@Dr.Bart its wise to look for the silver lining. The benefit of a virus is you don’t have to rely on willpower to stay on the diet.
If diet and exercise don’t work, that just leaves disease.
Valter Longo in FMD: cancer and metabolic disease
Hint: FMD is good, of course. Glucose spikes from FMD foods might be the key to reducing insulin resistance. FMD biggest impact is on unhealthy people. Lowering CRP, BP, hba1c (with repeated cycles).
No enhanced autophagy until day 5 during FMD
I don’t remember if I’ve already listened to it, but I’m going to put it in my watchlist anyhow!
Edit: yes, after a few seconds I realized I already listened to it and it also amazed me that autophagy takes so long to be triggered. On the other hand, Longo says that autophagy is not the most important thing to achieve for longevity.
I recently listened to a podcast with Longo in Italian. He wants to create his channel, I don’t know if in English, in Italian, or probably both.
What I remember well from this discussion in Italian is that he spoke about diabetes and FMD, it usually takes 6 to 12 consecutive FMD cycles, one each month, to obtain significant results in diabetic and prediabetic people. This from clinical tests.
I wonder though, one FMd per month, that would be ideal to be always metabolically healthy but in thin people, it’s going to affect muscle mass detrimentally.
In people who tend to gain weight, that would be the natural alternative to GLP-1R agonists, with no detrimental effects. Will power would be required though, a good dose of it.
I’m also partially convinced that one FMD per month would approach the effects of Rapamycin on mTOR inhibition, similar to a monthly intermittent dose, maybe triggering the upstream signals mentioned by Sabatini. Maybe. This is still a partially obscure issue.
I started following Longo in early 2020. I watched everything I could find with him and even read his book. I think he is quite excellent, but having said that, while he is a great scientist, he’s not an engaging speaker, so I don’t think he has ‘caught on’ as much as he deserves. And of course, some of the podcasters who were originally on board have since left to hop on the all the protein you can eat train. Seeing that made me wonder too.
I started doing Prolon once a quarter and did it for 3 years. I’d lose from 0-4 pounds each time, but I’d always immediately gain most or all of it back, possibly because my diet was already healthy and I only had a few pounds to lose? Because it’s designed not to lose muscle, and because I didn’t loose so much weight, I’m guessing there was very little muscle loss?
Over those 3 1/2 years, I lost aprox 7 pounds, and even though I have a box here looking at me, I haven’t been able to do one in a while because I don’t have weight to loose and worry about being underweight, even if it’s only for a week or two. Maybe it’s fine, but perhaps it wouldn’t be healthy.
Longo says there is no loss of lean mass using FMD. I don’t think I lost any lean mass (aside from waste and fluids) either time but I worked out rather hard.
I don’t use FMD for weight loss. I find it an effective immune system reset. Plus it breaks all my eating habits so I can reset them.
If Longo is going to start with his channels, that’s one thing I’m going to ask him, if he’s going to answer.
I too followed Professor Longo since his 1st book, the longevity diet. Basically he proposes an everyday normocaloric, normoproteic (based on RDA, which translated to hypoproteic today), with low glycemic load, basically no fruit, no dairy products, many vegetables and legumes, fish thrice a week.
The above diet is very good on principle, whereas it’s not very suited to everyone. For example, I like fruit and find it refreshing and good for strength and endurance. I also like fresh and fermented dairy products. I like vegetables and eat lots of’em but I cannot always eat the quantities of legumes he suggests.
However Longo reasons that animal protein send the wrong signals to the system, that may cause high IGF-1 and they may cause other things he’s not very precise about, or that I didn’t understand well. Fish is meant to provide the basic amminoacid need, plus B12 and other micronutrients.
The FMD in Longo’s model is something practiced on top of his longevity diet, and this has been I believe his genius, to reap the benefits of fasting without fasting.
Oh yes, I never did it to loose weight either. I was just trying to say it’s a side effect that comes with the 5 days, and I now worry it could happen. I do wonder if one has no weight to lose, if they will still lose weight after a round? I imagine so, because even they give guidance on not doing it below a certain BMI (but I also realize that guidance might be CYA incase there are people who tend towards anorexia using it?)
Because the calories it provides are the same for a 200 pound guy as for me, that could be why I never lost much, and even sometimes 0, because it’s not as severe a calorie restriction for me. Not sure.
I would never recommend anyone use Prolon for weight loss because it’s too painful! I’d rather just eat vats of kale!
That’s one serious drawback of the Prolon package, it’s one size fits all. I believe that has been done to avoid multiple package sizes with different calories. To tell the whole story, 7 years ago I went thru the patent material to develop a personalized FMD plan and there were some bodyweight-calories graphs but the calores were not so different for different bodyweight, there was no explanation to that.
As to bodyweight loss, who knows, usually I regained the original weight after 3 weeks, but last time I did not.
Does anyone who has done the 5 day Prolon fast have a preference between the different options? I see they have original, new soup, and expanded variety now.
I liked the original soups during the first round. By the second round, I’d be so tired of the soups that I would skip some or all of them on day 5 (hard to imagine I preferred nothing!)
When they introduced the new soups, I never had that problem again and would eat all of them. So I’d say new flavors or potentially the expanded option (I just don’t know what those are)
I LOVE the other food that comes in the box. I’d buy those little chocolate treats if I could!
I’ve heard something about now having an option for a shake over one of the bars? If this is true, I can just say I love the bars but plenty of people don’t.
(I loathe with a passion the optional bars you can purchase as an extra)
I have not tried their shake.
And @mccoy it’s great you looked at the patent to create your own, clever…… and it’s interesting to learn the calories were not that different, and that even you, who presumably weighs more than I do, also gain it all back most of the time.
I like the one I’ve always gotten (“new soup flavor”). I wouldn’t pay more for more options. I would take less options for a lower price point.
It’s $149.99 on my Fullscript site. Is there a cheaper source?
That is the best price. Prolon has the Expanded Variety and a welcome kit with a bottle, some bars, shakes, etc for $167 delivered.
The new soups sounds like a good option. All the reviews I have seen for Prolon say that the foods are high quality and taste ok. Thanks for the info! I attached the changes in the Variety kit.
What’s New in the Prolon Expanded Variety Box?
We’re excited to introduce these specific enhancements that we believe elevate your fasting journey:
- Fasting Bars: The original L-Bar has been replaced with a selection of new Fasting Bar flavors, including customer favorites like Chocolate Chip and Coconut Macadamia . While the nutrition composition between the original L-Bar and the new Fasting Bars is not a direct 1-to-1 match, we’ve carefully adjusted and balanced key nutrients to maintain the efficacy of the FMD. One way we were able to achieve this was through the addition of premium extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), which provides essential fatty acids that are missing from the original L-Bar, while enhancing flavor.
- Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO): We’ve added premium Italian EVOO, sourced directly from a longevity zone—regions known for their high concentration of healthy centenarians. The EVOO not only enhances the flavor of your meals (add them to your soups) but also plays a key role in ensuring the nutrition formulation stays within FMD’s precise standards. (Note: The addition of EVOO does not replace our beloved olives—you’ll still get to enjoy them as part of your fasting experience!)
- A Variety of Soups: For the first time, we’ve included Prolon’s top customer-rated soups (Minestrone, Tomato, Chickpea & Leeks, Carrot Ginger, Red Bell Pepper & Onion, Lentil Curry, and Green Pea & Chives), all in one box. Enjoy an assortment of flavors that bring more diversity to your fasting days, from classic minestrone to hearty vegetable blends. For those who are looking for enhanced texture, add the EVOO directly to your soup!
- Fasting Shake for Day 1: To ease you into your fast, we’ve introduced a delicious Fasting Shake on Day 1 instead of the second L-Bar. The shake helps nourish your body, preparing it for the days ahead while offering a new, enjoyable option.
It sounds like fast mimicking diet is basically a plant based diet but low calorie, low glycemic index/load, low protein. It sounds like this has the potential to turn down m-tor.
Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that rapamycin is achieving something similar.
Thus combining both would potentiate m-tor inhibition which may be not necessarily be a good thing?
I think the recommendation frequency is 5 days every 3 months, so would you stop you rapamycin during that time?
I skipped a rapa dose during the 5-day FMD but not all doses for 3 mos. I didn’t think I needed a bigger effect during the FMD. I finished Thursday (started eating seminormally Friday), and plan to do my rapa dose Sunday after I recover from my weight workout today. That feels a bit fast but thats what works with my schedule. And it’s been 3 weeks since my last dose.