FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
FAST FOR FIVE DAYS WITH FOOD – YUP, IT’S A THING! THE FASTING MIMICKING DIET IS SAID TO MAXIMISE THE BIOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF A TRUE FAST WHILST PROTECTING YOU FROM HARMFUL SIDE EFFECTS AND THE UNAPPEALING FEATURES OF NOT EATING.
A fast that allows you to eat food? You’d better believe it
Fasting is on trend at the moment: it’s cheap, no special meal preparation is required and there’s ample evidence of its benefits for anti-ageing, weight loss and combatting chronic disease. But you’d be forgiven if the idea of going without food for a few days leaves you in a cold sweat.
Being ravenous for any length of time can be rather unpleasant. And while proponents of fasting claim that feeling hungry isn’t as big a deal as people might think, the bottom line is that we like to eat!
Having said that, if you’re following a ketogenic or low-carb lifestyle and are fat-adapted, fasting may be easier due to the natural suppression of appetite that comes with a diet lower in carbs and higher in satiating fats.
But what if there was a way to get all the benefits of a three-tofive-day water fast while still being able to eat? This is the idea behind the five-day Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) developed by Dr Valter Longo, director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California and an expert in ageing, fasting and how diet and lifestyle regulate longevity. He was looking for a way to maximise the benefits of true biological fasting and minimise its less appealing features. ‘When you fast under the right conditions and for the right period of time, an incredible biological transformation is triggered – a renewal – which takes place at a cellular level deep within the body,’ Dr Longo says.
TRUE BIOLOGICAL FASTING AND ITS BENEFITS
To understand the benefits of true fasting, we first have to understand what makes a fast a true fast.
Time-restricted feeding (going without food for 12 to 16 hours) and intermittent fasting (not eating for a day here and there) are just the tip of the iceberg. While short-duration fasting is certainly more manageable and has advantages for weight loss, healthy blood sugar control and increased metabolism of fatty acids and ketones, Dr Longo doesn’t consider it to be a true fast. True biological fasting, he believes, occurs only once the body has been free of food for between 24 and 30 hours, and your stomach is completely empty.
When that happens, warning signals are triggered throughout the body, telling it that its survival is at risk. Fat stores are then broken down and ketones produced to provide the body with calories and nutrients. This process happens over one to two days and is considered phase one of survival mode. Weight loss and some level of metabolic optimisation also occur.
The second phase (days three to four of a fast) is when things get more serious and autophagy is triggered. Autophagy is a detox process the body undergoes to clean out damaged cells and regenerate new ones. When autophagy is activated, the ageing process is slowed down, inflammation is reduced, the onset of neurodegenerative diseases is prevented or delayed and the body’s natural ability to function is given a boost.
After four to five days of no food, the body is under severe stress and starting to freak out a little. This third phase is when the body increases the number of circulating stem cells to create new tissue that’s young, efficient and strong. Studies in mice have shown that this process has the potential to prevent or even reverse some chronic diseases.
Another approach to fasting is ongoing, very strict caloric restriction, which has also been shown to improve longevity. But the downside is that constant hunger and deprivation is a pretty miserable way to live. And if you’re always fasting, it means you don’t have the re-feeding phase, which is where the magic happens in terms of cellular renewal, Dr Longo says. Other potential side effects of ongoing caloric restriction are a weakened immune system and prolonged wound healing. So this method of continued fasting is not ideal.
WHAT DOES AN FMD ENTAIL?
Dr Longo claims that the FMD nourishes the body while producing the same beneficial effects as water fasting. This includes autophagy, protection of healthy cells, weakening of damaged cells as well as stem cell and immune system regeneration.
FMD means eating small portions that amount to roughly half of your daily calorie intake (between 800 and 1 000 calories) for five consecutive days. The diet is low in protein and sugar, is vegan and contains good fats. For best results, the five-day fast should be repeated monthly for three months. Thereafter, it can be done a few times a year or as needed.
The most convenient way to go about the fast is to purchase Dr Longo’s ProLon diet packs: you get five days’ worth of packaged food that includes vegetable soups (which you eat twice a day) olives, vegetable chips, nuts, supplements and specialised drinks and teas.
But at $249 (about R3 500) per box, perhaps the next best thing is to follow his guidelines and try your own
‘When you fast under the right conditions and for the right period of time, an incredible biological transformation is triggered.’ – Dr Valter Longo
diet plan. Use an app such as MyFitnessPal for the full five days. In the app, set your calorie goal to between 800 and 1 000 per day, then set your daily intake of macronutrients – protein: 9%; fat: 44%; complex carbs: 47%. Ensure you choose protein from plant-based sources only. Fats should be from olives, avocados, nuts and seeds. The carbs come from nuts, seeds, legumes and gluten-free grains. You could ‘Bantify’ the eating plan to avoid certain foods.
You might not achieve exactly the same results as Dr Longo’s ProLon diet, but it’s worth a try, especially if you feel you’re not capable of a three-to-five-day water fast.
WHAT TO EXPECT
During the first few days of the fasting programme you may experience headaches, fatigue and a degree of hunger. You should start feeling much better after day four as your energy levels and mental clarity improve.
After completing three fiveday cycles over three months, you can expect weight loss because of the calorie restriction. Other benefits include improvements in cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure as well as inflammation and insulin resistance. Dr Longo’s animal and human clinical trials also indicate that, as with a water-only fast, deep cellular renewal and optimisation is achieved.