Many people try to restrict their diets by choosing which types of foods they can or cannot eat. Intermittent fasting is a type of eating regimen in which you alternate between fasting and eating on a regular basis. Intermittent fasting has been shown in studies to help people lose weight and prevent — or even reverse — illness. But how do you go about doing it? Is it also secure? Many diets emphasize what to eat, whereas intermittent fasting emphasizes when to eat. Intermittent fasting is when you only eat at certain times of the day. Fasting for a set number of hours each day or eating only one meal a couple of times a week can aid fat loss. Scientific data also suggests that there are certain health advantages. Before humans learnt to farm, they were hunters and gatherers who developed to live in primordial periods. Intermittent fasting may be done in a variety of methods, but they all revolve around choosing regular eating and fasting times. For example, you may try eating just for eight hours a day and fasting for the rest of the day. You might also choose to eat only once a day two times a week. There are a variety of intermittent fasting schedules to choose from. According to scientists, the body’s sugar stores are depleted after a period of time without eating, and the body begins to burn fat. Metabolic switching is the term for this. Intermittent fasting is in contrast to the typical eating habit of most Americans, who eat continuously throughout the day. If someone eats three times a day and does not exercise, they will run on those calories instead of burning fat. Intermittent fast focuses on the amount of time spent eating (i.e. when you can eat) instead of the type of food (i.e. what you can eat). There are various benefits to this regimen including but not limited to weight loss, improved insulin management, better heart health, and even lower stress.