Latest crazes to be adopted by dieters around the world in a bid to lose weight.  This fairly simple plan suggests that you eat normally for five days of the week, but follow a fasting type diet on the other two days.

Intermittent fasting has been very popular for many years and in various different methods. In India, it’s a common practice. We usually see our grannies or elders of the family do the fasting or ‘upavaas’ for a particular day or two in a week.

During fasting, several changes happen in our body on the cellular and molecular level. For example, our body changes its hormone levels to make stored body fat more accessible. Our cells also initiate important repair processes, and change the expression of genes.

Intermittent fasting methods

The 16/8 Method:

Also called the Lean gains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, for example from 1 pm to 9 pm. Then you “fast” for 16 hours in between.

Eat-Stop-Eat:

This involves fasting for 24 hours, once or twice a week, for example by not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.

The 5:2 Diet:

On two non-consecutive days of the week, only eat 500-600 calories. Eat normally the other 5 days.  By making you eat fewer calories, all of these methods should make you lose weight as long as you don’t compensate by eating much more during the eating periods.

If you eat a healthy balanced diet on non-fasting days, there is plenty of opportunity to get all the nutrients you need.

Unlike other diets which dictate and limit what you eat every day of the week; this diet has the benefit of allowing free rein over your intake for the majority of time.  This may make it easier to adhere to than other more restrictive diets that involve more fasting days or elimination of food groups.