Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you cycle between the
period of eating and the period of fasting. It is mainly used by people
who want to lose body weight. Apart from being one of the healthiest
ways of losing body weight, it also helps to lower cholesterol, improve
glucose control, reduce liver fat and improve blood pressure. This
system claims that when it is effectively done, for weight loss, an
individual is expected to lose typically 7-11 pounds over 10 weeks.
During the fasting period, you choose to eat little, but it is
preferably to eat nothing at all.
Different and most popular methods used include;
The 16/8 method. This is called a leangains protocol. It involves
fasting 16 hours and eating the 8 hours.
Eat-Stop-Eat: this involves fasting a whole day or two per week and
eat in the rest of the days of the week. For instance, not eating from
dinner one day to dinner next day.
The 5:2 diet: this method involves calorie counting. An individual is
supposed to eat 500-600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the
week but eat normally the rest days of the week
