Is Rishi Sunak's intermittent fasting good for him? Health pros and cons explained

Rishi Sunak uses fasting as a detox, he has revealed.

The Prime Minister said he uses intermittent fasting as a "reset" and a "detox" after an "indulgent weekend", typically not eating between Sunday evening and Tuesday morning. Instead, Sunak sticks to drinking water, tea and coffee.

Speaking on ITV's This Morning, he claimed the diet - which aligns with his Hindu religion - is something he tried to do every week.

He said: "I wish I was as disciplined as has been reported, is the first thing to say. So, like all of us, I start the week with the best of intentions, and then you hit contact with reality at some point.

"I try on a Monday, after a indulgent weekend, to try and have a day of fasting. It’s not totally nothing but largely nothing. I do have the odd nut, that kind of thing.

"I start with the best of intentions… we all do, right? And then things happen. My problem is I love sugary things. I eat a lot of sugary pastries, and all the rest of it, the rest of the week. And I like my food.

"I don’t exercise as much as I used to because of the job. So a little reset at the beginning of the week, a little detox."

There are different types of fasting diets, from the 16:8 plan, where people only eat during an eight-hour window but fast for the remaining 16 hours, to the 5:2 diet - where participants only consume 500 to 600 calories for two days each week. A weekly one-day fast, similar to Sunak’s method, is known as the eat-stop-eat diet.

Is fasting safe?

There are limited studies into intermittent fasting and its supposed benefits, so health professionals simply do not know enough yet.

A 2023 study by the University of Illinois Chicago found intermittent fasting is "as effective as counting calories" – when limiting food to a eight-hour window. The study found that weight loss wasn’t dramatic, but that people were more able to stick to the plan consistently – compared with calorie counting.

Research published by the University of Glasgow, Teeside University and the Independent Public Health Consultant in 2018 suggested intermittent "energy restriction" may be an effective strategy for the treatment of overweight and obese adults – and more effective than not doing anything.