The Definition of Intermittent Fasting (IF)

[Squall]

I'm guessing its not eating for around 24 hours, like just eating a single meal per day, every day?

I'm having trouble finding an exact definition on the net. Most sites (that I can access--I'm at work) talk about the advantages, disadvantages, etc. without actually saying what it is.

[Raw Kyle]

There's probably a couple of definitions but literally it would mean to not eat in between meals. You have to remember that most SAD people have cravings for snacks every couple of hours at least because of all the carbs messing with their hunger and energy levels, so even eating 3 square meals a day with no snacking would be considered IF for most "normal" people. Two meals a day with no snacking would be considered strange by most people, and one meal a day with no snacking would be considered crazy by most people. I usually go for two meals simply because I can't always eat as much food as I want to in one meal for the day.

[TylerDurden]

I'm guessing its not eating for around 24 hours, like just eating a single meal per day, every day?

I'm having trouble finding an exact definition on the net. Most sites (that I can access--I'm at work) talk about the advantages, disadvantages, etc. without actually saying what it is.

Intermittent Fasting has 3 different definitions:- 1) Consuming 1 large meal a day, usually within a 4-hour period, and nothing else during that day except water(ie fasting every 20-24 hours or so); and 2) Eating as much as you want on one day, and then fast the whole of the next day(excpet for water), then repeating the 2-day-cycle; and 3) a mixture of the two above where you eat just 1 large meal in one day, fast the whole of the next day, then repeat the cycle.Second and third options are rumoured to be more effective(I haven't been able to do those, though, long-term, due to hunger-pangs getting in the way of concentration, so I do option 1 but fast a whole day(up to 3 days in length), from time to time, nonconsecutively.

*Caution - it should be noted that people with certain health-problems, such as adrenal fatigue, are advised NOT to follow IF but to, instead, eat several small meals throughout the day.

[Squall]

Here's an article that talks about the benefits of IF:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting/

... and here's a piece that I found quite compelling:

Beyond insulin sensitivity, it appears that caloric restriction and intermittent fasting may “turn on” certain genes that repair specific tissues that would not otherwise be repaired in times of surplus. One could surmise that this adaptation serves to allow certain cells to live longer (as repaired cells) during famine since it’s energetically less expensive to repair a cell than to divide and create a new one. That might help explain some of the extended longevity seen in animal studies using caloric restriction and/or intermittent fasting (read about here, here, and here). Intermittent fasting has also been shown to reduce spontaneous cancers in animal studies, which could be due to a decrease in oxidative damage or an increase in immune response.