Explainer | Intermittent fasting, its health benefits for you and weight loss without the calorie counting
- Practised for centuries, time restricted eating is about narrowing the window in which you eat, with no need to count calories, or buy special foods
- Experts and fasters explain how narrow that eating window should be, and why the practice is so popular today – it frees you to eat the foods you really like
Fasting – voluntarily restricting when to eat – has been practised for centuries, for philosophical and religious reasons, and for better health.
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates advocated it for treating certain ailments, believing a fast helped the body heal itself. Muslims fast during Ramadan. Jews and Hindus observe fast days, and Catholics used to abstain from food for 24 hours before receiving holy communion. First recorded in the 5th century BC, the practice has now emerged as a top health trend.
People like intermittent fasting because it is simple, says Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois and director of the Metabolic Kitchen in Chicago. “You don’t need to count calories or buy special foods. It’s accessible,” she says.
Anthea Smith, 45, a manager at British Telecom who follows a 5:2 regime – fasting two days out of seven – agrees. “There’s no meal planning or prep, no weighing out portions, no kit needed.”
Smith sometimes fasts up to 34 hours, starting her fast at 9pm the night before a fast day and breaking it with morning tea the day after. She fasts primarily for weight loss, “because I love food”.