By Joseph Mercola, DO
Mercola.com
An animal study published in May 2022, found a time-restricted and calorie-restricted diet could lengthen life. There are several approaches to fasting. Intermittent fasting is a way of restricting the time during which you consume food. However, it does not necessarily mean that you are also restricting calories over a 24-hour period.
For example, intermittent fasting generally implies that you restrict eating food during certain hours of the day and do not eat at night. The approach you use may depend on your daily circumstances. At first, you might be nervous about restricting food intake to certain hours during the day. However, if you approach it gradually, your body gets used to it and it’s very doable.
A common method of intermittent fasting is to eat during four to eight hours of the day and fast for the remaining 16 to 20 hours. This is popular since you’re already fasting while you’re sleeping. You can extend the overnight fast by skipping breakfast or you may choose to eat breakfast and skip dinner.
Some people do this type of fasting daily, while others practice two to four times a week. The more consistently you use it, the less you’ll feel hungry at the mealtime you choose to skip. Another approach to intermittent fasting is to cap your calorie intake two days a week at 500 calories. You pick whatever two days you want, as long as the days you choose are not back-to-back
Another method is to water fast for 24 hours once a week. This can lead to symptoms of headaches, irritability and fatigue, which are triggered by the release of toxins. For this reason, I don’t recommend multiday water fasting any longer, as most have inefficient detox systems and it could lead to more harm than good.
