Try It: Fast-Mimicking Longevity Diet

Fast With Food — Do It Yourself Alternatives

Last month in the article “Fast Mimicking Diet — DIY Cheaply: The Health-Promoting 5-Day Diet Without the Cost” I reviewed the science-backed benefits of the longevity-promoting fast-mimicking diet (FMD) developed by Dr. Valter Longo. This diet allows us to get the benefits of fasting, while still eating food in the form of a specially-designed low-calorie diet for five days. Researchers found that in mice and humans, the diet reduces weight and improves markers of aging and risk factors for diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease (Wei et al, 2017; Brandhorst et al, 2015).

In my last article, I provided a link to my own inexpensive do-it-yourself-at-home version of this diet. Now, I’d like to share and compare other do-it-yourself versions of the FMD.

Because of the powerful benefits documented by science for both people with illness and those who are healthy and want to live longer, there has been a lot of interest in how we can follow this diet without purchasing the commercial Prolon diet kit from L-Nutra for $249. Many self-experimentation, health, longevity, and fasting enthusiasts and made an attempt to put together an easy-to-use and effective diet.

I’ll review these attempts based on 5 factors:

1. How well does each diet adhere to the basic criteria Dr. Longo outlined in his book, “The Longevity Diet” (2018)? The criteria he documented in the book are:

• 100% plant-based.
• About 500 calories from complex carbohydrates (vegetables such as broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, etc.) on day 1 of the diet (transitional day); 400 calories on days 2–5.
• About 500 calories from healthy fats (nuts, avocado, olives, olive oil) on day 1 of the diet; 400 calories on days 2–5.
• About 1100 calories on day 1 of the diet; 800 calories on days 2–5.
• About 25 g of plant-based protein (mostly from nuts) on day 1 of the diet. Less than 18g of plant-based protein on days 2–5.
• Less than 30g of sugar on day 1; less than 20 grams on days 2–5.
• Include a multivitamin/multimineral supplement and an omega 3 supplement

2. How easy is it to understand the diet plan, acquire ingredients, prepare, and eat?

3. How costly is it?

3. How well did the diet work for the person who constructed it? Did they test it?

After scouring the web for the best selection of DIY FMD Menus available for free, the list below is what I found. I read each of them and put one of their day’s menus into the Cronometer nutrition assessment tool to evaluate. Then I assigned a grade to each evaluation criterion, from A (best) to F (worst).

Foodzie FMD Menu

This version relies heavily on convenience foods like the Prolon Fast Bars and Amy’s brand soups. This can be helpfulfor those looking for convenience, but doesn’t benefit those of us who want to rely on whole, natural foods as much as possible. In addition, Fast Bars aren’t cheap at over $3 a bar. This diet also recommends a drink with erythritol and stevia, which are not permitted by Dr. Longo because of concerns about spiking blood glucose and appetite. When I entered the Day 2 menu into the Cronometer app, all the calorie readings on the items were lower than they said, so they day’s total ended up 670 calories rather than 800. The mushroom bisque soup they recommend contains butter, which is not permitted by Dr. Longo’s criteria. The full day’s menu included 11.2g saturated fat, whereas the patents for Prolon’s kit say saturated fat should be kept under 6g. Protein totaled to 20.3g on Day 2, but should be under 18g. As far as I can tell, the creators didn’t test the diet, so we aren’t sure what the experience is like on it.

Forever Free From FMD Menu

Benjamin from Forever Free has put together a very detailed guide to planning and executing a FMD on your own. He shares a lot of information about what measures he encourages you to track and why. He provides a spreadsheet that lets you design a FMD based on the foods he ate during his plan, and your own calorie goals. He primarily encourages whole, natural, plant-based foods, but does include some Marks & Spencers brand soups and veggies, which have butter and cream in them and are not available in the US as far as I know. The macro nutrient balance of protein, saturated fat, fat overall, and carbohydrates looks to be mostly in line with Longo’s recommendations. Benjamin tested the diet and overall was pleased with his results. He saw weight loss and a reduction in IGF-1, which is associated with cancer. This diet requires you to know what you are doing, be able to use a pretty complex spreadsheet, and adjust the foods to the right levels for you.

Quantified Bob

Quantified Bob’s plan relies heavily on avocados and green superfood powder for calories, which makes it easy to plan for and prepare. Green superfood powder isn’t a whole food as the fiber has been removed, and I prefer to get my calories from whole foods where possible since they are more filling. His macronutrient balance, including protein and saturated fat, is in line with Longo’s recommendation for the most part. His calorie levels are lower than those in Longo’s book, but more in line with what Prolon has in the patent for its kits so those calorie levels should work similarly. He provides a spreadsheet with easy to follow foods. During the diet, Bob lost fat, gained muscle, and saw improvements in blood glucose, ketones, and mental clarity.

Enid Kassner at AgingAdvice.com’s FMD Plan

Enid takes a unique approach and provides a list of recipes. You are directed to choose any 3 recipes for the first day, and any 2 for the second through fifth days. All of her recipes are 100% plant-based, low protein, and low saturated fat. I chose two recipes and put them in the Cronometer app to evaluate them. I find soups and salads particularly filling on fast-mimicking days, so I chose the Turnip and Potato Soup and Spinach-Strawberry Salad with Rice Cakes. Macronutrients looked good, with protein falling just over the cutoff, at 18.1g. The sugar levels were a high at 26.5g sugar. Her recipes contain quite a few fruits, which likely push them over the sugar cut-off most of the time. Enid and others appear to have tested the diet, but there isn’t information on their results.

I looked at a few other DIY FMD plans that didn’t seem to have enough merit for me to conduct a full evaluation. The lesson here is that it can be difficult to put together a diet plan that meets Dr. Longo’s criteria without careful planning. All the criteria he identified work together to produce the results Longo is seeing in his studies, and we can’t know whether changing some elements might impact the benefits we hope to gain. It’s better to adhere to his criteria as closely as possible. Many of the DIY FMD plans pursue convenience or more elaborate, tasty meals, but don’t ahere to the most important criteria that Longo has identified, such as low sugar and low protein. Doing the fast-mimicking diet on your own at home easily and inexpensively is possible, but be careful to select which plan you follow based on whether it will give you the results you want.

Additional Notes: Dr. Longo recommends you not do the FMD without your doctor’s approval, guidance, and oversight if you are <18 or >70 years old; suffering from pathologies or serious illness such as cancer, diabetes, or cardio vascular disease; pregnant, underweight, anorexic, people with liver or kidney disease, on medication (especially insulin), have low blood pressure, athletes during training. The Prolon kit can be an excellent option, especially for those who with serious illness, or working with a doctor.

Works Cited

Brandhorst S, Choi IY, Wei M, Cheng CW, Sedrakyan S, Navarrete G, Dubeau L, Yap LP, Park R, Vinciguerra M, Di Biase S, Mirzaei H, Mirisola MG, Childress P, Ji L, Groshen S, Penna F, Odetti P, Perin L, Conti PS, Ikeno Y, Kennedy BK, Cohen P, Morgan TE, Dorff TB, Longo VD Cell Metab. “A Periodic Diet that Mimics Fasting Promotes Multi-System Regeneration.” Enhanced Cognitive Performance, and Healthspan. (2015) Jul 7; 22(1):86–99.

Longo, Valter. The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight, 2018.

Wei, M., Brandhorst, S., Shelehchi, M., Mirzaei, H., Cheng, C. W., Budniak, J., Groshen, S., Mack, W. J., Guen, E., Di Biase, S., Cohen, P., Morgan, T. E., Dorff, T., Hong, K., Michalsen, A., Laviano, A., & Longo, V. D. (2017). Fasting-mimicking diet and markers/risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Science translational medicine, 9(377), eaai8700. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.aai8700