https://www.scmp.com/rss/515977/feed Learn how intermittent fasting can bring health benefits like lasting weight loss, and its potential side effects such as headache and fatigue. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse New regulations come into force on Monday in Britain banning daytime TV and online adverts for so-called junk foods, in what the government calls a “world-leading action” to tackle childhood obesity. The ban – targeting commercials for products high in fat, salt or sugar – is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, according to the health ministry. The restrictions, which cover television advertisements before 9pm and all digital platforms, will cut... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3338803/uk-begins-world-leading-junk-food-ad-ban-curb-childhood-obesity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3338803/uk-begins-world-leading-junk-food-ad-ban-curb-childhood-obesity?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Jan 2026 11:36:27 +0000 Nancy Wang Nancy Wang When Huang Yu needed to lose weight urgently for medical reasons, she turned to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). With it, she lost five kilograms (11 pounds) over three months, and she has kept it off since. In January 2024, the 21-year-old from Shanghai, who is studying at a university in Hong Kong, learned she had a tumour on her uterus. This slowed her metabolism, and she eventually tipped the scales at 75kg. If she did not lose weight, her Western doctor told her, the condition would be... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3320139/how-traditional-chinese-medicine-can-help-you-lose-weight-acupuncture-cupping?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3320139/how-traditional-chinese-medicine-can-help-you-lose-weight-acupuncture-cupping?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Aug 2025 00:15:08 +0000 Anthea Rowan Anthea Rowan Scroll through Shanghai-based Thomas Derksen’s Instagram feed from the oldest post to the newest and you will notice a metamorphosis in the Mandarin-speaking German influencer. In the early days, there were a lot of photos of him enjoying food: a slap-up English breakfast, cookies while working at his laptop, a rich birthday cake in 2018 and what looks like an enormous bacon sandwich in 2019. Then there is a shift, with fewer photos of heavy meals and more photos that record him seemingly... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3319819/how-influencer-china-lost-60kg-5-years-without-weight-loss-drugs-or-crash-diets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3319819/how-influencer-china-lost-60kg-5-years-without-weight-loss-drugs-or-crash-diets?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Jul 2025 03:00:07 +0000 Do you eat breakfast? If so, what do you have? The first meal of the day has long been seen as the most important, with research showing links between having breakfast and better health through lower incidence of diabetes and heart disease and a lower body mass index. The rise in popularity of intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating has prompted many people to skip breakfast, however, and sparked a debate about this meal’s importance. We asked four experts in nutrition, three of them in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3305264/what-best-eat-breakfast-we-asked-4-nutrition-experts-describe-theirs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3305264/what-best-eat-breakfast-we-asked-4-nutrition-experts-describe-theirs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Apr 2025 23:45:07 +0000 Sasha Gonzales Sasha Gonzales Maintaining an ideal weight is a struggle for many people. A diet of heavily processed foods, insufficient physical activity and other factors can make it especially difficult for those who are overweight or obese to shed excess kilograms. David Koo knows what it is like to carry around unwanted weight. For most of his life, the 60-year-old Hong Kong-based investor was, in his words, “big”. He was a “plump” child who, by the age of 12, was already wearing adult-sized trousers. As he got older,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3300874/ozempic-helps-obese-hong-kong-dad-lose-weight-after-doctors-order-quit-drinking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3300874/ozempic-helps-obese-hong-kong-dad-lose-weight-after-doctors-order-quit-drinking?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Mar 2025 23:15:08 +0000 Pancreatic cancer cells could “starve” thanks to a combination of a new type of cancer drug and a keto diet, an early study suggests. Researchers said their new study points to a “vulnerability” which could potentially lead to a new treatment for pancreatic cancer, which has notoriously poor outcomes. In most patients, symptoms do not appear until later stages of the disease, often making it too late to treat or control. Only around 5 per cent of people with the disease survive for a decade... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3274735/pancreatic-cancer-starves-keto-diet-and-new-drug-tests-mice-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3274735/pancreatic-cancer-starves-keto-diet-and-new-drug-tests-mice-show?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Aug 2024 10:15:11 +0000 Jessica Hausner, the Austrian director behind Lourdes (2009) and Little Joe (2019), begins her latest film Club Zero with a disclaimer. Most so-called trigger warnings tend to focus on areas such as strobe lighting effects, advising audiences who may suffer from epilepsy that the forthcoming movie could have an adverse effect on them. But this one is different: it states that the film you are about to see contains depictions of eating disorders. “There was a discussion between me and the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3273366/why-club-zero-director-jessica-hausner-made-movie-about-eating-disorders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3273366/why-club-zero-director-jessica-hausner-made-movie-about-eating-disorders?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Aug 2024 20:15:08 +0000 Once upon a time juice cleanses were considered the holy grail of detoxing. Previously confined to wellness retreats around the world, the trend peaked in the 2010s when every major city boasted their own “juicery”, from New York’s Pressed New York and Los Angeles’ Kreation to Wild & The Moon in Paris and Genie Juice, right here in Hong Kong. As with all health fads, the three-day (or seven-day, depending how hardcore you were) juice cleanse was soon replaced by other trends: intermittent... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/beauty/trends/article/3265329/what-juice-cleanses-really-do-your-body-according-experts-3-day-detox-may-be-out-vogue-judicious?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/beauty/trends/article/3265329/what-juice-cleanses-really-do-your-body-according-experts-3-day-detox-may-be-out-vogue-judicious?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Jun 2024 02:00:10 +0000 You can reverse your biological clock with a few small lifestyle changes, and you do not need to spend millions of dollars on the craze to try to live forever. Julie Gibson Clark is living proof of this. The 55-year-old American recently made headlines for her score in an online longevity competition called the Rejuvenation Olympics. Gibson Clark, who lives in the US state of Arizona, has the second-largest age reversal on the leaderboard, which ranks ageing biologically – how “old” your cells... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3264695/can-you-slow-down-ageing-4-women-who-believe-they-can-share-their-top-tips-turning-back-clock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3264695/can-you-slow-down-ageing-4-women-who-believe-they-can-share-their-top-tips-turning-back-clock?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Jun 2024 10:15:14 +0000 I have always wanted the mirror to like me. Maybe that makes me vain, but that is the way it has always been. And for months, the mirror had stopped being my friend, showing me unwanted extra weight around the stomach, the sides of my waist and back. Growing older and the onset of menopause made it easy for my weight to creep up. I was at my heaviest – 61.7kg – in June 2023. One morning as I looked at myself in the mirror, I said: “It’s now or never.” That epiphany led me to shed 10kg (22lbs)... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3258647/dream-body-7-months-how-yoga-mindful-eating-and-now-or-never-attitude-helped-menopausal-mother-two?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3258647/dream-body-7-months-how-yoga-mindful-eating-and-now-or-never-attitude-helped-menopausal-mother-two?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Apr 2024 08:15:15 +0000 On a business trip to India in October, 2021, Dhruv Agarwala woke up feeling like he was having a heart attack. “My heart was racing, I had palpitations. I felt I was going to die,” says the 53-year-old, who managed to check himself into a hospital. It turned out to be a case of heartburn, much to his relief. “I kept thinking ‘One day I will lose weight, one day I will become fit,’ until one day I landed in a hospital emergency room. I remember that moment clearly, lying in the hospital bed,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3256305/roger-federer-inspired-him-halve-his-body-weight-how-indian-tech-entrepreneur-lost-71kg-2-years?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3256305/roger-federer-inspired-him-halve-his-body-weight-how-indian-tech-entrepreneur-lost-71kg-2-years?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Mar 2024 03:15:08 +0000 The safety of intermittent fasting, a popular strategy to lose weight by limiting food intake to certain times, was called into question by a surprise finding from research presented at a medical meeting. Limiting mealtimes to a period of just eight hours a day was linked to a 91 per cent increase in risk of death from heart disease in the study, which was released on Monday in Chicago. The American Heart Association published only an abstract, leaving scientists speculating about details of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3255883/intermittent-fasting-linked-heart-risk-study-surprise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3255883/intermittent-fasting-linked-heart-risk-study-surprise?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Mar 2024 03:32:24 +0000 Who does not want to wake up in the morning full of energy and feeling great? This is what makers of juice cleanses – or juice fasts – promise you: a “reset” for your body. It sounds enticing, especially at the start of a new year. There are pre-packaged juice plans with everything already mixed and instructions on when to drink what. Or, if you are willing to put in the effort, you can save some money by switching on your juicer if you’ve got one. Are juice cleanses really beneficial to health?... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3253225/how-juice-cleanse-can-help-you-lose-weight-and-reset-your-body-usher-healthier-eating-habits-experts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3253225/how-juice-cleanse-can-help-you-lose-weight-and-reset-your-body-usher-healthier-eating-habits-experts?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Feb 2024 20:15:13 +0000 As Lunar New Year festivities wind down after weeks of indulgences – dipping into tempting confectionery boxes, savouring multi-course family meals with auspicious dishes, perhaps sharing a lavish Valentine’s Day dinner or a box of those well-meant chocolates – many of us will have gained a few unwanted kilos. With warmer weather – and swimwear season – looming, getting back into shape may be front of mind. Shedding a bit of excess weight can benefit your overall health by cutting belly fat,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3252792/10-ways-lose-lunar-new-year-weight-and-keep-it-good-according-experts-and-dieting-isnt-one-them?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3252792/10-ways-lose-lunar-new-year-weight-and-keep-it-good-according-experts-and-dieting-isnt-one-them?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Feb 2024 04:15:08 +0000 What do the British prime minister, an Indian creative agency founder, a software professional in Denmark, and an American salon manager have in common? They all regularly follow the 36-hour monk fast. The weekly detox ritual of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a 43-year-old father of two and a teetotaller, has gained attention after a recent media report. His regimen, known as the monk fast, includes a Sunday evening to Tuesday morning fast to balance indulging his sweet tooth during the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3252007/36-hour-monk-fast-british-pm-rishi-sunak-practises-dietitian-reveals-how-it-works-and-followers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3252007/36-hour-monk-fast-british-pm-rishi-sunak-practises-dietitian-reveals-how-it-works-and-followers?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Feb 2024 10:15:19 +0000 This is the 24th instalment in a series on dementia, including the research into its causes and treatment, advice for carers, and stories of hope. Mark Mattson began studying brain ageing and Alzheimer’s disease in the late 1980s – long before anybody talked about intermittent fasting. The professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University in the US state of Maryland took notice of growing evidence that intermittent fasting – a dietary approach that alternates between periods of feeding and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3242170/how-intermittent-fasting-may-protect-brain-health-and-help-extend-longevity-expert-tips-how-begin?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3242170/how-intermittent-fasting-may-protect-brain-health-and-help-extend-longevity-expert-tips-how-begin?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:15:10 +0000 Intermittent fasting has become the trendy diet du jour. Undoubtedly one of the most popular health and weight-loss regimens practised today, it involves various routines for caloric restriction, from not eating two days a week to abstaining from food for 12 to 16 hours straight daily. The exact length depends on how hardcore you are. My current intermittent fast record is between two to three hours, longer if I skip afternoon tea. As prescribed diets go, there is not much to be cynical about... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3215962/intermittent-fasting-trending-its-no-substitute-healthy-eating-lets-focus-quality-rather-quantity?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3215962/intermittent-fasting-trending-its-no-substitute-healthy-eating-lets-focus-quality-rather-quantity?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Apr 2023 23:45:08 +0000 Sumanta Panigrahi’s fitness journey personifies resilience and fortitude. During the pandemic, like so many of us, he put on weight – in his case, 6kg. But two years earlier he had worked hard to shed 17kg, going from a high of 111kg to 94kg. Determined to lose the excess weight and keep it off for good, he lost 15kg within a year – reducing his weight to 85kg – and has sustained his new-found fitness level. What inspired Panigrahi to embark on his original fitness journey? And how was he able... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3199965/how-intermittent-fasting-helped-hong-kong-banker-shed-17kg-then-another-15kg-after-he-put-weight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3199965/how-intermittent-fasting-helped-hong-kong-banker-shed-17kg-then-another-15kg-after-he-put-weight?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Nov 2022 03:15:09 +0000 Not only what we eat, but also when we eat it could play a role in how long we live, new research on mice suggests. The idea that reducing the amount of calories you eat can extend your lifespan has been around for a while. But recently, a team from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, in the United States discovered that caloric restriction extended mice’s lifespans the most when the mice ate in accordance with their circadian clocks. The circadian clock is an internal... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3184955/intermittent-fasting-plus-calorie-restriction-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3184955/intermittent-fasting-plus-calorie-restriction-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jul 2022 23:15:16 +0000 Intermittent fasting is a health and fitness trend embraced by celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Kourtney Kardashian, Scarlett Johansson and Halle Berry, who claim it has helped them shed unwanted weight. This practice involves entirely or partially abstaining from eating for a set amount of time, before eating regularly again. Many questionable fad diets involve fasting, but proponents of intermittent fasting view it as a healthier alternative to regular dieting. The most popular... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3167258/9-intermittent-fasting-mistakes-avoid-dont-eat-too-little?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3167258/9-intermittent-fasting-mistakes-avoid-dont-eat-too-little?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Feb 2022 09:15:18 +0000 To lose weight, Christian François started fasting two years ago. Eating two meals a day between noon and 9pm, he lost 9kg (19.8 pounds) in the space of three months. “I increased my exercise during those three months,” the Beijing, China-based wellness and nutrition consultant recalls. “I was working out for one hour, five times a week, in the first month, and doubling the hours in the second and third month. I was burning myself out.” The first week was the hardest, he says, as he would wake... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3155532/intermittent-fasting-worked-one-wellness-consultant-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3155532/intermittent-fasting-worked-one-wellness-consultant-not?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:15:22 +0000 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... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3136902/intermittent-fasting-its-health-benefits-you-and-weight?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3136902/intermittent-fasting-its-health-benefits-you-and-weight?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Jun 2021 20:15:00 +0000 Trading holiday feasts for intermittent fasting could yield health benefits from lower cholesterol to reduced stress, according to a new study. The dieting method requires patience, researchers wrote in a review published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine, but doctors can help patients reach the scientifically proven benefits or warn at-risk groups to avoid it. While intermittent fasting diets vary, the practices of alternating between certain periods of eating and not eating... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3043956/diet-new-year-intermittent-fasting-might-be-better-you?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3043956/diet-new-year-intermittent-fasting-might-be-better-you?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Jan 2020 05:00:15 +0000 Dali Harilela hasn’t had breakfast in 10 years – no omelettes, toast or smoothies since she started intermittent fasting in 2008. The 48-year-old wakes up around 4.30am and does not have her first meal of the day until 1.30pm. She usually has dinner around 6pm, and it’s the last thing she eats. Harilela prefers not to eat before she goes to bed to let her body settle. She follows a ketogenic diet, consuming more fat, less carbohydrates and a moderate amount of protein. When Harilela, a health... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2146024/intermittent-fasting-more-just-weight-loss-regimen-says-10?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2146024/intermittent-fasting-more-just-weight-loss-regimen-says-10?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 May 2018 11:45:15 +0000 Many religions have for centuries adopted the spiritual practice of intermittent fasting, promoted as a path to enlightenment. During Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, observant Muslims eat only before dawn and after sunset for 30 days. Is the 80/20 rule true when it comes to weight loss? Hong Kong naturopath says yes In recent times, fasting has experienced a comeback as a means to lose weight. Advocates tout intermittent fasting as a way to better health: it may help shed... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-beauty/article/2113624/intermittent-fasting-proven-way-losing-weight-quickly-it-may?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-beauty/article/2113624/intermittent-fasting-proven-way-losing-weight-quickly-it-may?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Oct 2017 10:00:19 +0000