I’ll cut right to the chase with this one – I find it amusing watching today’s health and fitness personalities argue over who owns which idea.

Amusing because you really can’t OWN an idea in health and fitness because it’s all been done before.

Fasting? ANCIENT.

Not eating carbs? Your great grandmother already went through that trend.

Not eating at night, only eating at night, high protein, milk only, you name it, it has been done before.

So here is my take – It’s a courtesy to give a ‘shout out’ to the person or place where you first read about the idea, and it’s definitely NOT OK to take someone else’s words or writing and use them as your own, but the idea? people don’t really own them.

There are probably going to be dozens of intermittent fasting books coming out over the next year or two, and I’m all for anything that increases the exposure of the benefits of Intermittent Fasting. I like it when I’m quoted, and I also like the fact that more and more people are realizing it’s a viable and effective way to help others lose weight… and in the end it’s a win for me and for Eat Stop Eat.

Even my most recent work – Compound Training, has most likely been done in some form or version before.

It is important to realize that our obsession with health and fitness and muscles and fat loss is easily over a hundred years old, and more than likely dates all the way back to the invention of the mirror.

In fact, if you want a great read on some of the early history of Health and Fitness you should check out the Book ‘Mr. America’ about the life of Bernarr MacFadden. Believer it or not, in this book you’ll find that fasting, weight training, vegetarianism, whole milk diets etc. were all popular trends more than a century ago.

Everything old is new, and everything new is old.

Diet fads are usually controversial and ineffective weight loss strategies, however dieters give them a try every time they appear on the market.

And one of the latest diet craze that everyone is talking about is intermittent fasting.

This way of fasting became a popular after the doctor Michael Mosley made a BBC documentary called ‘Eat, Fast Live Longer’.

In a nutshell, this plan involves two days of very low calorie dieting (fasting) each week and allows eating well on the other days of the week.

Many dieters in UK have reported about decent decrease of body fat levels as result of following intermittent fasting routine.

But the most likes the plan are getting from women’s side, who found that they are able to eat the same serving sizes as their male partners in a restraint or at home and still be on a calorie deficit.

How is it possible?

Well, as you probably know, absolute metabolic rates for men and women are very different.

If you take a man with a specific height and age, his resting metabolic rate will be significantly higher than it is for women of the same height and age.

A 5’10 tall man could easily burn around 1900cals/day with RMR alone. While a 5’10 woman is able to expenditure only approximately 1450 calories or 450 calories less.

Consider also that men are commonly higher than women, meaning that in real life the difference is even more notable.

This fact is very easily to observe when people are married or just eat together.

In eating places, plates are identical and a woman usually eats the same portion size as a man.

At home she also seldom leaves a part of chicken breast or omelet on her plate.

This is a concern of women.

Women are facing with too many food ‘attacks’ in their lives that force them to eat more calories than their BMR allows.

When a woman follows intermittent fasting, she skips around two-four daily meals that lead to a great calorie deficit.

So, intermittent fasting helps to create a large negative reserve of calories that permits women to eat a big meal in a restaurant without worries about how much calorie it contains.

Of course, there is a chance to overeat even with intermittent fasting, but on the other hand, you will get an opportunity to enjoy your favorite meals five days a week and stop missing social events just because you’re on a diet.

More over, your colleagues or friends will hardly guess that you are trying to lose weight because you will be able to eat even junk food.

While in reality you will consume fewer calories over the course of the week, keeping your little weight loss “secret” from others.

Read also:

Forum topic: Does Intermittent Fasting Work for Women?

Blog post:  5 Day Water Fasting Experience