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

I'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 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.