Fasting—abstaining from eating for some period of time—is an ancient practice that is safe when not taken to extremes. Traditionally, the benefits of fasting have been both spiritual and physical. People who fast for religious reasons often report a stronger focus on spiritual matters during the fast. Physically, a simple fast lowers blood sugar, reduces inflammation, improves metabolism, clears out toxins from damaged cells and has been linked to lower risk of cancer, reduced pain from arthritis and enhanced brain function.

Intermittent fasting means dividing one's time between "eating windows" and periods of abstention on a regular basis. A common intermittent fasting schedule might restrict eating to the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the remaining 16 hours of the day spent fasting. But there is no specific, prescribed schedule. Some people have more or less generous eating windows, setting the rule that they will not eat after, say, 8:00 p.m.—or, on the considerably less generous side, only allowing themselves to eat every other day.

The science behind intermittent fasting is based on altering the body's metabolism. During a period without eating, insulin levels drop to the point that the body begins burning fat for fuel. Additionally, the thinking goes, by slowing the body's metabolism, you cause your appetite to drop off and thus will consume fewer calories when you resume eating.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of intermittent fasting for weight loss. However, it's not clear that it is any more effective than simply restricting calories and following a normal eating schedule. One possible reason for the success of intermittent fasting is that most practitioners have quit the habit of eating during the late evening and night hours. Restricting eating to earlier in the day aligns better with our bodies' circadian rhythms and is less likely to cause us to store our food in fat cells. Since intermittent fasting is difficult for many people to adhere to, a wise alternative might be to consume a low-calorie Mediterranean diet and to stop the day's eating in late afternoon.

There are certain people who should not try intermittent fasting without first checking with their doctor, such those with diabetes or heart disease.

Intermittent fasting is a very "lifestyle-intensive" dietary pattern, meaning that it is challenging to maintain in the face of normal social relationships. If the rest of your family is eating while you're fasting, you might be tempted to indulge or to surrender the family-meal ritual. If your job requires you to dine with clients or colleagues, you'll find an intermittent fasting schedule difficult to maintain. Remember that the best healthy eating plan is the one you'll stick to.

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In a non-iterative process, you and your team would work together to come up with a final product without necessarily trying new ideas along the way. Typically, non-iterative processes require more time during the conceptualization and creation phase, so that everything works as intended during the testing phase.

Waterfall is the most common non-iterative process. In the waterfall model, you and your team will define project phases before the project starts. Each phase begins once a previous phase is completed in its entirety. Requirements and resources will typically be locked before a project begins, and the team avoids changing the project plan as much as possible.

For example, imagine you’re working with a design agency to create an ebook. You first need to provide all of the copy for the ebook. Then, the design agency will take that copy and create designs. Finally, your internal team will copyedit the designed ebook to make sure everything looks ok. This is an example of the waterfall model because each phase relies on the previous step (i.e. you can’t copyedit the designed ebook until it’s been designed).

Depending on the team you’re on and the type of projects you run, non-iterative processes can be challenging because they don’t build in time for your team to iterate and continuously improve. Because there are so many unknowns and surprises in engineering, engineering teams in particular tend to use iterative processes instead of non-iterative ones, but any team can benefit.

The iterative process is the practice of building, refining, and improving a project, product, or initiative. Teams that use the iterative development process create, test, and revise until they’re satisfied with the end result. You can think of an iterative process as a trial-and-error methodology that brings your project closer to its end goal.

Iterative processes are a fundamental part of lean methodologies and Agile project management—but these processes can be implemented by any team, not just Agile ones. During the iterative process, you will continually improve your design, product, or project until you and your team are satisfied with the final project deliverable.

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