[mewse-hn]

Yes, all fasting is intermittent or else it becomes death by starvation which is something different.

I think the term "fasting" has become more severe since the term breakfast became commonplace. It comes with baggage that implies religion (fasting during Ramadan), medicine (fasting before surgery), or protest (fasting due to hunger strike).

They needed a term to reduce the severity and it probably could just have been "moderate fasting" or "scheduled fasting". "Intermittent fasting" won because the English language is cromulent.