In a world where miracle remedies and magic solutions are showcased everywhere, from billboards to nightly news to your social media feed, it can be tricky to sort through all the hyperbole, exceptions, and twisted truths to distinguish fact from fiction. This filtering process can be incredibly convoluted when it comes to health and nutrition, especially because everyone's body is different, and everyone has different needs and goals.

Intermittent fasting is an approach to eating that involves daily or weekly fasts (periods of time when you don't eat) and has been linked to benefits like weight loss, supporting our immune function, reducing inflammation, and even supporting gut health. You may have heard that you can determine your best intermittent fasting schedule by using your age.

If you want to lose weight, make better food choices, and feel empowered in the bargain, why not give 12-hour intermittent fasting a shot?! Don't worry — this is no fad diet. It's actually pretty simple and straightforward: Each day, you eat over a 12-hour period and fast for the remaining 12. If you're thinking, But won't I be super hungry if I don't eat for 12 hours??? no worries.

No matter how long or for whatever reasons you're trying intermittent fasting, there's one golden rule to follow during your fasting windows: don't eat anything. But that one rule can be confusing when it comes to what you drink. You want to keep your body in a fasted state — which means no carbs, protein, or fat — but you also need to stay hydrated.

When you're intermittent fasting, drinking plain old water can get pretty boring, pretty fast. As a human with taste buds, you naturally want to bring a little flavor to your day. You spy a lemon on the kitchen counter. Could you add a few drops of that to your water, you wonder??

Picture this. It's Sunday evening, and you're already a couple hours into your fasting window. A friend comes round so you can binge-watch your favorite show together. They bring with them a funky new kind of herbal tea. Suddenly, the fasting alarm goes off in your head. Can you drink this?!?

Intermittent fasting regularly shows up as many health-seekers' go-to eating plan, and for good reason.

When we're trying to lose weight, we usually think about what we can and can't eat. Bye-bye beer and burgers. Helloooo carrots and kale! But with intermittent fasting, the focus is on when you can and can't eat. 20:4 intermittent fasting comes in hot with a 20-hour — yes, a 20-HOUR — fast and a 4-hour eating window. It sounds a little extreme, huh? So … does it work? Is it necessary to fast that long in order to lose weight or improve your health? Is it even healthy to go 20 hours a day without eating? Let's get some answers.

The one meal a day (OMAD) diet is a type of time-restricted eating intermittent fasting schedule that involves — you guessed it — eating just one meal a day and fasting the rest of the time.

If you're looking for a way to get swole, intermittent fasting may not be your first choice. It's not necessarily the most obvious nutrition method for building muscle mass. But it can be effective if you use it right. Curious? Let's dive into the ins and outs of intermittent fasting and muscle gain.