What Is the Intermittent Fasting Diet?

Last Updated on April 12, 2024 by Fasting Planet

If you’re determined to lose weight, you’ve probably tried diet after diet, experiencing a few pounds lost here and there, but nothing significant. One solution you haven’t yet considered is fasting. A friend of yours had good results on the intermittent fasting diet, so you figured you might follow in their footsteps. What is the intermittent fasting diet?

The intermittent fasting diet refers to a type of fast that’s on and off in nature. For example, you might fast for 24 hours and then eat normally for the next 24 hours, or you could fast for 16 hours a day and then spend eight hours a day eating.

In this in-depth guide, we will explore the intermittent fasting diet in much more detail, answering all your most burning questions. From the benefits of intermittent fasting to how much weight you could lose, whether you can exercise, and what breaks an intermittent fast, you’ll be ready to embark on your most successful weight loss plan yet!

What Is the Intermittent Fasting Diet?

First, let’s begin with a clear definition of the intermittent fasting diet. A fast is a period of not eating, but with intermittent fasting, you break up those non-eating periods with breaks for food and beverage. It’s also called intermittent energy restriction.

It’s your choice how long your intermittent fast will be. Periods of 12 to 24 hours are popular, especially for beginners. More seasoned fasters can easily go on an intermittent fast for 48 to 72 hours. Depending on the type of intermittent fast you commit to, it’s possible to extend it far longer, such as months or even years.

In 1971, a young man who was 27 at the time started what would become the longest intermittent fast in history. He consumed supplements and water for 382 days, starting at 456 pounds and ending the fast at 180 pounds.

What Are the Types of Intermittent Fasts?

Intermittent fasts loosely fit into one of three categories: daily time-restricted feeding, periodic fasting, and alternate-day fasting. Here is an overview of your fasting choices.

Alternate-Day Fasting

We briefly described alternate-day fasting in the intro, but here’s a more thorough explanation. You schedule out your week, starting with a fast that lasts 24 hours. Then, the next day, you don’t fast. The day after that, you fast again, and so on and so forth.

You can decide when the fasting window begins and ends, as long as it’s 24 hours. Whether that’s midnight to midnight or 7 a.m. to 7 a.m., alternate-day fasting can work with your lifestyle.

On the days when you can eat, it’s best if you watch your calories and stick to nutritious meals.

OMAD

The OMAD diet is short for one meal a day. Now, the name is a little misleading. You do restrict your eating window with an OMAD diet, but what comprises your meal is completely up to you. For example, you could have a salad and some grilled chicken if you wanted to eat healthily, or you could gorge yourself on a whole pizza and three cheeseburgers.

Even if you only give yourself 60 minutes to eat and fast for the other 23, what you eat in that hour can go a long way towards affecting how successful your OMAD diet is. Everything in moderation!

16:8 Method

If you like the basic concept of the OMAD diet but you aren’t quite ready to commit to 23 or 24 hours of consecutive fasting, then the 16:8 fast is a good one for you. The ratio in this refers to how many hours you fast versus how many you eat. That means you’d get eight hours to eat every day you committed to a 16:8 fast, but the other 16 hours of the day would be spent in a fasted state.

The best thing about the 16:8 fast is that it’s customizable. Any way you can break up 24 hours so you spend more time fasting than eating should work for a 16:8 fast. For example, you could start with a 14:10 fast if that’s easier for you.

12-Hour Fasting

Speaking of splitting your day into 24 hours, another type of intermittent fast to consider is the 12-hour fast. You’d spend 12 hours of your day eating and then 12 hours fasting on this schedule. It’s a good, even split, and 12-hour fasts are even more beginner-friendly than the 16:8 method. If you’re asleep for eight hours, then spending 12 hours fasting really isn’t all that challenging.

5:2 Fasting

The 5:2 fast, also called the 5:2 method, also gives you a lot of leeway. This seven-day diet requires that for two days every week, you seriously restrict your calories. It’s recommended you consume 500 to 600 calories a day for those two days. You can achieve this by either eating very light-calorie foods (which is doable) or indulging in one or two slightly significant meals and then spending the rest of the day fasting.

For the other five days of the week, you can eat as you normally do, but again, err on the healthier side of things for the 5:2 fast to be its most effective. An intermittent fast like this is probably the easiest for anyone to do, even if they’ve never fasted before, because the fasting windows are so short.

The Warrior Diet

Some fasters abide by the Warrior Diet, which is close to OMAD but not quite the same thing. With the Warrior Diet, you get to eat once a day, but only at dinnertime. You should also watch the types of foods you eat and limit portion sizes, both of which are not requirements of the OMAD diet. Exercise is also recommended post-meal or thereabouts.

Water Fasting

For the more experienced faster who wants to supercharge their results, water fasting is one such way to do so. For a period of 24 to 72 hours, you’d consume little more than water. Some supplements may be permissible, as are low-calorie beverages such as black coffee and green tea. No foods are allowed until your fasting period ends.

Dry Fasting

The intermittent fast with the highest degree of difficulty is undoubtedly dry fasting. As you may have guessed from the name, dry fasting omits even water. Yes, that means you have to go without food and water for your often-short fasting period.

Soft dry water fasts at least permit you to wash your hands, clean your face, shower, and brush your teeth, but hard dry water fasts do not. You can’t even touch a drop of water under this strict fast. It demands immense amounts of experience and dedication.

What Are the Benefits of Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting can be rigorous, but for the challenges it presents, you do get a lot of benefits. Here is a proven list of health perks associated with intermittent fasting.

Higher-Quality Sleep

You’re always tired. Some nights, you treat yourself to an early evening, yet you still wake up the next day feeling groggy and exhausted. What gives?

Through intermittent fasting, it’s possible you could improve your sleep. A 2018 report in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep found that intermittent fasting could positively affect your circadian rhythm, regulating it for better rest.

Lots of things can throw our circadian rhythm out of whack, such as staring at our screens too close to bedtime (all that blue light) or eating late into the evening. When your circadian rhythm is more natural, you’ll find you don’t struggle as much to fall asleep. You’ll toss and turn less, and when you wake up in the morning, you’ll actually feel rested.

Lowered Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

No matter your age, it’s always good to have an Alzheimer’s prevention plan, especially considering that this heartbreaking disease is incurable. In a 2007 report published in Neurobiology of Disease, when rats intermittent fasted, they were able to prevent developing Alzheimer’s. Those rats that already had the condition didn’t experience as severe symptoms either.

Now, that study was done on rats, not people, but this 2014 report in Aging did involve human subjects. The data discusses studies done on those with Alzheimer’s. When those with the disease went on intermittent fasts, their Alzheimer’s symptoms got vastly better.

Less Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance can cause your blood sugar to spike, which puts you at risk of type 2 diabetes. In 2019, Nutrients published a report on the link between intermittent fasting and insulin resistance.

According to the data, many types of fasting–intermittent fasting among them–can control insulin levels and even decrease them. This may allow you to avoid developing type 2 diabetes.

Brain Health

Intermittent fasting can help you take care of your brain besides just by possibly preventing Alzheimer’s disease. This report in the Annals of Neurology from 2011 notes that when animals intermittent fast, they may have a lower stroke risk. It’s unclear if the same benefit extends to us people.

Further, it’s been proven in a variety of studies (like this 2005 report in Annual Review of Nutrition) that our brains produce more brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF when fasting. BDNF is a type of hormone that, when too low, could cause or contribute to depression.

Your brain could even develop new cells based on the results of a 2002 study in Neurochemistry. As of yet, this perk has only been replicated in rats, but it could happen for humans as well.

Autophagy

The reason your brain cells could be restored when intermittent fasting is due to autophagy. This natural process is accelerated on intermittent and longer-term fasts alike. The autophagic process causes your body’s healthy cells to eat damaged and old cells parts, and sometimes even the whole cells. This leaves your body with only healthy, strong cells.

A Healthier Heart

If you’re looking to ward off heart disease (and who isn’t?), intermittent fasting may be part of the solution. Through bettering blood sugar control as well as lowering inflammatory markers such as high triglycerides in the blood, bad cholesterol, and high blood pressure, it’s possible to prevent heart disease. So says a series of studies, including this Brazilian one in a 2013 report in Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira.  

 

 

Lower Risk of Cancer

When a 2012 article in Science Translational Medicine examined animal cancer cell growth rate, especially when fasting, the results were quite interesting. This study and many others have reported that it’s possible to slow tumor cell growth by fasting. More research is necessary to see if such results can also occur in humans, but what we do know for sure is that some people undergoing chemotherapy while fasting may have less severe symptoms from chemo.

Less Inflammation

Inflammation is both a good and bad thing in the body, with the levels of inflammation dictating which is which. For example, inflammation can tell your immune system that a foreign invader is trying to get in and make you sick. Inflammation can also cause symptoms like stiff muscles, lack of appetite, headaches, fatigue, and fever if it’s excessive, so balance truly is key.

In a 2012 Nutrition Research study, 50 people participated in the observance of Ramadan. This Muslim religious observance calls for fasting from sunup to sundown, in which participants are then allowed to eat.

The fasters’ pro-inflammatory markers decreased when they weren’t eating, as did their body fat, body weight, and blood pressure. This presents compelling evidence that intermittent fasting may be able to lessen inflammation.

Weight Loss

Here’s the big one you came for, right? When you intermittent fast, you’re either not eating for a period or significantly cutting calories. To lose weight, your body must burn more calories than you put in, which is easy to do on a fast.

It’s not only the reduced calories that make it easier to lose weight on a fast. When your insulin lowers, your body can begin burning fat for energy more easily. A 2000 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition states that you can even boost your metabolic rate through intermittent fasting by as much as 3.6 percent to 14 percent.

Better, Longer Life

By keeping your heart and brain healthy, lowering your risk of developing diseases, and warding off obesity, you may enjoy a longer life through intermittent fasting. A 2000 report from the Mechanisms of Ageing and Development found that when rats were on intermittent fasts, they were reported to live longer.

How much longer? That depends. Gerontology, in a classic study, followed nearly 30 rats from the day they were born until they died. Some of the rats fasted while others did not. The fasting rats had a vastly higher lifespan, 83 percent higher!

What Can You Eat or Drink While Intermittent Fasting?

Let’s say you’re on an intermittent fast that allows for a daily eating window. What can you eat and drink in that time?

Anything, really. Since you’re not in a fasted state for that window, your eating and drinking options are wide open. The only exception would be on a 5:2 diet, in which you must stick within 500 to 600 calories two days a week. Also, on a water fast, you would refrain from eating until the fast is over.

Just because you can eat and drink anything though doesn’t mean you should. If you’re trying to lose weight, fasting can benefit you in two ways. The first is by minimizing calorie consumption, as we’ve discussed, and the second is by burning fat.

Your body begins using glucose from food for energy and turns to fat burning only after it runs out of glucose reserves. When you supply an abundance of glucose during your eating window, you only prolong the amount of time your body has that glucose to burn through. This inhibits weight loss.

Here are some healthy foods and beverages we’d recommend so you can keep your weight loss goals on track even between intermittent fasting periods.

Protein

A protein-heavy diet is ideal for building and maintaining muscle mass in non-fasting times. Protein is also beneficial to you in a multitude of other ways, such as:

• Helps with weight loss: On the quest to lose weight, eating protein is a smart choice. In a 2005 study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, when a group of women who were overweight got a portion of their calories through protein (30 percent), over the span of 12 weeks, they lost 11 pounds. They didn’t change their diet in any other way.
• Controls blood pressure: One pillar of health is low blood pressure, and protein can help here as well. In a PLoS One study from 2010, over a series of controlled trials, it was found that by eating more protein, participants had lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
• Increases metabolism: The thermic effect of food or TEF for protein is around 20 to 35 percent. Compare that to carbs and fat, which have a TEF of five to 15 percent. Since protein TEF is higher, eating plentiful amounts of protein can lead to a metabolism boost.
• Fat burning: The fat burning your body is already doing through your intermittent fast can be augmented via a protein-rich diet. This 2009 report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition says that consuming high quantities of protein can increase calorie burning by 80 to 100 more calories daily.
• Makes cravings manageable: If you have bad cravings that derail your diet, eat more protein. An Obesity (Silver Spring) report from 2011 that involved overweight male participants found that when they consumed more protein (a 25-percent increase), their cravings lessened at a rate of 60 percent.
• Manages your appetite: Protein fills you up and prevents you from wanting to munch again for a while because it can boost the hormone YY peptide and lessen ghrelin. YY peptide contributes to that feeling of fullness while ghrelin is a hormone responsible for your hunger.

If you’re looking for proteins to incorporate into your intermittent fasting diet, try nuts, tofu, fish, and meat.

Vegetables and Fruits

You also should get lots of fruits and vegetables into your diet. These foods are healthy, low in calories, and have lots of hydration. Also, depending on which fruits and veggies you enjoy, you’re benefiting your health in a variety of ways.

Here’s a rundown of which veggies and fruits to reach for and why:

• Asparagus: The glutathione in asparagus may be able to trigger carcinogen breakdown to keep you safe from cancer.
• Swiss chard: If your blood sugar is high, then eat Swiss chard more often. The syringic acid within the veggie brings blood sugar back down, which is great for diabetics especially.
• Kale: The superfood kale has earned that distinction because it’s loaded with flavonoids and carotenoids, both of which can reduce your risk of developing cancer.
• Beets: Beets may be able to safeguard you from colon cancer with their unique fiber content.
• Carrots: Protect your eyes by regularly eating carrots. These often-orange vegetables have lots of vitamin A, which can keep your vision free of eye diseases.
• Bok choy: Liven up your diet with Bok choy, which could potentially lower your risk of stroke and heart disease thanks to its omega-3s.
• Cauliflower: For a stronger immune system, cauliflower is a great pick. It has glucoraphanin, which can become sulforaphane that your immune system uses to stay healthy and strong.
• Papayas: A papaya or two is not only tasty, but has enough dietary fiber to keep you fuller longer. Also, eating papayas often may be able to lower your cholesterol.
• Cranberries: The proanthocyanin in cranberries can help you avoid painful urinary tract infections.
• Lemons and limes: Although not the most common fruit, these citruses have a lot of vitamin C for a stronger immune system.
• Pears: Pears have a good amount of fiber per fruit, about 5.5 grams for a medium-sized pear.
• Apples: An apple a day can keep the doctor away because of apple polyphenols, which may be able to lower your blood sugar.
• Cantaloupes: Beta-carotene is one of the many nutrients you get in a single cantaloupe. The beta-carotene could lessen your asthma risk.
• Grapefruits: Stick to the pink and red varieties of grapefruit for more lycopene, which is a healthful antioxidant.

Fibrous Foods

Dietary fiber, as indicated above, is awesome for your health. Here are some benefits of fiber:

• Could prolong your life: By eating fibrous cereal or other regular sources of fiber each day, researchers have found that your chances of cancer and cardiovascular disease death lessen.
• Prevents unnecessary snacking: The more fiber in your food, the more filling it will be. This keeps you out of the fridge or pantry. When you’re intermittent fasting especially, choosing foods that will keep you full is wise.
• Healthier blood sugar: Yes, your blood sugar is also aided by a fibrous diet. Soluble fiber causes sugar to absorb more slowly, which can prevent sudden spikes in blood sugar.
• Reduces cholesterol: Soluble fiber also plays a role in your cholesterol. The fiber in oat bran, flaxseed, oats, and beans especially controls bad cholesterol, bringing levels down.
• Better bowel health: If you suffer from irregular bowel movements, you need more fiber. It also softens stools so going to the bathroom is more comfortable. Eating a diet that’s high in fiber may be able to prevent diverticular disease in the colon and hemorrhoids as well.

Water

Moving onto beverages, nearly every type of intermittent fast save for a dry fast allows you to consume water. Make sure that you get at least eight daily glasses of water that are eight ounces each. On a water fast, increase consumption to nine to 13 cups, with the former recommended for women and the latter for men.

Water can help you in so many ways on an intermittent fast. It keeps you hydrated, which is a serious risk when fasting without food. Each day, we get about 20 percent of our daily hydration needs from the foods we eat, so when you cut that 20 percent out, it’s easy to develop a water deficit.

Sipping H2O can also make you feel fuller, which can keep you going until you can eat again on your intermittent fast. Whether you drink your water as is or flavor it with lemon or another fruit, consume it often.

Black Coffee

Can you drink coffee when intermittent fasting? The answer is yes! During your fasting periods, you want to limit consumption to black coffee only. A cup of black coffee is very low in calories, between one and two calories. According to NDTV Food, if you use decaffeinated beans, you can reduce the caloric load of a cup of black coffee to zero.

Enjoying a daily cup or two of black coffee on your fast may be able to prevent the onset of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, says a 2016 report in Practical Neurology.

If you’re trying to trigger ketosis on an intermittent fast to ramp up your fat-burning even more, a 2017 report in Obesity (Silver Spring) notes that black coffee may make it possible by encouraging the body to make more ketones.

This different report from the same journal in 2018 found that black coffee could even extend the length of autophagy. You may also be able to reduce rates of metabolic syndrome through black coffee, says the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition in this 2017 report.

Green Tea

Tea lovers, rejoice. You can safely consume green tea on an intermittent fast. It’s low in calories and rich in health benefits. Here those are:

• Enjoying a longer life: When JAMA followed adults in Japan for more than a decade, the frequent green tea drinkers had longer lives. Stroke death risk was reduced 35 percent in men and 42 percent in women, heart disease death was reduced by 22 percent in men and 31 percent in women, and other causes of death were lessened by 12 percent in men and 23 percent in women. The study had more than 40,000 participants.
• Achieving weight loss: If you’re trying to shrink your abdominal fat especially, a 2012 report in Obesity found that the catechins in green tea can help you reach your goal. It’s also a great beverage for weight loss.
• Increases fat burning: When the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1999 gave 10 men more green tea extract over a span of time, they burned four percent more calories than those who skipped the tea.

How Much Weight Can You Lose with Intermittent Fasting?

All this talk about calorie burning and weight loss has you curious, how much weight can you anticipate losing on an intermittent fast? As we always say when it pertains to weight loss, the answer will vary by person.

Your current weight, your diet, and your metabolism will all influence your weight loss results. Incorporating the above foods and beverages into your diet is a great starting point if you notice your weight is coming off sluggishly. Those foods are low in calories so your body can burn through its supply of glucose faster and start torching fat.

Here is what the science has to say about losing weight on an intermittent fast. A pivotal 2014 report in Translational Research found that when participants intermittent fasted for up to 24 weeks, their body weight decreased by three to eight percent.

On a week by week basis, the participants lost about 0.55 pounds. By doing alternate-day fasting specifically, their weight loss was 1.65 pounds every week.

Here’s an article from Michael Dolan of Everyday Health, who fasted and dropped 48 pounds. He ate for only eight hours daily and chose a lean diet. Dolan doesn’t mention how long he fasted for though, which is a critical piece of information we’re unfortunately missing.

Sumaya Kazi of Medium has a similar story, in that she lost 50 pounds by intermittent fasting. Kazi says it took seven and a half months to achieve this result. She followed a modified type of intermittent fast, the 4:3 diet, which involved her fasting for three days and then eating regularly for four days every week.

These results show what’s possible, but they’re not necessarily guaranteed. The results will look different for everyone.

When to Work Out When Intermittent Fasting

Besides what you eat on an intermittent fast, how you move your body is also important. Thirty minutes of cardio, especially the low-intensity kind, might activate even greater fat burning than if you didn’t exercise. By lifting lighter weights than in a non-fasted state, you can preserve muscle mass.

The reason muscle mass is at risk on an intermittent fast is that by the time your body begins burning fat, it’s much less discriminatory. It may also burn muscle proteins that can shrink your muscle mass on prolonged fasts.

As for when you should exercise? Some intermittent fasters like to start their day with some exercise and then eat. Others like to wait until the end of their fast to work out. We recommend fitting in exercise over several different timeslots from one intermittent fast to another to see which you like best.

Above all else, make sure that you increase your hydration when you engage in physical fitness. Also, with few if any calories in your system when you work out, don’t push yourself too hard. If you feel dizzy, sick, or weak, stop and take a break.

What Breaks a Fast When Intermittent Fasting?

Let’s say you graduated to a stricter type of intermittent fast that omits food, such as a water fast. If you get hungry, is it okay to eat a very low-calorie meal, or would that be considered breaking a fast?

Any caloric intake on a fast is technically breaking a fast. Some fasters will allow for some leeway, such as up to 50 calories. This is such an insignificant number of calories that it’s unlikely to cause an insulin response that could flood your body with more glucose and stop fat burning.

That said, what you eat is important here. If you want to sip some black coffee or enjoy a cup or two of green tea, that’s safe. A couple of cookies or small candies is not a good idea. As we’ve written about on this blog, even chewing gum and diet sodas are often too sugary on a fast.

Do You Need to Count Calories When Intermittent Fasting?

If you’ve dieted before, then you likely have the habit of counting calories engrained in you. When you begin an intermittent fast, do you have to keep tracking how many calories you consume?

We would recommend it, yes. Knowing what you’re putting into your body gives you a better expectation of your intermittent fasting outcome. For example, if you eat 1,000 calories a day on your intermittent fast and burn 400 calories through exercise, then that’s only about 600 calories in your system a day. That should lead to weight loss.

Some types of intermittent fasts mandate you to watch your calories, like the 5:2 fast. Having a log of calories you consume for those two days every week will ensure you stay within the parameters of the fast.

How Long Does It Take for Intermittent Fasting to Work?

You can’t wait to start seeing results from your intermittent fast. How long will it take for it to work?

Well, it depends on what you mean when you say “work.” If it’s fat burning, you need to fast for at least 12 to 14 hours. By then, your body should have ridded itself of its glucose supply and begun torching body fat instead.

That said, even the estimate above is not a guarantee. If you’re new to fasting and your body has never switched from using glucose to fat as an energy source, it could take longer than even 14 hours for fat burning to begin.

Also, if you keep noshing on carb-heavy and sugary foods during your eating windows, then you could reset the fat burning process by adding more glucose to your body.

If you’re talking about weight loss when you ask how long it will take an intermittent fast to work, that depends too. The Medium writer we linked you to earlier lost a good amount of weight, 50 pounds, through an intermittent fast, but she committed to more than seven months of fasting.

That Translational Research study mentions that weight loss for the participants was between 0.55 and 1.65 pounds every week depending on the type of intermittent fast they did. Even if we rounded that up to two pounds of weight loss every week, if you wanted to lose 50 pounds, it’d take you 25 weeks. That’s about six months.

Intermittent fasting does not produce overnight results, but the multitude of ways you can help your body if you stick to the fast makes doing so worth it.

How to Do Intermittent Fasting on Keto

A ketogenic diet is one that’s low in carbs and high in protein and fat. Eating this way causes your body to produce more ketones from fat in your liver. The ketones become your main energy source as your body enters a state known as ketosis.

Since both intermittent fasting and a keto diet calls for omitting or restricting carbs and burning fat instead of glucose, you can combine the two. Before you do though, call your doctor and schedule an appointment. Those with heart disease and diabetes shouldn’t combine intermittent fasting and keto, nor should breastfeeding or pregnant women.

When you do an intermittent fast on keto, you might skip breakfast, give yourself an afternoon or evening eating window of four to seven hours, and repeat this at least twice a week. As you eat, you should stick to ketogenic foods, including:

• Dark chocolate in small quantities
• Unsweetened tea and coffee
• Olives
• Shirataki noodles
• Cream and butter
• Berries like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries
• Seeds and nuts like sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, pistachios, pecans, macadamia nuts, cashews, Brazil nuts, and almonds
• Olive oil
• Cottage cheese
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Coconut oil
• Eggs
• Poultry
• Meat
• Avocados
• Cheese
• Low-carb vegetables
• Seafood like squid, oysters, octopus, mussels, and clams

Why Am I Not Losing Weight When Intermittent Fasting?

You felt inspired by this article and decided to go on an intermittent fast. The only problem is, after a few months, you didn’t lose any weight. You haven’t gained extra weight either, but the troublesome pounds you want to disappear have not come off. Why is that?

More than likely, your diet is to blame. Most types of intermittent fasting give you the freedom to choose what you eat, as we talked about earlier. Poor dietary choices like cheeseburgers, pizza, ice cream, and other high-carb, high-sugar, high-salt, processed foods pile on the calories. Even if you only eat once a day, if you’re consuming close to 2,000 calories and you only burn half of that, then you’re not going to lose weight.

When you eat is another determining factor. The later into the evening you consume food, the likelier your body is to keep that fat stored instead of burn it, says this article in the Washington Post from 2015.  Eating later into the evening can also potentially raise your blood sugar as well, increasing your chronic disease risk.

Factors such as food digestion, absorption, exercise levels, hormones, biochemical reactions, and body temperature can determine how well your food is processed, as can the time of day. When you eat within your circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle, you’re unlikely to incur extra weight gain.

Mentioned in the Washington Post article is a 2013 report from the International Journal of Obesity (London). In that study, more than 400 participants, all overweight, ate at different times. Some consumed a main meal earlier than 3 p.m. and others later. The earlier group lost more weight over 20 weeks even though they didn’t exercise, sleep, or eat more than the later group.

Conclusion

An intermittent fasting diet is a type of start-stop diet that typically allows for some daily calorie consumption. By choosing fibrous, protein-heavy, low-carb foods, you can lose weight and even increase your metabolism and ward off diseases.

If you’re interested in trying the intermittent fasting diet for yourself, this guide should have all the info you need to get started. Good luck on your fast!