The latest craze in the world of dieting is intermittent fasting. There are a range of diets available that all involve eating normally some days and eating very little on other days. The verdict is still out as to whether these kinds of diets -- the fast diet, the 5:2 diet, alternate day fasting, and intermittent fasting -- work in the longterm, but they do seem to offer short-term results.

It should be noted that we're not advocating diets that involve fasting. Any major change in lifestyle shouldn't be taken lightly, and you may want to consult your doctor before embarking on the fast diet, 5:2 diet, alternate day fasting, or any intermittent fasting. All we have done is pull together some of the best resources online related to this popular method for losing weight and getting healthier.

Wikipedia

We begin, as many of us begin our online journeys exploring new subjects, with Wikipedia. In particular the Wikipedia page for Intermittent Fasting. This will tell you the absolute basics of the idea of fasting on purpose, delve into the different types of diets which use fasting as a weight loss method, and give a little background into the science behind the whole thing.

As usual with Wikipedia, it's the references at the bottom of the page that provide the most usefulness. A lot of the external links point to one-off articles discussing the positive and negative aspects of intermittent fasting, and these are essential reading for anyone thinking of embarking on a diet involving fasting.

The Fast Diet

Intermittent fasting has been used by people in many different cultures for centuries, but it wasn't until Michael Mosley, a medical journalist working for the BBC, made a documentary about it that the idea entered into the mainstream. This is his website with Mimi Spencer, who co-authored the book The Fast Diet.

The site offers a lot of background information on the fast diet, otherwise known as the 5:2 diet. There are meal plans and recipes, a forum for everyone trying the diet to share their successes and failures, and an in-depth exploration of the science behind fasting as a means of losing weight and improving health.

The 5:2 Diet Book

There is more than one book detailing the 5:2 diet, and this website is based on the one by Kate Harrison. As well as revealing how to succeed at the fasting diet, she has also released a recipe book full of meals suitable for fasting days, both of which are augmented by the pages of this site.

There is a goal-setting planner and meal planner available to download, forums full of meal suggestions and tips, recipes to follow, success stories, and the obligatory FAQs. Brilliantly, there is also a PDF containing all of the links from the book, which include informative articles, interviews with experts, surveys, and scientific analyses.

The 5:2 Fast Diet Forum

All diets are hard work, no matter how easy they may be pitched as being. Diets that rely on intermittent fasting are no exception to this rule, which means that having the support of other people, especially those going through the same process, is crucial. This is the sort of thing the Internet is perfect for, with forums providing safe havens for people to hang out with like-minded individuals.

So it is with this website, a forum dedicated to the 5:2 diet. There's a perfunctory FAQ and a good selection of external links, but the meat of this site is the actual forum itself. People from all walks of life can bond over their mutual desire to lose weight, and ask questions and seek out advice over how to succeed at this unique diet.

Other Places To Explore

This is a just a brief smattering of the websites dedicated to intermittent fasting and the specific diets that have emerged from the practise. But there are many more places to explore online for information related to this form of dieting.

As you've no doubt noticed there are YouTube videos embedded throughout this article, but search the Google-owned site and you'll find a lot more where that came from. Terms to use include 'Intermittent Fasting', '5:2 Diet', 'Fasting Diet', and '5:2 Diet Recipes'.

Facebook and Twitter are good places to find the people whose names have become synonymous with this form of dieting, and tips designed to help you succeed at fasting. Simply use the same search terms listed above for YouTube.

Pinterest is a great resource for fasting day recipes, with people sharing their ideas for low-calorie meals. Don't search for words related to fast diets, instead focus on finding boards full of healthy meals and foodstuffs rated as having a low GI (Glycemic Index).

Conclusions

Fasting diets offer an alternative for those of us who struggle to stick to more conventional diets. In simple terms these kinds of diets lead to you consuming less calories over the course of a week, the only difference being that you've packed the dieting into two days rather than seven. I have personally had some success with intermittent fasting, and by using these Web resources perhaps you will too. If it doesn't work then you could always play video games to help you lose weight instead.

Image Credit: Doc Searls