Faux Fasting: The Key To A Long, Healthy Life

The health benefits of fasting are profound. In addition to being one of the fastest ways to reverse type 2 diabetes and taking off unwanted pounds (and are less likely to be gained back), it rejuvenates your immune system, increases growth hormone levels, promotes stem cell generation, and improves cognitive function.

Over the past few years intermittent fasting has become a more and more popular way to manage weight and avoid the ravages of living in a society where it’s difficult not to over indulge.

True fasts create physiological changes beyond what intermittent versions do.

But for most people true fasts are too difficult and restrictive and hard to do while maintaining normal work and life schedules.

Modified Fasting The “Fasting Mimicking diet” was designed by Dr. Valter Longo in pursuit of longevity. His 25 years of research on aging, nutrition, and disease across the globe, lead him to develop this unique program, which lays out a simple solution to living to a healthy old age through nutrition. In his book, “The Longevity Diet,” Dr. Longo outlines how to create the fasting state without abstaining from food entirely. The scientifically engineered fasting- mimicking diet (FMD) does away with the misery and starvation most of us experience while fasting, allowing you to reap all the beneficial health effects of a restrictive diet, while avoiding negative stressors, like hunger, low energy, and sleeplessness.

Fasting is what stimulates the body to burn fat. During fasting blood sugar (glucose) levels drop. Glucose is the most easily accessible fuel source for the body. When glucose is not available, the body simply adjusts by switching to fat metabolism, without any negative health effects. This is a normal and natural part of life, as periods of low food availability have been part of human evolution since day 1, and we are well adapted to this fact of life. In fact is an essential part of optimizing health. This “feast and famine” paradigm helps to improve insulin sensitivity, supports lean body mass, and turns on longevity genes and rejuvenating mechanisms in the body as well as many other benefits listed below.

Physiology Of Fasting over 5+ Days

1. Feeding – During meals, insulin levels are raised. This allows uptake of glucose into tissues such as the muscle or brain to be used directly for energy. Excess glucose is stored as glycogen in the liver, or on the body as fat.

2. The post-absorptive phase – 6-24 hours after your last meal, blood sugar and insulin levels start to fall. The body starts to use glycogen, turning it into glucose for energy. Glycogen stores last for roughly 24 hours.

3. Gluconeogenesis – 24 hours to 2 days. The liver manufactures glucose from amino acids in a process called “gluconeogenesis”.

4. Autophagy – Since amino acids (protein) are being used to produce glucose, many have interpreted this as the body ‘burning muscle’ to provide glucose. This is not accurate. During this period, connective tissue, skin, old cells and other junky cell parts are destroyed and used for fuel. The importance of autophagy is just being realized.

5. Ketosis – 2-3 days after beginning fasting. The low levels of insulin production stimulate lipolysis, the breakdown of fat for energy.

6. Protein conservation phase – >5 days – Increased levels of growth hormone maintain muscle mass and lean tissues. Energy needs are almost entirely met by the use of metabolized fat. Increased norepinephrine (adrenalin) levels prevent the decrease in metabolic rate. 48 hours of fasting produces a 3.6% increase in metabolic rate, not the dreaded metabolic ‘shut- down’. In response to a 4-day fast, resting energy expenditure increased up to 14%. Rather than slowing down metabolism, fasting revvs it up!

7. Cellular renewal cycle – After the breakdown of old cells and tissue, the body will create stem cells to rebuild any necessary proteins that were used up. The breakdown of old protein is necessary for renewal of cells. If you only focus on the breakdown, you will miss the entire beneficial renewal cycle.

Fasting is the most efficient and consistent strategy to decrease insulin levels. This was first noted decades ago, and widely accepted as true. It is quite simple and obvious. All foods raise insulin, so the most effective method of reducing insulin is to avoid all foods.
Growth hormone is known to increase the availability and utility of fats for fuel. It also helps to preserve muscle mass and bone density. Growth hormone secretion decreases steadily with age. Fasting is one of the most potent stimuli to growth hormone production.

Try It Yourself!

With this delicious , VERY easy to make, inexpensive plan that

you’ll be able to use over and over again.

You will have 2-3 generous meals per day that will

provide the benefits of fasting–with out the discomfort!

What You’ll Get

Detailed meal plan of delicious, almost decadent meals (You’ll forget you’re fasting!)
Easy recipes
Shopping list with amounts you will need. total cost well under $40.
Step by step guide of how to have a successful experience
Post-fast plan for days 6-8, to help you maximize your results
Substitutions list (to make it easy for you)
Daily support videos to help you understand what your body is going through each day and to help you stay focused and motivated throughout.

Yes! You can still drink coffee on this plan!!!

“I’ve been reading about the benefits of fasting for years, but never got up the nerve to try it, until now! This was so much easier than I expected.”

Theresa SawyerPhotographer

“I’ve put on several pounds over the past few years I couldn’t seem to get it off. On this plan I lost 5 pounds in 5 days and it hasn’t come back!”

Patsy SandersImage Consultant

“I stayed on the plan for 8 days before going back to my normal food. I lost 9lbs, my clothes feel looser, my skin looks great, and my ankles don’t hurt anymore!”

Linda MechnerHealth & Life coach

There is a popular FMD food plan, which is 5-days worth of pre-packaged food, available on-line for $250 dollars. It is little more than some nut bars, olives, and pouches of pre-made soup.

It is advised to repeat a 5-day FMD plan once per month, or several times per year. Or 3 months in a row once or twice per year. At $250 a pop, that adds up quickly, especially if you want to do it with a partner!

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Instead, try this Do-It-Yourself, Nut-Free, Fasting Mimicking Diet Plan and have the power to repeat it whenever you want for just the cost of the groceries, and you’ll be able to do it with your partner without doubling the cost.

Buy NOW - $97

Fasting Mimicking Diet FAQ:

What Is a Fasting Mimicking Diet?
Fast mimicking is a type of modified fasting. Instead of abstaining from food completely like a traditional fast, you consume small amounts of food — but you do it in a way that gives you the benefits of fasting. The keys are keeping your carb, protein, and calorie intake low, and your fat intake relatively high. This keeps you nourished but puts less stress on your body than normal fasting—while still giving you the same benefits.

What are the Health Benefits of a Fasting Mimicking Diet again?
A fast mimicking diet can give you similar benefits to regular fasting. Some people call it the longevity diet because it helps increase your overall well-being.
Some of the many benefits include:

Rejuvenation and improved functioning of the immune system
Intervenes in the progression of diabetes
Autophagy – deep cleaning of cellular debris
Decreased fat storage (burns fat, not muscle)
Reduction in C-reactive protein and oxidative stress
Purging of cancerous and precancerous cells
Enhances cognitive performance and growth of new brain neurons
Promotes stem cell regeneration
Promotes healthy gut microbiota
Promotes longevity

Is it safe?

For people who are healthy, fasting is generally safe. But it’s not for everyone. (A fasting mimicking diet, while providing much of the benefit of fasting, is not a true fast, and will be much easier for most to tolerate.) If you are not sure this is for you, I recommend you educate yourself on the pros and cons, and potential contraindications. Those with diabetes would need to be particularly careful, and for those with an eating disorder, or are malnourished, pregnant or nursing, fasting is probably not a good idea. Please consult your physician before beginning any new diet plan.

Will I lose muscle when I fast?

Fasting is the process of switching from burning glucose (short term) to burning fat (long term). Fat is simply the body’s stored food energy. Naturally, in times of low food availability, stored food, or fat, is released to fill the void. So no, the body does not ‘burn muscle’ in an effort to feed itself until all the fat stores are used up. If that were true, you’d have to believe that the human body is so incompetently designed that we store food energy as glucose and fat, but use protein as soon as there is no food. Huh? That’s like storing firewood for the winter and then chopping up your sofa and burning it as soon as the temperature drops, leaving all the firewood intact.

Will fasting put my body into ‘starvation mode’ and make it harder for me to lose weight in the future?

In short, no. Fasting speeds up metabolism, not slows it down. Different than skipping meals or chronic calorie restriction, during fasting, noradrenaline levels are increased so that we have energy to go get more food. Fasting, but not low-calorie diets, results in numerous hormonal adaptations that all appear to be highly beneficial to metabolism.

How do I know if it’s working?

The FMD is a powerful hack to get the benefits of fasting while not completely giving up food. Still, this should only be a periodic diet. My suggestion is to do it for 5 day once per month for 3 months with before and after bloodwork to see what changes have occurred. Additionally, you should pair it with a healthy, whole food, low-carb diet in between to maximize the benefits to your physiology long-term. FMD can be part of a long-term solution for the ravages of living in a society where it is difficult not to live in an “over-fed” state, which leads to many of the chronic diseases, like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc. that we face as a society.

Are there any contra-indications for doing a Fasting Mimicking Diet Plan?
Yes, there are a few. Contra-indications are adrenal fatigue, pregnancy/nursing, eating disorders, and nutritional depletion/low body weight.