TV doctor Michael Mosley is back with more helpful diet advice, and has recently shared the benefits of intermittent fasting.
The practice is a large part of many of his diet plans, and recently Michael's Fast800 page has shared advice for its 'maximum fasting' method
It is called the 16:8 diet, and sees people taking a 16-hour break between dinner and breakfast the following morning.
A recent post on his Fast800 Instagram page read: "Intermittent fasting consists of following an eating pattern where you either refrain from consuming calories in any form daily for a period of hours, or significantly reduce your calorie intake across your day."
The post goes on to explain Time Restricted Eating (TRE) and how you have a window to eat, which depends on the diet that best suits you.
In the case of the 16:8 diet, as the name suggests, you should fast for 16 hours, and have an eight hour window to eat.
It continues: "For example, 16:8 may mean you consume calories anywhere within a window of 8 hours, like 12pm-8pm, and fast for 16 hours.
"Intermittent fasting has become significantly more popular in recent years due to an impressive amount of scientifically-proven benefits, such as improved insulin response, better quality sleep, and a reduction in inflammatory arthritis."
When fasting, you can drink water, sparkling water and black tea or coffee, according to the TV Doctor's guide to the diet practice.
However, the page adds: "If you’re following Time Restricted Eating (TRE) and you’re unsure if you can manage without your morning cup of tea or coffee with milk, you can have one cup outside of your eating window with a dash of full fat milk (less than 30ml, which is around 20 calories) without it being detrimental."
The blog also mentions a version of TRE which is best avoided as it can be difficult and offers little benefit - alternate day fasting.
It states: "On The Fast 800, we do not encourage this method for two reasons: there’s no significant benefit to fasting for longer than 16 hours, and consuming no calories at all for up to or beyond 36 hours is incredibly challenging for most people."
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