Intermittent fasting has many forms with the most popular being eating during an 8 (men) to 10 (women) hour window and fasting for 16 (men) to 14 (women) hours every day. The beauty of this approach is that you can pick the fasting and eating windows that work best for you and your schedule. I prefer to skip breakfast and eat between noon and 8 pm. During the fasting period only water, tea and coffee is recommended (I've switched to green tea in the morning to skip must needed milk in tea).
This is not a diet, simply a way to allow your body to enter into a fasted state every day which starts around 12 hours after your last meal. When a well-nourished body enters a fasted state many beneficial things happen including up to a 5 fold increase in human growth hormone (hGH). hGH helps you burn fat, increases muscle mass, boosts the immune system, stimulates repair and growth of all your organs including your brain and promotes energy by helping your thyroid hormones be more active.
The fasted state also lowers insulin and blood sugar reducing the risk for, and impact of, type II diabetes. Intermittent fasting might even allow you to live a longer, healthier life by improving gene expression to make more molecules related to longevity and disease protection. Let’s face it, many of us are carrying unhealthy weight in part because we live in such an affluent society where calories are so easy to come by.
Weight loss from intermittent fasting happens primarily due to enhanced hormone function which stimulates the burning of fat, not necessarily due to eating fewer calories, which often happens as well due to skipping one meal a day. If you are inflamed and sore, intermittent fast might help you by reducing the amount of unstable free radicals in your body and lowering inflammation. One of the things I like best about intermittent fasting is that it helps my body detoxify and repair.
While in a fasted state the body initiates a waste removal process called autophagy where the body cleans house by breaking down and removing old and worn out proteins and cells. This is like doing a spring cleaning of your house every day. Intermittent fasting has many proven benefits that might help you live a more energetic and healthy life.