need to buy 2.8 bottles, and since you can't buy .8 of a bottle, you'd have to buy 3 bottles.

You can buy fat burning supplements for a wide range of prices, but the average is around 29.99. However sometimes you can find the 29.99 ones on sale for as low as 25.99, so lets just say product X costs 25 dollars per bottle.

What do we get from all this math? Simple, according to the supplement industry losing 15 pounds should costs you 75 dollars (3 bottles in 8 weeks, at 25 dollars per bottle).

Or about 5 dollars per pound (And remember, this is assuming their products actually work!).

No wonder they are a multi billion dollar industry!!

Truthfully, weight loss shouldn't cost you this much. In my opinion there are only three things you need to lose weight, and once you have them, you can lose weight and maintain that weight loss for as long as you want without ever having to pay any more money.

Those three keys?

A proper diet that you can stick to long term, an exercise program that you find challenging, and supportive friends and family is all you need to lose weight.

BP

PS- speaking of exercises, here are two cool videos from Craig Ballantyne of turbulencetraining.com

Bodyweight workout
Fat Burning Workout


lose weight easily with intermittent fasting

Did you read that blog post on intermitent fasting?

Greetings from Orlando, Florida!

After having enough of shoveling snow, horrible winter driving, and being cold all the time, I've taken a week off to visit West Gate Vacation Villas in Orlando Florida.

Brier traveled awesome in the plane, and has been a little gem for the whole vacation (she's saving up the drama for when she becomes a teenager!).

My wife and I both fasted on the days we flew. We figured this saved us a combined 20-30 dollars worth of food we definitely did not need to eat.

It's been a great week so far, and I've committed to doing as little work as possible.

(Hard at work doing the best kind of work possible!)

Yesterday I decided to check my email. Imagine my surprise when I found over a half dozen emails all on the same topic...

"Brad, did you see the post by Dr. Eades on the four day work week blog?"

Well, my curiosity was peaked and I took the time to read the posts. And honestly, I disagree with a lot of what was said. I even went so far as to post a comment (which I rarely do).

(I should point out that Eat Stop Eat is not just intermittent fasting. Its the combination of a flexible form of intermittent fasting combined with resistance training...and the resistance training part is very, very important.)

After posting, I stopped to think about the phenomena of the blogosphere and the internet. After some serious thought I have decided that I am no longer going to spend time defending Eat Stop Eat. It's a lesson in futility. Their will always be nay sayers, the concept of starvation mode will never go away, and some people will never be satisfied with the simplicity behind the concept of weight loss being as easy as finding a way that allows you to eat less with the least amount of hassle.

It is also very hard for me to argue because I will always have a vested monetary interest in Eat Stop Eat, so I can never be completely unbiased (although I always disclose this, even in lectures and seminars).

For these reasons I will spend my time promoting Eat Stop Eat, but not defending it. Promoting it allows me to reach people who are honestly looking for help, and who are looking for an easy and effective way to lose weight.

Defending Eat Stop Eat typically involves arguing the semantics of research, a practice that can be best described as focusing on the trees instead of the forest...or in this case its more like aruguing about the stroma in the leaves.

I will leave the debating up to capable people like Chris Highcock, Adam Steer, Martin Berkhan, and Matt Metzgar, all of whom I beleive to be very bright, well spoken and well educated in the area of intermittent fasting, but than can also be viewed as much more unbiased on the topic than I can.

Brad

PS- I've handed off my black berry for the rest of the trip...

(Busy screening Daddy's emails until we leave Florida)

Losing weight with Intermittent Fasting

For a great success story that has a cameo appearance by non-other than Eat Stop Eat, check out Richard Nikoley's latest blog post here:

Success with Intermittent Fasting

I think Richard's story fits perfectly with the Eat Stop Eat phiolosophy of flexible periods of intermittent fasting combined with a time-efficient weight training program.

BP

PS - Here's some great feedback I received over Email from Sue Grady
in Pennsylvania

"I love your book, EAT STOP EAT. great information, thank you for finally telling the truth! I just finished my first fast, and you are right. i actually felt *fantastic* without food in my system."

The 3 Keys of Exercise and How to Lose 200 Pounds

Once a year, NCAA football comes to Canada, and this year, I was there.

My wife and I met some friends in Toronto Ontario to watch Rutgers take on Ball State in the International Bowl. We had a great time watching Ray Rice run for 280 yards and 4 touchdowns.

While not everyone thinks attending a football game is an amazing event, I think everyone will agree that losing 200pounds with Eat Stop Eat definitely classifies as amazing.

3 of the people we were sitting with had been following EatStop Eat since the summer, and these three guys had combined for over 200 pounds worth of weight loss. I barely recognized two of them the change was so dramatic!

When it comes to diets I think that Eat Stop Eat could very well be the easiest path to weight loss. Not the only path, but the easiest and the most flexible.

You can think of diets the same as we do exercise; to make it work you have to adapt it so that it fits into your life. If youdon't then you are setting yourself up for failure.

With exercise there are three 'master components' to your workouts and the adaptations they cause your body to undergo.

These components are - Frequency, Volume, and Stress

You need to hit a minimum amount of all three to get an effect, and this minimum continually increases as your bodyadapts to the workouts. In other words, the bigger and stronger your muscles get, the harder and harder you have towork to make them continue to get stronger.
Thus, the absolute best scenario would be for all three components to be at their maximum. Maximum stress,maximum volume and maximum frequency (and maximum recovery in between workouts).

Multiple training sessions per day (frequency) at a maximalweight (stress), with as much sets and reps as possible while maintaining above the minimum stress level (volume).

You have real responsibilities in life, so this just isn't possible. So you do that best you can with these 3 factors ina method that fits your lifestyle. Whether it's 3 times perweek, 4 times per week, 2 times per day twice a week, you should do what fits into your life style.

The same principle applies to your diet. Ideally you would control every single days worth of nutrition. In fact, ideally you would control every single hour. You would measure exactly how much food you take in (volume) how often youeat (frequency) and what you are eating (stress). But again,this just isn't possible for 99.9% of the population. (elite athletes are an exception)

This is why Eat Stop Eat works so well for weight loss. It is aflexible adaptation to the rules of dieting that actually worksin real life scenarios.

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to find a wayto fit exercise and nutrition into your lifestyle.

BP

PS- For a really good critique of Eat Stop Eat you can readRichard Nikoley's review by going HERE

FTC Slams Weight Loss Book!

As the author of a book that promotes fasting for weight loss, I was a little concerned when I read that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has charged Kevin Trudeau with misrepresenting the contents of his book, 'The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About'.

According to FTC, Trudeau claims that his weight loss plan is not only easy to carry out, but also can be done at home - allowing consumers to eat what they want.

I can tell you that when I first read this statement it really worried me. I also claim that Eat Stop Eat is easy to carry out, and that it can be done at home..or at a restaurant...(honestly, I really don't understand that last comment, what diet program can you NOT do at home?)

However, luckily, this is where the similarities end.

According to nutraingredients-usa.com, the contents of Trudeau's book, "reveal a complex and grueling plan requiring a severe diet, daily injections of a prescription drug, and lifelong dietary restrictions. FTC also claims consumers cannot easily purchase the drug in question."

Daily Injections of a prescription drug?? Now I see why the FTC were more than a little miffed at Mr. Trudeau!

The FTC have long maintained their position that you cannot find weight loss in miracle pills or fad diets, and I wholeheartedly agree with them.

In my opinion, the best method for weight loss is slow and steady progress using a diet that is sustainable, flexible and effective combined with some form of regular physical activity.

It really should not be anymore complicated than that.

My advice for weight loss is to find a diet that works for you, find a form of exercise you enjoy, commit to a healthy, rewarding lifestyle where you do not stress over what you eat, and do not feel guilty for eating the foods you like. If you can find these components and add them to your life, you will lose weight.

BP

One Dedicated SOB

If you want to read a great story about one man's weight loss quest, check out:

http://leanbodyquest.blogspot.com

"Billy" has dropped from almost 260 pounds down to a svelte 190, over the course of 8 months.

Inspiring to say the least,

BP

Foods for Weight Loss

I just saw an interesting new milk ad. It shows a mom and baby with the term "all figured out" beside the mom.

The message? Drink milk and lose weight, or more correctly, "Milk your diet. Lose weight."

The REAL message? It goes something like this:

"We're OK with the fact that you want to lose weight, but please keep buying our product."

In other words, most major companies are aware of the fact that many of us are trying to lose weight, and this scares them.

Diets mean eating less food. Eating less food means buying less food. Buying less food means less profits for the food companies - and this just is not acceptable.

So the smart option for the food industry is to align their products with weight loss, but the truth is that this message is just plain wrong.

No food causes weight loss - Period. Some foods may have more calories and some have may less, but none can actually make you lose weight.

The bottom line is until science develops a food that contains negative calories we should question the ethics of any company who claims their food can actually cause weight loss

BP

Fasting for Weight Loss

Can Fish Oils Make You Thin?

If you've read the news in the last couple of days then you've probably read all the headlines about a new study that shows that the combination fish oils and exercise can help you lose fat.

To quickly summarize the study, researchers randomly assigned 75 overweight men and women to one of four groups:

• Group One took 6 grams of fish oil per day,
• Group Two took 6 grams of fish oil per day and exercised 3 days per week;
• Group Three took 6 grams of sunflower oil (the placebo), and
• Group Four took 6 grams of sunflower oil and exercised 3 days per week.
  

After 12 weeks, the results showed the subjects in Group Two (The people taking fish oil and exercising) lost body fat.

The subjects in this group lost a little over 3 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. Definitely not extraordinary, but significant nonetheless.

So people who exercised lost some fat. In my opinion this was expected. What was not expected was that the sunflower plus exercise group did not lose any fat.

Now, these people also added exercise to their lifestyle, so you would expect them to also lose fat. So either the combination of fish oil and exercise somehow 'created' this extra fat loss, or, pardon the pun, something is fishy with this study.

On closer inspection of the data I noticed something that may account for these results.

While the fish oil plus exercise group reported that their daily calorie intake pretty much remained the same for the 12 weeks of the study, the sunflower plus exercise group saw their daily caloric intake increase by 327 Kcals per day by week 6 of the trial, and stay elevated by 230 Kcals at week 12.

While the researchers make no mention of this as being significant, it may help explain the lack of fat loss in the sunflower plus exercise group.

At the end of the day, caloric restriction and exercise are the only way to lose fat. The better your exercise program and the better your diet, the more fat you will lose. Plain and simple.

However, don't rule out fish oils. Most fish oil research finds that they can benefit blood lipids and your cholesterol profile.

Bottom line, Fish oils are good for you, just don't get your hopes up about them making you lose weight.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

Mindless Eating

I'm about half way through a great book called "Mindless Eating" by Brian Wansink.



Normally, I don't post about books until I have finished them, but since I have already learnt so many things from this book that I want to share, I figured I'd make an exception.



Mindless eating explores all the reasons why we eat, and more importantly to me, all the reasons why we can't stop eating.



From our inability to estimate the calorie content of foods, to the lies our eyes tell us, I've found this book (so far) to be fascinating.



As an example, please check out the picture below, and try to figure out which glass has the most liquid and which has the least...

Check back later in the week and I will tell you which glass has the most and why our eyes and our stomachs play tricks on us.

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training

3 "Magic" Fat Loss Ingredients

Every morning I go through the exact same routine.

I get up. I make some oatmeal. Clean the kitchen. Go up stairs. Brush my teeth. Turn on my computer. Check my email. Then I laugh (or sometimes cry) while reading all of the new stories about the latest and greatest "fat loss" ingredients.

It is an absolute mystery to me why, after over 20 years of failed promises, we still turn to magic ingredients and magic foods for fat loss.

What shocks me even more is that we are still hoping to find something we can eat that will cause us to lose fat. It is almost becoming an oxymoron.

We are looking for something to consume that will make us consume less!

Here are just some examples of magic foods and ingredients in the new today:

Recent research (performed in a test tube) suggests that extract from Chilli peppers may stop fat growth. According to this research Chilli extract may hold the key to preventing immature fat cells from developing into mature fat cells.

In a different study, it was suggested that spearmint tea can not only lower a man's sex drive but can also decrease the amount of hair on a women's body. (Admittedly, this isn't fat loss research but if you think the body builders in your gym smell bad now, wait till they read this research and stop brushing their teeth for fear that they may be lowering their T levels!)

Finally, more research shows that dairy calcium (but not calcium supplements) can cause a decrease in the amount of fat in your blood after a meal.

I can't really tell you too much about this study because I stopped reading after the first page that mentioned that the study was funded by the Danish Dairy Research Foundation and the Dutch Dairy Association!

A Dairy Foundation and a Dairy Association funded the study, and the study found that dairy calcium, but not calcium supplements had weight loss benefits? Please.

Now honestly, there is some merit to this research. Eating more spices on your food is definitely a good idea. Eating foods that contain calcium is also a good idea.

However, thinking that taking chilli extract pills or consuming 3 bowls of ice-cream per day will make you lose weight IS NOT what you should be taking away from this research. (Nor is skipping your morning tooth brushing!)

If you want to lose weight there are only three things you need to do, and you don't need to read any research to do them.

Firstly, find a nutrition plan that works for you.

Secondly, get active. And I don't mean walk on the elliptical for half an hour every other day, I mean get a real work-out program and challenge yourself.

The third and last thing you need to do is to stop (or don't start) falling for the media's version of the latest and greatest fat loss research. It will only lead to disappointment and is usually a very poor and hyped up version of what the research was really telling us.

These are the real 3 "magic" fat loss ingredients!

BP

Eat Stop Eat

Why French women don't get fat

As part of my responsibilities as a nutrition critic, I read a lot of diet and nutrition books.

Admittedly, there are so many diet books out there it is almost impossible for me to read ALL of them, but every so often, when one hits the the best sellers list, it's time for me to visit my local book store and get my read on.

Last week was one of those times. After over hearing some very positive conversation at my local coffee shop I realized I needed to get my hands on a copy of "French women don't get fat" by Mireille Guiliano.

After a weekend of reading, I've finished the book, and have this review to offer.
I found this book to be unlike most of the other diet books I have reviewed lately. There is no hokey psuedo-science, no clearly-defined plan, and no lists of "magical foods" that you have to avoid or have to eat.

The premise behind the book is fairly simple. According to the author, French women are not fat - Therefore we should eat like the French.

Now, if you remove all of the stories about life in France, some useful recipes and some sporadic uses of the French language, then you are left with one easy message:

"Eat less, but enjoy the foods you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices. And maybe most importantly, spend less time stressing over the types of food you are eating."

Sound familiar? This is close to exactly the message that I have been promoting on this blog and in my articles for grrlAthlete.com

Now you may be thinking that this is this some coincidence, or that maybe I have met Mireille Guiliano, and I can tell you that neither of these are true.

I have never met Mireille (However, I would like too), but the similarity in these messages is not a coincidence.

The reason that our messages are almost identical is because they work.

Your absolute best tool for creating a great nutritional diet is eating less but enjoying the foods you eat. Follow this by eating lots of fruits and vegetables, and lots of herbs and spices and you are well on your way to a diet that is near perfection. And once you stop stressing over the types of food you are eating, well at this point you are golden.

BP

Fasting for Weight Loss

Halloween Fat-Bombs

They've been sitting around your house for almost an entire week.

You've used every excuse possible to avoid having to deal with the issue (the latest excuse I heard was that they cost money so you CAN'T throw them out). But now it's time.

Go find your hidden stash of left over Halloween candy and throw it in the garbage! - ALL of it.
You don't need it and what's worse, it is sabotaging you for what could be the most important 8 weeks of the year.

Yes, it's true. There are only 8 weeks left until New Years Eve. It is this gap, between Halloween and New Years, where I see most people put on weight and let go of their fitness goals.

However, if you can do some damage control right now, keep your weight where it is, maybe even lose some fat and gain a little muscle, then you will be miles ahead of everyone else come January first.

Imagine hitting January first in full stride!

It is possible, but first you have to get your nutrition back in order - which means throwing out the candy.

Second, you better get yourself a good new workout program. I suggest you give the grrlathlete Body-Weight Manual a try. It's quick, easy, extremely effective and you can do it at the gym or in your home.

Don't do what everyone else does and hibernate until the New Years...Get started now and avoid the need for a new years resolution!

Helping you make 2007 the best year ever,

BP

Fasting Diet, Circuit Training