Intermittent Fasting (IF) is an eating pattern where you alternate between periods of fasting and eating. It is not a diet because fasting does not affect what you eat, but rather when you eat. The most common methods for Intermittent Fasting are daily 16-hour fasting or two 24-hour fasts per week. Water, coffee, and other low-calorie beverages do not negatively affect Intermittent Fasting.
A brief history of fasting
Fasting was a common practice throughout human evolution. Ancient hunter-gatherers did not have supermarkets, refrigerators, or food available year-round. The little food they stored spoiled quickly. So they had to consume everything as quickly as possible to waste nothing. Sometimes they couldn't even find anything to eat. As a result, humans evolved to function for extended periods without food. Many history books, such as Sapiens, written by Prof. Yuval Noah Harari, describe in detail what the daily lives of our ancestors looked like.
For the human body, fasting is more natural than always eating 3-4 (or more) meals a day. Fasting is also often done for religious or spiritual reasons, including in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism.
The different methods of Intermittent Fasting
- The 16/8 method: this means you can only eat for 8 hours in a day. For example, you can choose to skip breakfast but eat lunch and dinner. A typical eating window is from 1 PM to 9 PM. Outside those hours, you eat nothing.
- Eat-stop-eat method: with this method, you eat nothing for 24 hours. Once or twice a week is ample.
- The 5:2 diet: here, you eat only 500 to 600 calories per day for two consecutive days, and the rest of the days you eat as usual. Repeat once a week.
Most people use the 16/8 method because it is the easiest to stick to.
Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
There are many health benefits associated with Intermittent Fasting. A scientific article published in The New England Journal of Medicine highlights some of these benefits.
A summary of these benefits includes:
- Increased fat burning
- Lowered insulin and blood sugar levels
- Potential reversal of type 2 diabetes
- Improved mental clarity and concentration
- More energy
- Potentially more growth hormone, at least in the short term
- An improved blood cholesterol profile
- Activation of cell cleansing by stimulating autophagy
- Reduction of inflammation