It involves eating no or very little food and caloric beverages for periods ranging from 12 hours to three weeks.

Human studies on fasting are only just beginning to ramp up. And while we have learned that fasting helps people lose weight, it’s only if you can stick with it.

Many religious groups incorporate periods of fasting into their rituals, though the focus there tends to be more spiritual than health-oriented: Muslims fast from dawn until dusk during the month of Ramadan, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus who traditionally fast on design...

Many people can’t stick to fasting diets long enough to keep the weight off. Thus, dropout rates have been as high as 40 percent.

Despite the statistical significance of weight loss results, the clinical significance and practicality of sustaining intermittent fasting are...

Patients with eating disorders do best when they eat regular meals and snacks.

Intermittent restriction of intake is often one of the behaviors that people with eating disorders engage in as part of their eating disorder and it often sets them up to binge and/or purge.

• Restricting your calorie intake for prolonged periods of time may lead to lower overall energy intake and weight reduction.
• The body shifts into a fat-burning mode when it doesn’t get food for an extended period of time.
• People do...