Written by: DeWitt S. Williams

Intermittent fasting has been the topic of many recent books and has been studied in animals and in humans. Basically, intermittent fasting is a broad term that focuses on when a person eats not the number of calories or types of food. It always includes a period of voluntary abstinence from food and its proponents approach the subject in different ways. The most popular approach is the 16/8 which requires fasting for 16 hours and an eight hour time slot when you can eat anything at any time. Another version, alternate day fasting, alternates 24 hour periods of fasting with days of eating freely. The 5:2 approach limits fasting to just two days a week, while the Warrior Diet follows a 20-hour fast with one large meal consumed at night. In all of these programs the stomach gets a period of regular rest during fasting.