Although it may be unfashionable, try to have dinner early and once you’ve finished your meal don’t eat anything and limit your drinking to water or tea. You’re just avoiding bedtime snacks and watching TV without nibbling so you’re not on a diet and since you’ll be sleeping for most of your fast you probably won’t be hungry. It should be a relatively painless way to see if intermittent fasting works for you.
That’s the principle behind the diet method known as intermittent fasting. Unlike many popular diets, intermittent fasting has the backing of scientific research (including a massive 2017 study analysis by the International Society of Sports Nutrition), which suggests that intermittent fasting is just as effective as daily calorie restriction—sometimes better—at improving body composition. Furthermore, intermittent fasting doesn’t involve any calorie counting, and may suppress hunger better than traditional low-calorie diets.
Fasting is the willing abstinence or reduction from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast or dry fasting is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period. Water fasting refers to abstinence from all food and drink except water, but black coffee and tea may be consumed. Other fasts may be partially restrictive, limiting only particular foods or substances, or be intermittent.