INTERMITTENT CHEATING

IF THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME you’ve leafed through a fitness magazine, you’ve come across intermittent fasting (IF) before. It’s everywhere in the fitness world, and it’s one of the nutrition concepts we’re most excited about. There are many ways to implement IF, but it always involves a prolonged period of simply not eating. The benefits to this approach are legion, including a natural boost in growth hormone release, improved insulin sensitivity, and more fat loss, in addition to myriad health bonuses such as a decreased risk for heart disease and even Alzheimer’s.

The reason? It's simply a matter of rest. When you’re not eating or digesting food, your system is free to clean house. In a process called autophagy, your body reallocates nutrients that would otherwise be used to process and break down food