What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a dietary pattern that involves consuming your daily calories within a short timeframe and fasting for the rest of the day. A popular time frame is an eight-hour eating window followed by a 16-hour fast, although there are versions with different eating windows.

Intermittent fasting is sometimes adopted as a strategy for weight loss, or for one of its associated health benefits. IF may help improve metabolic health, including lowering blood pressure and improving blood sugar levels.

The main variations of intermittent fasting include:

• 8/16, which involves an eating window of eight hours and a 16-hour fast each day. For example, you might start eating at 12 pm (noon) and finish at 8 pm each day.
• 5:2, which involves eating normally for five days and then significantly reducing your caloric intake on the remaining two days of the week (these two days would be the fasting days).
• Alternate day fasting, which is exactly as it sounds, where you eat normally for a day and follow this with a day of fasting (such as fasting for 16 hours as you would in the 8/16 method)

If you are interested in learning more about intermittent fasting and whether it is a dietary choice that is right for you it is important to first speak with your healthcare provider.