the fasting mimicking diet
fasting with food?
The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) is a unique approach to fasting in which you are allowed to consume a small amount of specified foods (think lots of soups & olives) over a 5-day period while still retaining the majority benefit of a 5-day water-only fast. Technically speaking you are not "fasting" in the classical sense, but aggressively reducing calories in an effort to enter into a state of cellular autophagy, which is thought to be beneficial to reducing the risk of many diseases including Alzheimer's, depression and cancer.
I first came across the FMD as an alternative to water-only fasts and thought that it might be a good stepping stone to work up to more difficult fasting such as this. My weight loss efforts had also stalled and I was looking to break through the plateau.
While I was happy to be able to break through my weight plateau, I realized that this 5-day FMD had much deeper and more profound effects. A common phrase in the FASTINATION support group for the FMD is that it "changed my relationship with food" and I would have to agree that my cravings for carbohydrate heavy foods & sugar have diminished greatly. I also feel a much deeper appreciation for the food I eat, especially since I eat less and less often due to my daily and weekly Intermittent Fasting (IF) regimen.
The FMD also cured my acid reflux disease. I had taken Prilosec OTC everyday for the better part of the last 2 decades to help manage my acid reflux disease. It was the only "medication" that I was taking and I had tried on many occasions, after a diet or exercise change, to reduce my reliance on it, without success. After my first round of the FMD, in April of 2021, I tried once again to stop and have not taken a pill in the past 12 months with only 2 or 3 times that I can recall having heartburn, which was solved simply with a few antacids.
I've recorded and tracked some other metrics related to a previous 5-day FMD which is summarized below.
If you would like to give the 5-day FMD a try, or try other ProLon fasting support products, click here for the latest discounts.
If you are new to fasting and want a great book to read click here for Dave Asprey's "Fast This Way". I recommend this book because the author does a great job in framing fasting as gain, instead of lack, and incorporates the spiritual aspect of fasting as well.
There is also podcast #154 of The Doctors Farmacy with Dr. Mark Hyman where they discuss the book here.
