Intermittent fasting is trending but it’s no substitute for healthy eating – let’s focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of what we eat

Intermittent fasting – abstaining from food for prolonged periods – is the diet du jour; meanwhile more restaurants are getting on the small-portions bandwagon
But is any of this helpful for weight loss? While it may work for some, perhaps the rest of us should focus on what, rather than how much, we’re eating

Andrew Sun

Published: 7:45am, 6 Apr 2023

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Intermittent fasting has become the trendy diet du jour.

Undoubtedly one of the most popular health and weight-loss regimens practised today, it involves various routines for caloric restriction, from not eating two days a week to abstaining from food for 12 to 16 hours straight daily. The exact length depends on how hardcore you are.

My current intermittent fast record is between two to three hours, longer if I skip afternoon tea.

As prescribed diets go, there is not much to be cynical about intermittent fasting.

There’s no corporate lobby or product agenda being pushed from fasting, no gurus peddling nutritional plans, or wacky theories about prehistoric man’s consumption patterns – seriously, how can you do a proper Paleo diet without including lean and healthy stegosaurus meat, poached without the skin of course.

Let me tell you, as active herbivorous ornithischians, their dark meat would be so yum.

Secular, as opposed to religious, fasting seems to me to be focused largely on vanity and exhibition. People diet because they want to look better on Instagram or go one size smaller on a new cocktail dress.

Many people may fast to look better on Instagram, or the beach. Photo: Shutterstock

The most ridiculous are muscle-bound dudes abstaining from drinking water before hitting the beach to ensure their six-pack abs will be even more defined from dehydration. They’re so vain, they probably think this column is about them.

In my younger days, you could say I intermittently fasted. While juggling studies, part-time work and club hobbies in university, I could go an entire busy day without eating and not notice. Back then, I might also gorge on a large pizza at midnight, save a leftover slice for breakfast, and not gain one ounce.

That’s not the case now. Middle-age metabolism is far less efficient. Do I qualify as an inadvertent intermittent faster when an occasional big lunch leaves me so stuffed that I literally don’t eat again until the next day?

Young people can seemingly eat junk food at all hours and not put on any weight. But this isn’t the case for middle-aged people. Photo: Shutterstock

As we get older, we all tend to consume less. Fasting is no longer a choice. This is why they should give small-portion seniors a discount at buffets. Like transport concessions, It’s another thing to look forward to when we turn 65.

There is also a gastronomic trend towards tapas-style dining in more restaurants. Whether they call it antipasti, meze, dim sum or small bites, the appetiser part of the menu at restaurants is getting bigger. Guests are even encouraged to order more small plates to share, and fewer large individual main courses.

Psychologically, people do think they are eating less when they pick at communal platters. Whether they end up actually consuming less food is another matter.

A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association noted smaller meals are a factor in weight loss. Thanks. File this under the “well, duh!” section.

Not all nutritionists think we should focus only on eating less, though. They point to a high dropout rate among intermittent fasters, not unlike other health fad schemes. People also tend to reward themselves on non-fasting days by overindulging more than if a regular three-meals-a-day diet was maintained.

Fasting is also not recommended if one is prone to conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.

A professor from Harvard Medical School, in the United States, said it best when she suggested people should focus more on the quality of food than the quantity. “A hundred calories of gummy bears is not the same as a hundred calories of oatmeal.”

Still considering the caloric restriction bandwagon? Maybe not so fast.