Intermittent fasting, also known as intermittent energy restriction, is an umbrella term for various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting (or reduced calorie intake) and non-fasting over a given period. Non-caloric, and sometimes low-caloric, drinks can be used during intermittent fasting, contrary to strict fasting which disallows fluid intake in some religious practices.

Time-restricted fasting is probably the most popular form of intermittent fasting, this method relies on breaking your day into hourly segments whereby you restrict a certain part of the day for feeding and the other part for fasting. That could mean eating only between noon and 7 p.m. or 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. (it’s up to you to decide how many hours you want to eat or fast per day). An easy way to begin this process is to time your first meal of the day based on when your last meal was the night before. Let’s say that your last meal was at 6:00 pm, you go to sleep at 10:00 pm and wake up the next day at 6:00 am you have now fasted for 12 hours. If you wait to have breakfast till 7:00 am you will have 13 hours of fasting under your belt. Repeat the same cycle and you are fasting for 13 and have an eating window 11 hours. From there you can modify to extend the fasting window as you get more comfortable with the process.