Fasting Mimicking Diet-Update
Originally published July 2, 2020.
A week or so ago I touched on the topic of the Fasting Mimicking Diet. Here is an update on my experience.
First, a quick summary the diet. The Fasting Mimicking Diet comes from Dr. Valter Longo out of USC. The idea of the diet is to make it easier to obtain the benefits of fasting. There is a lot of research being explored about the benefits of fasting such as stem cell activation, cell autophagy and more. In Dr. Longo's book "The Longevity Diet" he discusses this research along with his own on the Fasting Mimicking Diet. It is a very dense book in terms of research and scientific data but it is well worth the read. Back to the diet, for five days you are essentially on a very low calorie diet, for specifics, read his book. The response from your body is very similar to that of someone doing a water only fast. The big difference though is that allowing yourself a small amount of food keeps you sane. Because this is much more tolerable, it is easier to get the benefits of fasting this way.
My experience with the Fasting Mimicking Diet is as follows. About a year ago I tried the five day fast only to give up on day two. While its easier than a water fast, it still has its difficulties. A couple of weeks ago I decided to give it another shot as I seem to have some blood sugar control issues, undiagnosed, that I was hoping to clear up. This time around I made sure to have a plan for what foods I would eat and I cooked them all ahead of time. I did make it through this time, finding day 2 was by far the hardest day. After day 2 the hunger basically went away it was just tolerable discomfort and annoyance the rest of the time.
It's difficult to say if the diet helped my blood sugar control as its difficult to measure. Another note on that is Dr. Longo does recommend repeatedly doing the fast either once a month or less depending on your condition. Now that I know I can get through the five days I do plan on doing this every 2-3 months. Another positive note I'm sure many people would be interested to know is the weight loss. I lost about 6 pounds over the 5 days. This was not my goal of the fast, it is not healthy to lose weight that fast. I expected the weight to come back after a week. Half of it came back, half stayed off which is a pleasant side product. My body fat percentage also dropped which means it wasn't just muscle wasting. With that being said, there is a reason it is a five day fast. It isn't sustainable long term and you should not try extended versions to lose weight. As Dr. Longo points out in his book and I agree, you should not do this without talking to your doctor first. Also, read the book so you understand the benefits and how it may work for you.