Fasting is a reasonably broad concept and can mean more than just avoiding solid foods. Nowadays, some common variants of fasting are that you go on the 5: 2 diet when you eat as usual five days a week and reduce your intake for two days or avoid solid food for 24 hours now and then. Many people find that diets where there are recurring elements of fasting, such as the 5: 2 diet, are easier to follow over time than implementing a dietary change that applies every day of the week.
Another type of fasting is periodic or intermittent fasting, which means that you have a specific eating window when it is allowed to eat. A common variant is that you can eat the first meal of the day at 12 and finish eating at 20. This approach is also called 16: 8 because you fast for sixteen hours and eat for eight. The plan aims to reduce energy intake by reducing the time it is allowed to eat.
It is often emphasized that periodic fasting is very healthy and beneficial, and research studies have shown, among other things, that people with type 2 diabetes lose weight and get better blood sugar control. However, this seems to be entirely due to the reduced eating window leading to a reduced energy intake, which results in weight loss. If you need to lose weight, periodic fasting can be a way to improve your health, but research has not yet succeeded in showing that healthy, normal-weight individuals become healthier by avoiding eating during certain hours of the day.
There are many different ways to eat, and as long as you feel good and get all the nutrients, it does not matter how you divide your meals. Most people, however, seem to feel best from eating breakfast, lunch, dinner, and some snacks distributed relatively evenly throughout the day. The uptake of certain nutrients (such as protein) also benefits from this. Still, no reports show an increased risk of disease if you reduce your eating window by applying periodic fasting.
