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Introduction

Congratulations, you’ve come to the right place if you want to lose weight and body fat, get more fit, and improve your health! Fasting has been used throughout history to promote weight loss and increase longevity. Intermittent fasting, currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends, is a newer style of fasting that has gained considerable recognition in recent years, because many people find these regimens easier to follow than traditional, highly restrictive, calorie-counting diets. It’s an uncomplicated concept, which makes it simple to follow without the deprivation associated with other diets. Translation: Intermittent fasting equals freedom! Intermittent fasting is not a diet in the conventional sense, but rather an eating pattern — a timed approach to eating.

That’s why intermittent fasting has generated such a positive buzz — anecdotes of its effectiveness have proliferated around the globe. With intermittent fasting having become the go-to lifestyle, as a lifestyle research doctor, I needed to understand the science. So, I read the data and discovered a mountain of rock-solid scientific evidence showing that intermittent fasting, when combined with a healthy diet and lifestyle, is a remarkably effective approach for losing body fat, especially stubborn belly fat; maintaining or even gaining muscle; and treating or preventing many diseases and conditions that plague Americans.

What makes this health trend so popular? It’s not really a diet, per se, but a new style of eating and living that after you get the hang of, it can allow you to attain your health and wellness goals and still embrace life and eat the delicious, healthy foods you love. You’ll find out that it’s not so much about what foods you should eat but more so, when you eat. As they say, “timing is everything.”

About This Book

Intermittent Fasting For Dummies gives you all the tools you need to follow an intermittent fasting plan. Discover why simply changing the timing of your meals to allow for periodic breaks in eating can make such a positive difference in your body. With all the conflicting information about intermittent fasting out there, you may be wondering what’s real and what’s fake advice.

This handy guide puts all the important information together in plain English, laying out easy-to-follow guidelines for the different methods as well as describing what intermittent fasting can do for you — help you lose the fat for good, get healthier, fight disease, and hopefully increase your longevity. Remember, you are in charge, and you decide what will work for you.

By helping you eat fewer meals, intermittent fasting can lead to an automatic reduction in calorie intake. Additionally, it will positively change your hormone levels and flip the switch on your metabolism to facilitate all kinds of healthy bodily processes.

Specifically this book discusses the five most popular methods of intermittent fasting. Each type is effective, but may not be the right fit for everyone. You’ll find out how to practice the different varieties of intermittent fasting as well as determine which method works best for your specific lifestyle.

This book is different from other books available about intermittent fasting because it’s researched and written by a trusted expert in nutrition, health, and fitness — a registered dietitian and nutritionist — me! You can have confidence that the plans in this book are safe and based on sound science.

Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, I made the following assumptions about you:

 You may want to lose weight and keep it off.

 You may want to get rid of excess body fat (especially stubborn belly fat).

 You may already be lean and fit but want to tap into the myriad health benefits associated with intermittent fasting.

 You want to increase your energy level and boost your metabolism.

 You may have tried multiple diets in the past and been frustrated with the process and possibly gained back the weight.

 You want to reduce the risk of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease.

 You may want to simplify your life by freeing up time previously used to plan, cook, and clean up after all those meals.

 You may have sensed all the excitement about intermittent fasting and want to give it a whirl.

 You want to live a long, happy and healthy life.

Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, and in true For Dummies fashion, you’ll notice several icons — all of them are designed to help you better understand and get the most out of your intermittent fasting plan. The following is a list of the icons you can expect to see throughout this book and what they mean:

This icon points to a tip that you can help your intermittent fasting process easier to follow.

This piece of information is especially noteworthy and important.

Warnings, if posted, are enormously significant. Be wary!

This book is based on scientific data and hypotheses, which may get a bit technical in the explanation. I hope to explain the scientific jargon in easy-to-grasp concepts, but if it’s too confusing, skip it.

I’ll occasionally direct you to a helpful website with this icon.

Beyond the Book

In addition to all the information in this book, you can find additional information online to help you with your intermittent fast. If you want to discover more about nutrition, healthy eating, and the Mediterranean Diet, you can visit my websites:

 www.DrJanet.com: For nutrition tips, recipes, blogs, book and app links, and all things nutritious and healthy, visit my website. You can also find out about my extensive credentials so you can have full confidence in my written nutrition advice.

 www.MediterraneanNutritionist.com: This website is your one-stop Mediterranean eating guide. U.S. News & World Report has consistently rated the Mediterranean Diet as No. 1 in numerous categories.

Where to Go from Here

You can read the entire book from cover to cover or if that’s not how you want to go about it, feel free to go to the Table of Contents and read the chapters that most interest you right now. You may want to start in the kitchen or supermarket, stocking up on delicious, nutritious foods for recipes in Chapters 21 and 22. Perhaps you may want to start with Chapter 1 to get an overview of intermittent fasting. Or you may decide to peruse the Parts of Tens first to get a quick overview of key recommendations in bite-sized bits of information. Regardless, this journey is all about putting you in charge. It’s about you taking control of your life and changing when you eat while still enabling you to choose what you eat.

If you want additional information to reference whenever you want, refer to the Cheat Sheet at www.dummies.com. Just search for “Intermittent Fasting For Dummies Cheat Sheet.”