Intermittent Fasting: Fad or Weight Loss Solution?
Is skipping meals a bad idea or a secret weight-loss weapon? One diet trend that shows no sign of going away soon is intermittent fasting. That’s when you voluntarily abstain from food or beverages other than water for a certain amount of time. Some fasting is for religious reasons, while others fast for weight loss. But is intermittent fasting a healthy way to lose weight?
The three popular approaches to intermittent fasting are:
- Alternate-day fasting
Eat a normal, healthy diet one day and then completely fast or have one small meal the next day. Usually, the small meal is fewer than 500 calories. - 5-2 fasting
Eat a normal diet five days a week and fast two days per week. - Daily time-restricted fasting
Eat normally but only within an eight-hour window each day. For example, skip breakfast, but eat lunch around 11 a.m. and dinner by 7 p.m.
Excerpted from Mayo Clinic Health System
