I’ve been reading a lot about intermittent fasting and how it can help with weight loss as well as gut health. There are three basic types of fasting:

- Time restricted eating. The model I have read most about is eating during an 8 hour window of the day (i.e. 10AM to 6PM) and fasting the remaining 16 hours. There are all kinds of variations on this but all of them require a fasting window of time longer than the eating window.
- Fasting by day. This means eating normally a specific number of consecutive days/week and fasting or severely restricting food intake on the remaining consecutive days. The most common plan I’ve found for this is to eat normally for 5 days and then fast or eat limited amounts of food the other 2 days of the week. I personally think this would be hard – I get cranky when I’m hungry!
- Eat – stop – eat model. This model says you can eat normally but pick 1 or 2 days of the week to completely fast.
I’m most interested in trying the first kind of intermittent fasting. Given that my normal sleep pattern is 6-7 hours/night, it should be pretty easy to manage fasting 12 or more hours a day. Are you interested in giving this a try? Here are some links to give you more info:
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/intermittent-fasting-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work
- https://www.medicinenet.com/what_are_the_best_hours_for_intermittent_fasting/article.htm
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/intermittent-fasting/faq-20441303
- https://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/intermittent-fasting