Elon Musk does it. His predecessor, Jack Dorsey , former CEO and cofounder of Twitter, now X, reportedly does too. Evernote’s Phil Libin and Y Combinator’s Daniel Gross have also been said to have ditched three square meals for the increasingly popular eating pattern: intermittent fasting .
Maybe you already limit your own eating to a tight six-to-eight-hour window every day. Or perhaps you abstain for a full 24 hours a few days a week. If you don’t, odds are that more than a couple of your coworkers do.
A growing body of research suggests intermittent fasting has numerous health benefits. But how does a fasting diet impact your performance at work? “From an evolutionary perspective, fasting is when your mind is working its best,” says Mark Mattson, PhD , author of The Intermittent Fasting Revolution and a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “If you’re an animal in the wild that hasn’t been able to get food for a few days, your brain and body better be working optimally or you won’t survive.
” How does intermittent fasting work for those of us trying to survive the rat race in the wilds of the concrete jungle? Is intermittent fasting healthy? Many people credit intermittent fasting with weight loss . Some research suggests it has the power to stave off cancer, dementia , heart disease, and diabetes —even help with an all-out slowdown of the aging process. It may be increased insulin sensitivity and reduced inflamm.