How to do the Eat-Stop-Eat Diet

Intermittent fasting has many different protocols, each of which have a different eating 
pattern. The eating pattern describes how long you go with eating and how long you fast 
for. One of the popular protocols is called the eat-stop-eat diet. Instead of doing fasting 
daily like with the LeanGains 16-8 protocol, you will instead fast for 24 hours 1-2 days a 
week, and eat mostly what you want the rest of the week. Here is more information 
about following this intermittent fasting protocol.

Basics of This Diet

Here is how the Eat-Stop-Eat diet protocol works: you eat how you normally would for 
the majority of the week, fasting for 24 hours at a time, 1-2 days a week. Some people 
will fast just one full day a week, while others will fast twice a week, with a few days in 
between. You can also transition into it slowly, starting with one day, then increasing it 
to two when you feel comfortable with that.

When to Start the Fast

The great thing about intermittent fasting is that it is very flexible, including with this 
protocol. You just have to go 24 hours in between eating days, but they can start at any 
time. You can start them at midnight or 2 in the afternoon – it doesn’t matter. Work with 
your own schedule, preferably starting it around the middle of the day. This helps to 
break up the days of fasting, where a good portion of it exists when you are sleeping. 
Note what time your last meal is, and just make sure you wait 24 hours until your next 
one.

Breaking the Fast

Another important thing to be aware of with intermittent fasting, especially diets where 
you are going 24 hours without eating, is how you break the fast. Don’t just pig out and 
binge eat when it’s time to eat again. You are going to feel ill after going so long without 
food. You need to ease back into it slowly by having a normal-sized meal of something 
you’re used to eating when breaking the fast. This first meal might be a little smaller 
than other meals during the eating phase, and that’s how it should be.

Start With Just One Day

Don’t try to do 2 days during the first week of the eat-stop-eat way of intermittent fasting. 
For the first few weeks, start with just one day out of the week where you fast for 24 
hours. After several weeks of this, you will then be ready to move on to two days out of 
the week.

