As weight-loss plans go, it’s easy to see the allure of intermittent fasting: Eat what you want, but only during certain windows of time — often just eight hours a day. Instead of counting calories or measuring portions, dieters just have to pay attention to the clock, said Courtney Peterson, a nutrition researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “You have this really simple rule: Eat or don’t eat,” Peterson said.
The technique has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years, becoming a leading trending topic on social media. But does time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, really help people shed pounds and boost health? Here’s what you need to know about the practice: Intermittent fasting is a meal strategy where people switch between fasting and eating on a regular schedule, defined as at least 14 hours with no food, Peterson said. That can mean variations such as eating every other day, eating five days a week and then fasting for two days or limiting daily eating to certain hours.
Time-restricted eating, where people condense all of their eating into a daily window of 10 hours or less, is the most popular form of intermittent fasting. Diners will delay breakfast until 10 a.m.
or noon and then eat dinner by 6 p.m. or 8 p.
m., forgoing food the rest of the time. The theory behind time-restricted eating is that it supports the circadian rhythm, or the body’s internal clock.
Spending more time in a fasting state may boost the body’s p.
