Dan Zigmond's Buddha Diet: How intermittent fasting helps people lose weight, remain healthy during holiday season

While the holiday season can undoubtedly lead to excess kilos, author and Zen priest Dan Zigmond says his Buddha Diet method of intermittent fasting can help people remain healthy during this period. 

In his book "Buddha's Diet: The Ancient Art of Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind," which he authored with Tara Cottrell, Zigmond touted the benefits of the Buddha Diet. According to him, the legendary ascetic's teachings of moderation can be applied to one's one dietary intake for a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

To begin, Zigmond recommends people to limit their eating window to just 13 hours every day for two weeks. Afterwards, they then gradually deduct an hour until their eating window would just be a mere 9 hours.

Translated, this means a person can only eat his meals within that nine-hour period. After that, he partakes of nothing until the next day.

While the Buddha Diet may be seen as too extreme, Zigmond claimed that Buddhist monks only ate in the mornings yet remained healthy. He also said his version of intermittent fasting provides a middle ground for people who want to try a balanced lifestyle without necessarily compromising their health.

"We tried to come up with our version of a 'middle way', a path that we think most people could follow pretty comfortably and still get the health benefits of an intermittent fasting diet," Zigmond told Health. Aside from explaining the mechanics of the Buddha Diet, he also shared several helpful tips on how to cope with intermittent fasting.

Zigmond encouraged dieters to weigh themselves everyday, eat what they want except junk food, have a cheat day, exercise but not too intensely and lessen their portions. Most importantly, he advised people to be mindful of their eating habits.

According to Zigmond, one major reason why people tend to overeat is because of a lack of self-control and propriety which can be corrected by carefully following the Buddha Diet. He said, "When we start paying attention, we naturally start to achieve a kind of moderation in our eating."

According to to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, humans are more suited to intermittent fasting. From an evolutionary standpoint, the modern norm of taking three meals a day plus snacks as irregular is played down. 

Learn a bit about Buddha's eating habits here: