It does for weight loss. Its other supposed benefits are debatable

A wrist watch with a knife and fork as the arms and an assortment of food around the watchface
Illustration: Cristina Spanò

Diets come and diets go. One of the most popular today is “intermittent fasting” in which, as the name suggests, the idea is to limit one’s food intake to certain time windows. One popular variant, the “5-2 diet”, requires people to eat either very small amounts, or nothing at all, on two days a week, but imposes no restrictions on the other five.

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