With Easter over, the thought turns to summer and many people are thinking of ways to loose weight.

East Anglian Daily Times: Tim Newton uses Intermittent Fasting. Photo: Tim NewtonTim Newton uses Intermittent Fasting. Photo: Tim Newton (Image: Tim Newton)

A talk later this month led by a local Ipswich GP and a functional medicine doctor in Orford will give the low down on Intermittent Fasting (IF).

It is one of the latest health trends taking the UK by storm.

IF is claimed to not only help with weight loss, but also kick start the body’s metabolism in something similar to a spring clean that can benefit almost anyone.

Dr Margriet van Nieuwburg, will spend an hour at Orford CEVP School on Sunday, April 22 as part of Community Chats explaining what IF is, how to do it and most importantly, the health benefits from it.

Other benefits of IF include improvement of sleep, energy, mood, gut issues, diabetes and pre-diabetes, neurological conditions and autoimmune diseases.

Dr Margriet said: “This talk will bring science direct to the local community and everyone is welcome to come along.

IF takes many forms that can be effective, from the 5:2 approach where calories are limited to 600 two days a week, to the 16:8 hours where people fast from finishing their evening meal, say 7pm until lunchtime the next day.

She added: “There are other combinations too, really people can choose the method that best fits in with their lifestyle. The beauty of it is, it’s inexpensive, doesn’t require high tech equipment and is easy to follow.”

For those involved in demanding physical work or active sports people, as long as a good quality nutrient dense food is eaten in the ‘eating window’ then they can benefit from IF too.

Tim Newton, a high-ranking UK 65+ age group marathon runner with the Ipswich Jaffa club has improved his time by 23 minutes after adopting IF along with a low carb diet.

Mr Newton, said: “I started this approach over three years ago as an experiment to see if I could follow a number of elite endurance athletes and improve my running performance. It’s done that and more.

“I have a rich and varied real food diet without the blandness of starchy carbs and find I rarely need to eat more than twice a day, even when running up to 60 miles a week.

The event is from 11am-12pm and entry is £3.