Combining Eat Stop Eat and Venus Factor?

[Cyndi]

Hi everyone,

I just purchased Eat Stop Eat and Venus Factor after seeing a lot of partnership between the two, and am loving what I’ve read so far!

I’m 21 and after being overweight for most of my life (176 lbs), a few years ago I tried a combination of starvation, the gym and cardio to finally pull down my weight. I was very dedicated and after a slow and difficult 5 months, I lost 40lbs, and am currently down to 135lbs. However, I’ve been wanting to shed a last 20 for a long time, and have been looking for a simpler, less torture-like and healthier method of shedding the last bit, and Venus Factor and ESE seems to be just the thing I’ve been looking for!

I was really impressed with all the research crammed into ESE and definitely want to incorporate 2x 24hr fasts per week, but I’m a bit confused as to how that will fit into the Venus phase system, and wanted to ask for your help and advice. How do I make both these programs work together??

For example, the VFVN gives me a daily budget of 1000 for loss and 1731 for maintenance. How do I fit this into ESE with 2x fasting?

Will 1000 cals on a post-fasting day be too little, since ESE recommends only a 20% reduction from your maintenance on non-fasting days?

How do I incorporate ESE fasting twice a week when I’m on 2&1 phase days of Venus?
Do I just eat as Venus prescribes every day (1000 cals), around the times of my fasts? Or is it ok to go even lower than 1000 on my fasting days? Or should I be adding cals to the low daily cal value that VFVN gives me, to account for the fasting?

I would really appreciate any advice so I can get moving on those last 20!
Thanks!

[Julie]

Eat Stop Eat fits very well with Venus Factor if you manage your calories weekly.

In ESE, you typically fast 24 hours no more than 2 days a week. It is hard to do this while in a hard deficit but can be done with the right eat up days. You eat every day in the ESE world as well. So a 24 hour fast would be I eat dinner at 6 pm. I eat nothing else [0 calorie beverages and under 50 calories total is fine] until 6 pm the next day. At that point, I would eat a 500 calorie dinner.

It’s a way to manage calories. It works if you have an event that you’re trying to save calories for or if you want to manage your calories weekly and add a little more to your deficit days. I did it for the second part but found 20-22 hours was my max point before I felt crappy. I have 1000 calories for deficit days and 1832 for maintenance days. Let’s call it 1800 so the math is easy.

So in a 6:1 week [the first two weeks now], I would have 1000*6 + 1800 = 7800 for the week. I would have my one maintenance day and then 2 fast days of 500 calories each so that leaves: 7800 – 1800 – 500*2 = 5000 calories for 4 days or 1250 per day just by fasting 2 days. Otherwise, if i had a wedding or another family gathering, I’d add some of those 1000 calories to my budget for those nights.

It works really well if you make your deficit days a little smaller and you’re trying to plan for an event or just manage your calorie budget.

So that’s how it’s different from the leangains 16/8 approach. The book is well worth it and Brad is one of the experts in IF.

[Christi]

I agree with Julie. As far as your fasts are concerned – instead of going by daily calorie allotments – go by weekly calorie goals. Add up what would be a ‘normal’ week for you as per Venus. Then eat that many calories THROUGH THE WEEK, while including your fasts. Does that make sense? You could average out your weekly allotment as per your non fast days, or have some lower cal and some higher cal days, its up to you. As long as the calorie amount at the end of the week is the same.

Start out slowly with the fasts. Start at 14 hours, then 16, 18, etc. Also, you might find 2 fasts a week a little hardcore……but give it a try.

One way the fasts helps with Venus Factor is that they allow us to BANK calories for parties, suppers with friends, special events, etc. So many Venusians use the fasts as a tool in their Venus belt to allow for calorie overages. It becomes all part of the plan.

So if Venus tells you its a 1000 cal day, but you fast, that means you could have 3000 cals the next day which would be great if that is a party or special event.

[Cyndi]

Thanks so much for the reply!

So say I didn’t fast and used the Venus weekly numbers alone… there really isn’t any further calorie reduction made from fasting at all in the entire week, right? In this case will fasting actually help the weight loss process at all, since it’s averaging the same amount of caloric consumption that Venus prescribes?

[Julie]

You’ve got it.

Other ways that fasting might help is by stimulating HGH and other things I can’t remember right now….and there are other side health benefits as well. But as far as ‘speeding up’ weight loss, no, since you should still be eating your weekly allotment of cals.

[Sara]

The value of fasting is that it is more of a mental exercise to teach you that not everything you feel is real hunger and it is not necessary to be eating all the time. Most people in the developed world have no clue what real hunger is anyway. Mostly what people think is hunger is boredom, habituation and maybe thirst. Feel hungry? Have a glass of water, tea or coffee instead. It also teaches you to ignore things like stomach growling (not hunger) and habits of eating mindlessly.

Think of fasting as a practice like meditation or yoga to teach focus and mindfulness. It may also over time have the effect of retraining your “hunger” signals in the brain. It also frees up a lot of time not having to worry about eating. Best advice would be to try it one day a week and go from there.

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I have been wanting to start the 24 hour fast, but have been a little afraid that I would loose my concentration at work, because I would be thinking of food all the time, get the shakes or not being able to drive my car proper because of the feeling of “hunger”.

I have the laste couple of month been doing the 14-18 hours of fasting (from dinner to lunch), and only been drinking water, tea and coffee. Is that allowed when fasting or is it only water that counts?

[Julie]

Any non-caloric beverage is fine during a fast.

[Cora]

could someone explain to me how the 16-8 fasting works….can you do that everyday as a way of eating? say I stop eating at 10pm and have my first meal at 2pm the next day and ensure that I have my 1000 calories by 10pm that same evening, can I adapt that as a eating method in general or should it only be for a day or 2? I’m very new and still confused on some of the things I’ve been reading.

[Anonymous]

Cora, that is an excellent way to incorporate the 16/8 into your daily routine. I sure helps with the deficit day calories to be able to split it over less hours! If you are going to incorporate longer fast, say 20-24 or more hours then I would stick to only 1-2 days maximum in the week.

[SwenConger3116]

I find the 16-8 more manageable for me. The 24 hr fast is a bit extreme for me. I feel the best with the former. But everyone is different. You have to figure out what is right for you. As far as the extra calories, I am not sure as I don’t do the 24hr fast. Good luck!

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