Erin Brodwin / Business InsiderI've been ignoring my mother for a week and a half. For the past 10 days, I've stifled the small voice she instilled in the back of my mind to remind me that forgoing breakfast is nutritional doom — all for the sake of a diet known as intermittent fasting. The diet essentially involves abstaining from food for a set period of time ranging from 16 hours to several days — and surprisingly, it has a lot of scientific backing. Large studies have found intermittent fasting to be just as reliable for weight loss as traditional diets.