​A few weeks ago, my college friend sent me a WhatsApp message that stopped me mid-scroll: "IF completely changed my skin."

I knew she meant ‘Intermittent Fasting’.

But the claim felt big. Too big.

The same way people used to say yoga ‘cured’ their anxiety or green juice ‘fixed’ their gut. Not wrong, exactly, just unverifiable in that particular way wellness claims tend to be.

I wanted to disagree and prove her wrong. I spent a week trying to find evidence.

Turns out, the answer wasn’t linear.

Intermittent fasting isn’t a new trend (it’s ancient)

Long before it became a hashtag, intermittent fasting was a fixture of human survival: periods of eating followed by periods of fasting.

Ancient Greeks fasted before battle. Vedic practitioners prescribed it for purification. Medieval mystics used it to access altered states.

However, none of them were thinking about breakouts or pigmentation. So I kept digging and found that in modernism, ‘skin benefits’ have surfaced only recently.

What the science actually says

One of the most persuasive theories linking fasting to skin benefits is autophagy (self-eating). It’s the cellular process where the body cleans out damaged cells. 

Yoshinori Ohsumi, who discovered it in 2016, showed that autophagy increases when nutrient availability declines.

The internet took the idea and ran. If fasting helps remove damaged cells, maybe it also helps renew skin cells. 

Infact, Inflammation (common cause of acne and ageing) is heavily influenced by feeding cycles.

Research in the Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that intermittent fasting can lower inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α.

In theory, fewer inflammatory messengers in the bloodstream could mean calmer skin.

How Dermatologists see intermittent fasting

The science is compelling, but biology rarely offers a clear storyline.

A dermatologist I spoke with (who asked not to be named because she didn't want to alienate patients who swear by fasting) helped understand this better.

She said, "Skin is a lag indicator. It reflects what happened to your body six weeks ago, not yesterday. So if someone fasts for two weeks and their skin looks better, they're probably seeing the effects of something else—better sleep, less sugar, more water. Fasting correlates with those changes; it doesn't cause them in isolation."

She also pointed out the downsides.

• Cortisol spikes: Longer fasting windows can raise stress hormones that worsen acne.
• Nutrient gaps: Eating in a tight window can reduce intake of zinc, vitamin A, and omega-3s — nutrients essential for skin health.
• Hormonal shifts: For women, fasting can disrupt hormones and trigger breakouts around jawlines.

So while fasting can reduce inflammation, it can also create new issues. Biology rarely behaves predictably.

Why Intermittent Fasting Feels Like It Helps

Here's what I keep thinking: my friend didn't just start fasting, but also started paying attention.

She told me she began noticing when her skin looked dull (usually after poor sleep).

She started drinking more water and stopped munching at 10 p.m.

The fasting gave her a framework. It may not be perfect, but enough to influence a dozen small decisions that compounded over time.

That’s something wellness culture gets right and wrong simultaneously.

Fasting won’t ‘fix’ your skin like retinol. But it can set the stage for positive change—mainly by prompting greater self-awareness and healthier choices, which may, in turn, improve your skin.

Philosopher William James wrote about habit formation as a kind of moral scaffolding. You build structure not because the structure is inherently good, but because it makes virtue easier to practice.

Intermittent fasting works a little like that.

So… should you fast?

The honest answer: maybe, but not for the reasons you think.

If fasting reduces overall inflammation, improves insulin sensitivity, and improves eating patterns, then the skin might benefit.

But it's a second-order effect, mediated by a ton of other variables.

For some, it works. For others, it doesn’t. And for a few, it even backfires.

My friend's skin looked better. I believe her now.

Ultimately, what changed wasn’t just her eating window, but her willingness to notice and respond to her body. Fasting was the prompt, not the sole cause.

Which, if you think about it, might be the point all along.