It seems like every day, someone new mentions intermittent fasting. But what is it, exactly?

There are myriad options — from the 5:2 diet, with two days of extreme calorie restriction each week, to the warrior diet, which involves eating only raw fruit during the day and a mammoth feast at night.

Whatever the approach, intermittent fasting involves restricting the window of time when you eat.

Supporters evangelise the benefits, promising weight loss, disease prevention, and even life extension.

Currently, the scientific evidence is unclear, but it's an exciting area that may be full of potential.

In today’s episode, Jonathan speaks with Gin Stephens, who has had a powerful experience of intermittent fasting transforming her health and weight. He also talks to Tim Spector, who will share what science can tell us about intermittent fasting today — and, interestingly, how much it can’t, yet. Plus, an exciting announcement about how this is set to change.

Gin Stephens is a New York Times bestselling author and podcast host.
Tim Spector is a co-founder of ZOE and one of the world's top 100 most-cited scientists.

If you want to uncover the right foods for your body, head to joinzoe.com/podcast and get 10% off your personalized nutrition program.

Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:10 - Topic introduction
02:28 - Quickfire questions
04:28 - ZOE’s intermittent fasting study
09:00 - What is intermittent fasting and how it impacted Gin’s life
12:16 - Demystifying intermittent fasting
14:55 - The science of intermittent fasting
25:08 - Starting intermittent fasting
27:16 - What am I allowed to have during intermittent fasting?
32:07 - The first 28 days of “clean” intermittent fasting
34:54 - Intermittent fasting and the microbiome
39:19 - Correlation with circadian rhythms
41:28 - How important is consistency when time-restricted eating?
43:47 - On intermittent fasting & women’s health
46:07 - Summary
47:20 - Goodbyes
47:40 - Outro

Episode transcripts are available here: https://joinzoe.com/learn/category/nu...

Join us for the world’s biggest intermittent fasting study at joinzoe.com/fasting

Follow Gin:   / ginstephens  

Get Gin's books:   / ginstephens  

Follow ZOE on Instagram:   / zoe  

This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions.