Intermittent Fasting

There are so many trends on the market geared toward losing weight and feeling better that one must often take the trial and error approach. This can lead to purchasing unwanted foods or expensive exercise equipment. Intermittent Fasting does not fall into this category. Fasting as a tradition has always been associated with the more aesthetic aspects of world religions and is characterized by eating normally followed by any period of food restriction. Many nutritionists refer to this as an “eating pattern” instead of a “diet.”

There is a beginner’s mode of fasting called the 16/8 fast that involves 16 hours of fasting and eight hours of normal eating for men, and 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of regular eating for women. An example of this would be to stop eating at 7 p.m. on a Sunday night and resume eating at 11 a.m. the next day. During the fasting period you can sleep and drink water, black coffee or tea. Most people do not find this too taxing and it can be done once, twice or every day of the week.

The key is to eat normally during the eight–10-hour period, meaning two normal meals or three lighter meals. The idea is to give your body a rest from constant eating. The purported health benefits include better digestion, focus and weight loss.

Other more intense methods of fasting involve full-day fasting, fasting for a full 24 hours up to twice a week, or the 5:2 fast, in which you eat around 500 calories for two consecutive days of the week and normally for the other five. The goal of these patterns is to eat healthfully and have your body work better rather than to try to achieve unrealistic goals.