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.

Science tells us that intermittent fasting can help us shed pounds and improve our health in the process. But let's be real. To unlock the full benefits, we need more than just fasting. We need guidance on what to eat and the ability to hit those high-quality food choices more often than not. With that in mind, let's talk about how to kick butt at 16:8 intermittent fasting with a well-constructed, goal-aligned, health-promoting, 7-day meal plan.

Eat 500 calories two days; eat normally the rest of the week. You've heard this before. One of your friends tried it once. You saw some fitness influencers talking about it. But you're not entirely sure how it works or if it'd suit you or your goals. No worries. You're in the right place.

How many calories should I eat a day to lose weight? It's a natural question to ask if you're chasing weight loss (and one we hear a lot). If it's on your mind, you're in the right place. Simply enter your details into our calorie calculator below, let the nutrition-math elves work their magic on the numbers, and poof! A daily calorie target just for you will emerge.

Apples have been around for a long time. Some evidence suggests that large fruits with seeds appeared over 2 million years ago — a tasty snack for the prehistoric animals who would then spread those seeds far and wide. Now, modern-day animals like us also enjoy apples as a tasty snack.

After a hectic afternoon of meetings, you finally have time to breathe and grab a convenient, no-brainer snack. Do you reach for chips and cookies? Fair enough — they're so convenient! But there's another option that won't lead to a sugar crash: bananas.

You made it through your fasting window — congratulations! Whether time flew or you had to grit your teeth through a few hunger pains, you crossed the finish line. … Now what? Is any food fair game, or do you need to ease your body back into eating?

For an effective method of losing weight and improving your health, intermittent fasting is refreshingly light on rules (ironic, given the title of this article). And, because we know that change happens more easily when people control their own path, we're not here to start laying down the intermittent fasting law.

One of the key ingredients in trying to shed extra pounds and maintain a healthy lifestyle is protein, protein, and more protein. But, sometimes, trying to get enough protein can feel like it's your full-time job—like you need to raise your own cattle or buy stock in chicken breast in order to get enough in.

Milk has been a staple for humans for thousands of years, and there's evidence that we started drinking it even before we could digest it well. (That period of evolution as we were developing the genes to digest dairy was probably a little … unpleasant.)