I tried the popular Silicon Valley diet credited with boosting energy and prolonging life - and it was one of the hardest things I've done

For the past 10 days, I've stifled the small voice she instilled in the back of my mind to remind me that foregoing breakfast is nutritional doom - all for the sake of a hot new 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. And a few studies in animals have suggested it could have other benefits as well, such as reducing the risk for certain cancers and even prolonging life.

Silicon Valley loves it. A Bay Area group called WeFast meets weekly to collectively break their fasts with a hearty morning meal. Facebook executive Dan Zigmond confines his eating to a narrow time slot; many other CEOs and tech pioneers are sworn "IF" devotees - some even fast for up to 36 hours at a time.

I opted to try a form of the diet known as the 16:8, in which you fast for 16 hours and eat (or "feed," as some proponents call it) for eight hours. With this regimen, you can eat whatever you want - so long as it doesn't fall outside the designated 8-hour window.

Here's how it went.