Great topic to cover as there’s so much confusion and we need to bring some different lenses to it. We’re especially lacking precision around the nomenclature. Many people say they are intermittent fasting but we really don’t know if they’re practicing time-restricted eating (and if so how long of an eating window?) or periodic prolonged fasting (and if so, how frequent, how many days, consecutive, etc?). It would be helpful to bring some of the work of both Dr. Valter Long and Dr. Satchin Panda into view here.

Lastly, it’s unfortunate that so much research on this topic is so squarely focused on weight loss as a primary outcome. Many people, including myself, are experimenting with these patterns to understand how they effect energy levels, mental and emotional outcomes as well as markers of longevity. Sure, weight is intertwined with those but sometimes using a different lens tells a different story.