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Re:A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012) by allmodelsRwrong on Thursday March 10, 2022 @09:35AM (#30627342)
The wording here always confuses me, why is it called intermittent fasting? Isn't all fasting already intermittent otherwise it would be called starving right?
Re:A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012) by mewse-hn on Thursday March 10, 2022 @01:02PM (#30630143)
Yes, all fasting is intermittent or else it becomes death by starvation which is something different.

I think the term "fasting" has become more severe since the term breakfast became commonplace. It comes with baggage that implies religion (fasting during Ramadan), medicine (fasting before surgery), or protest (fasting due to hunger strike).

They needed a term to reduce the severity and it probably could just have been "moderate fasting" or "scheduled fasting". "Intermittent fasting" won because the English language is cromulent.