That window—puberty and adolescence—is when your height potential is being decided in real-time. Growth plates are still open, hormones are firing, and your metabolism is running hotter than it ever will again. Mess with that rhythm—especially by skipping meals or shrinking your eating window—and there could be consequences you can’t just “fix” later with supplements or stretching routines. What is intermittent fasting? You’ve probably heard the buzz about intermittent fasting (IF)—and no, it’s not just another fad. At its core, IF is about timing, not deprivation. It means cycling between periods of eating and not eating, which may sound simple, but how you do it makes all the difference. The most common methods include the 16:8 schedule, the 5:2 diet, OMAD (that’s one meal a day), and broader time-restricted feeding based on your body’s circadian rhythm. Each method plays with your feeding period and fasted state to spark changes in your metabolism. For example, the 16:8 method gives you an 8-hour eating window and keeps your body in a low-insulin, fat-burning mode for the remaining 16. The 5:2 diet, on the other hand, limits your calorie intake drastically just two days a week—enough to nudge your body into a metabolic switch without completely throwing off your routine. Does intermittent fasting affect growth? Let’s be real—timing your meals can absolutely influence how you grow, especially if you're still in your teenage years. You might’ve heard all the hype around intermittent fasting for weight loss or mental clarity (and yeah, it can work for that), but when growth is the goal? That’s a different ballgame entirely. Here’s the thing: your body doesn’t just grow because you want it to—it grows because it’s fueled constantly. Growth, especially during adolescence, is one of the most energy-intensive processes your body ever goes through. We're talking bones lengthening, muscles forming, hormones firing off like crazy. And all of that? Needs food. Needs nutrients. Needs consistency. When you start restricting food intake to tight windows—say, only eating between noon and 8 PM—you might unknowingly short-circuit the process. What I’ve seen, especially in younger individuals trying to experiment with fasting, is a drop in total daily calories and, more critically, a lack of essential building blocks like protein, calcium, and zinc. And let’s not even get into growth hormone secretion, which is tightly linked to nutrition and insulin availability. Now, if you're past your growth phase? That’s a different story. But if you're still growing, your body’s demand for fuel doesn’t care about trendy eating windows. It just wants to grow. So skipping breakfast every day because some influencer swears by it? Yeah, that could cost you in the long run. Does intermittent fasting help you lose weight? Intermittent fasting is a highly useful method to lose weight as it can lower calorie consumption. All the different protocols require abstaining from meals during fasting times. If you do not make up the difference by eating much more during mealtimes, you will not be consuming many calories. According to a 2014 study, intermittent fasting reduced body weight by 3-8% over 3–24 weeks. When evaluating the rate of weight reduction, intermittent fasting can cause weight loss of 0.55 to 1.65 pounds (0.25-0.75 kg) each week [1]. In addition, it offers a lot of advantages for metabolic health and lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. The majority of weight loss by intermittent fasting is mediated by a reduction in calorie intake. Who can use intermittent fasting? People who want to reduce social eating Intermittent fasting can be a useful set of restraints if you do not tend to be obsessive about eating healthily throughout the workday but binge when you're not working. Some people find that adhering to intermittent fasting prevents them from mindlessly snacking late at night or overindulging in appetizers during happy hour. If you do it correctly, you will not even be tempted to overeat since your body will eventually learn to adapt. People who hate counting calories Intermittent fasting can help you reach your desired weight quickly without all the meal tracking and math calculations. Other benefits are that you do not have to eliminate the entire food groups or track calories constantly. Plus, you are still able to eat as much as you want within your eating window. People with digestive issues Intermittent fasting allows the body to take a break from continuously processing or controlling all the food we consume. This intermission may prevent people from feeling overstuffed or bloated. By giving up the habit of eating mindlessly at night, you can prevent digestion from disturbing your sleep. Moreover, fasting can help people pay more attention to their hunger and fullness cues, which can be easy to ignore when there are no time constraints on when we eat and when we do not. What are some common types of intermittent fasting? 5:2 Fasting This is one of the most popular IF strategies. It gained popularity thanks to the best-selling book The FastDiet, which has all the details you need to know about this tactic. In summary, all you need to do is eat normally for five days and then, consume 500 or 600 calories each day on the final two days. You can choose any days you want to observe a fast on. Short fasting intervals are intended to keep you compliant. If you start to become hungry one day while fasting, just think about the next day when you can "feast" once more. Some people claim that they can do anything for two days, but cutting back on their eating for seven days is too much A 5:2 approach may be more successful for certain people than a weekly calorie restriction. If you are engaging in vigorous endurance training, examine whether this form of fasting will fit into your training schedule if you are getting ready for a cycling or running race (or if you're planning high-mileage weeks). Time-restricted fasting If you are looking for a daily eating window that, ideally, leaves a 14–16-hour fasting window, you can use this type of intermittent fasting. Fasting encourages autophagy, the body's normal "cellular housekeeping" process that gets rid of waste and other obstructions to mitochondrial function, which starts when liver glycogen levels are low. Doing this might help enhance fat cell metabolism and improve insulin performance. Overnight fasting This method, which can be considered the simplest fasting method, calls for a 12-hour fast each day. This means you have to stop eating at 7 p.m. after dinner and start again at 7 a.m. the following morning with breakfast. At 12 hours, autophagy is still occurring, but the cellular benefits are less significant. This is the bare minimum of hours for fasting. The simplicity of this approach makes it advantageous. Also, you don't have to skip meals; rather, all you are doing is forgoing a nightly snack. Yet, this approach falls short of maximizing the benefits of fasting. A smaller fasting window gives you more time to eat, which may not assist you to reduce your calorie intake if you're utilizing fasting to lose weight. In summary, Honestly? Intermittent fasting can work—but only if it works for you. What I've found is, it’s not about chasing trends or following rigid schedules—it’s about tuning into your own rhythm. If it feels forced, it probably won’t stick. You’re better off finding an approach that fits your life, not flips it upside down. So before you dive in, talk to your doctor, test it gently, and really ask yourself: is this something I can see myself doing long-term? If not, that’s okay. There’s no one-size-fits-all blueprint for better health. Related post: How tall is an average 14 year old Is NuBest Tall safe?
