Intermittent fasting is an eating plan that switches between fasting and eating on a regular schedule.

For instance, you might try eating only during an eight-hour period each day and fast for the remainder. Or you might choose to eat only one meal a day two days a week. There are many different intermittent fasting schedules.

Intermittent fasting contrasts with the normal eating pattern for most Americans, who eat throughout their waking hours.

For example, if someone is eating three meals a day, plus snacks, and they’re not exercising, then every time they eat, they’re running on those calories and not burning their fat stores.

After hours without food, the body exhausts its sugar stores and starts burning fat. This is often referred to this as “metabolic switching.”

Intermittent fasting works by prolonging the period when your body has burned through the calories consumed during your last meal and begins burning fat.

Research shows that intermittent fasting is a way to manage your weight and prevent — or even reverse — some forms of disease.

It’s important to check with your doctor before starting intermittent fasting. Once you get the go-ahead, the actual practice is simple.

Longer periods without food, such as 24-, 36-, 48- and 72-hour fasting periods, are not necessarily better for you, and may be dangerous. Going too long without eating might actually encourage your body to start storing more fat in response to starvation.

Some people should steer clear of trying intermittent fasting:

• Children and teens under age 18.
• Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
• Those with a history of eating disorders.

10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

1. Changes the function of hormones, cells, and genes.
2. Can help you lose weight and visceral fat.
3. Can reduce insulin resistance, lowering your risk for type 2 diabetes.
4. Can reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in the body.
5. May be beneficial for heart health.
6. Induces various cellular repair processes.
7. May help prevent cancer.
8. Has benefits for your brain.
9. May help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
10. May extend your lifespan, helping you live longer.

The 6 Different Types of Fasting

1. Intermittent: 12-16 hours
   • Inflammation in body decreases.
   • Growth Hormone levels increase up, which burns fat and slows the aging process.
2. Internal Repair: 17 hours
   • Autophagy begins- your body’s process of reusing old and damaged cell parts.
   • Kills cancer cells.
3. Gut Reset: 24 Hours
   • Intestinal stem cells inside gut start to be produced.
   • Get rid of bad bacteria; repair leaky gut.
   • Great for those who’ve been on antibiotics, have a poor diet, or are always constipated.
4. Fat-Burning Reset: 36 hours
   • Fat burning starts.
   • Your body goes to find the food it stored years ago in fat (stored fat on belly instead of around organs to save life).
5. Dopamine Reset: 48 hours
   • New Dopamine receptor sites appear during fasting and then stay in your body.
   • Increases ability to be happy!
6. Immune Reset: 72 hours
   • Get rid of stagnant parts of immune system.
   • Create new white blood cells.
   • Get rid of old white blood cells.