Prof. Valter Longo, born in 1967, is originally from Italy, but has lived in the USA since he was 16 years old. After studying biochemistry, he began his research on aging, the immune system and the importance of calorie restriction (dieting and fasting). In his book “Eat dich jung”, Prof. Longo describes two diets that he developed on the basis of his research. On the one hand, there is the Longevità diet, a diet similar to the Mediterranean diet that is suitable for everyday life. On the other hand, there is the mock fasting (in English: Fasting Mimicking Diet, FMD), a five-day fasting diet.
What is the dummy fasting now? It is a vegan nutrition program that usually lasts five days. On the first day around 1100 kcal are allowed, on the following four days only 750 to 800 kcal. This gives the body all the important nutrients, but is still put into a fasting state with all the corresponding metabolic effects. And that without the preparations and the complete waiver of food that is otherwise often necessary for a therapeutic fasting cure.
A reduction in muscle mass, which is possible during fasting, is prevented by the calorie intake. A sham fasting cure is of course also suitable for weight loss. Users usually lose around two to three kilos in the five days (but also due to the dehydrating effect). But above all, sham fasting also has a number of positive effects on health and longevity. In the case of sham fasting, like therapeutic fasting, a cleansing process of the body, known as autophagy, is set in motion. Autophotherapy is also triggered by exercise, black coffee, and a substance called spermidine.
Benefits and effects of intermittent fasting
The effects of dummy fasting have been carefully researched medically. Studies show that fasting improves health and prevents disease. In 2018, Prof. Valter Longo received several awards for his research on mock fasting and was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 50 most influential people in the health sector.
What can intermittent fasting do?
Laboratory tests on mice indicated that a “fasting mimicking diet” stimulates regeneration and is effective against autoimmune diseases and the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (1). In addition, there were indications that sham fasting could make tumor therapy (for example for breast cancer) more effective (2) and can have a positive effect on insulin production in diabetes (3). Important note: In the case of diabetes, fasting may only be carried out under permanent medical supervision (e.g. in a fasting clinic). It is imperative that you refrain from performing a dummy fasting regimen for diabetes!
A research group from the Longevity Institute of the School of Gerontoloy at the University of Southern California, led by Prof. Longo, examined the effects of mock fasting on 100 volunteers (4). Half ate normally, while the other half took a five-day mock fast once a month for three months. Various tests and blood counts related to aging and age-related diseases were performed in both groups. The three times mock fasting had many positive effects:
Weight loss, primarily body fat (especially dangerous belly fat, also called visceral fat)
Increase in muscle mass relative to body weight
Lowering of blood pressure
Decrease in blood sugar levels
Lowering cholesterol
Lowering of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), a growth factor that plays a role in aging processes and the development of cancer.
Reduction of elevated inflammation levels (CRP) and blood lipid levels
3 months after the last sham fasting cycle, 60–70% of the effects were still present. This fact makes the dummy fasting diet a very sustainable health measure if repeated every 3 months.
Other positive effects
An improved complexion
Reduced tiredness and above all more energy in the afternoon
More mental clarity
Easier behavior change and change in diet after the cure
Does the intermittent fasting diet have any side effects?
As with any type of fast, side effects such as headaches, increased feeling of cold, weakness or back pain can also occur with sham fasting. However, medical emergencies are not yet known. You can minimize the risk of the typical fasting symptoms with proper preparation. A few days before you start, gradually reduce your coffee consumption and eat mainly plant-based foods. In principle, it can be observed that the side effects decrease the more often you do the dummy fasting cure.
In addition, you shouldn’t do high-performance sports or extremely strenuous activities on your five mock fasting days. However, light exercise and exercise in the fresh air can even help you feel fitter and less hungry while fasting.
Who shouldn’t use the intermittent fasting diet?
In principle, the contraindications of fasting apply to the sham fasting cure. This means that it may not be carried out, for example, by pregnant women, anorexic and underweight people, people under 18 or over 70 years of age. In the event of illness, it is important that the attending physician and a nutrition expert who specializes in fasting give their consent and accompany the treatment. Warning about type 1 and type 2 diabetes: The combination of the dummy fasting diet and insulin or other prescription drugs can be associated with serious medical risks, including death.
Therefore, please do not under any circumstances use the dummy fasting diet alone or in consultation with your doctor if you have type 1 or 2 diabetes. To do this, you need to go to a specialized fasting clinic. where you will receive medical care around the clock.
How does intermittent fasting diet work?
The intermittent fasting diet follows very precise guidelines. Not only the exact number of calories is important, it is also a plant-based (vegan) diet (with the exception of honey), which contains precisely coordinated micro and macronutrients for each of the five days of fasting. It is ideal to plan five intermittent fasting days for three consecutive months. This allows the best health effect to be achieved.
In order to be able to implement intermittent fasting at home, there is on the one hand the possibility of putting together the meals yourself according to certain rules (see below), or of buying the five-day fasting cure ready-made as a box.
Option 1: The ready-made ProLon intermittent fasting diet box
ProLon gives you reset in just 5 days by providing the benefits of fasting without having to skip a meal!
The ProLon set is exactly the cure with which all the scientific studies were undertaken. In this box you will find everything you can eat on each of the five days. The carefully compiled content was developed based on the research of Prof. Valter Longo. This makes it very easy to implement the dummy fast. The boxes are not exactly cheap, but you have to consider that the know-how of decades of research has gone into them.
Prof. Longo doesn’t earn anything from it himself. His share of the profit flows completely into his age and longevity research, more precisely into the Create Cures Foundation, which researches the effects of integrative medicine on numerous diseases of civilization and thus makes important contributions to healthy aging.
We ourselves have a lot of fasting experience and are in principle very skeptical when it comes to special fasting products. However, since we know the research work of Prof. Valter Longo very well and consider it extremely valuable, the ProLon concept based on this research aroused our curiosity.
What’s in the box?
The box that we received contains five numbered smaller boxes, a drinking bottle, food supplements and information material including simple instructions on how to do it. The daily ration is contained in each of the five small boxes. We were already impressed by the clarity and simplicity of use.
The food is individually packed in small portions, which of course involves a lot of packaging material. We discussed this with the company and were assured that a new, more sustainable packaging concept was being worked on. Good thing, we could live with that.
What is the daily schedule?
We prepared for this regimen with a relief day, just like we do before every fast. We did without the usual bowel movement on the first day of fasting, because this is not necessary with dummy fasting. So we started the first day of our mock fasting cure without much tam tam, which looks like this:
Breakfast consists of a peppermint-lemon tea, a very tasty nut bar and an omega-3 algae capsule (this currently still contains gelatine, but this will be changed shortly).
For lunch there is a fine tomato soup (the ingredients are gently freeze-dried), green olives with salt, delicious crackers with kale and a capsule of the dietary supplement.
A snack consisting of mint tea and a nut bar.
For dinner there is a tasty vegetable stew, a healthy chocolate bar and another capsule of the dietary supplement.
The other 4 days are structured similarly. There are 4 different types of soup that alternate. In addition, there is a pourable drink in each day box, which is dosed according to body weight in order to compensate for the different calorie requirements of the fasting person.
How do the ingredients in the diet box taste?
We took the meals with great pleasure. Yes, everything tasted really good to us. We weren’t terribly hungry these days, but we looked forward to every meal.
Is there a fasting crisis with mock fasting?
Matthias had a slight headache on the 2nd day, which he got under control quickly with an enema. In between, I had slight circulatory problems, but I’m used to fasting. We were spared a real fasting crisis.
What else is there to consider?
We chose a quiet week for the cure, went for a lot of walks and really had a good time.
When fasting, I normally recommend cleaning the intestines with regular enemas, as the complete withdrawal of food usually prevents bowel movements. This is different with intermittent fasting. Since you are eating, the intestine continues to work and independently transports the very fiber-rich food outside. So no additional colon cleansing was necessary for us this week.
The advantages of this ready-made intermittent fasting cure are very clear to us:
uncomplicated handling
everything is pre-portioned and precisely instructed
you don’t have to buy anything extra
you have predetermined eating rituals that you can look forward to
you have the certainty that you cannot go wrong
and it tastes surprisingly good
To these five days, we added two more days of construction, on which we continued to forego animal products and drank a lot of water. The feeling after this cure was absolutely comparable to the feeling after a “real” fasting cure. So we have very satisfactorily replaced this year’s autumn fast with the ProLon cure.
Option 2: foods that you use to make a DIY intermittent fasting diet plan
If you are well versed and have the time to put together the meal plan for a mock fasting cure yourself, there is nothing wrong with planning it on your own. Below are instructions on how to do this.
Extract from “Eat you young” by Valter Longo:
Plan for the first day: 1100 calories
500 calories in the form of complex carbohydrates: vegetables, e.g. Broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, mushrooms etc.
500 calories in the form of healthy fats: walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, olive, linseed oil; a high-quality multivitamin or mineral preparation
an omega-3 fatty acid supplement
unsweetened tea (3-4 cups)
25 g protein of plant origin, especially from nuts
Water as desired
Plan for the second through fifth day: 800 calories
400 calories in the form of complex carbohydrates: vegetables, e.g. Broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, mushrooms etc.
400 calories in the form of healthy fats: walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, olive, linseed oil; a high-quality multivitamin or mineral preparation
an omega-3 fatty acid supplement
unsweetened tea (3-4 cups)
Water as desired
The following applies on all days: These ingredients should be divided between breakfast, lunch and dinner or two meals and a snack.
Plan for the sixth day: after the mock fast
The first 24 hours after the cure you should consume complex carbohydrates (vegetables, whole grains such as pasta, bread, rice, etc., fruit, fresh fruit and vegetable juices, nuts and high-quality oils, etc.) and eat fish, meat, Avoid dairy products, eggs, saturated fats, sweets and alcohol.
Choi IY, et al. A Diet Mimicking Fasting Promotes Regeneration and Reduces Autoimmunity and Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms. Cell Rep. 2016 Jun 7; 15 (10): 2136-2146.
Di Biase S, et al. Fasting mimicking diet reduces HO-1 to promote T cell-mediated tumor cytotoxicity. Cancer Cell. 2016 Jul 11; 30 (1): 136-146.
Cheng CW, et al. Fasting-Mimicking Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes. Cell. 2017 Feb 23; 168 (5): 775-788.e12.
Wei M, et al. Fasting-mimicking diet and markers / risk factors for aging, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Feb 15; 9 (377).
ProLon gives you reset in just 5 days by providing the benefits of fasting without having to skip a meal!
The ProLon set is exactly the cure with which all the scientific studies were undertaken. In this box you will find everything you can eat on each of the five days. The carefully compiled content was developed based on the research of Prof. Valter Longo. This makes it very easy to implement the dummy fast. The boxes are not exactly cheap, but you have to consider that the know-how of decades of research has gone into them.
Prof. Longo doesn’t earn anything from it himself. His share of the profit flows completely into his age and longevity research, more precisely into the Create Cures Foundation, which researches the effects of integrative medicine on numerous diseases of civilization and thus makes important contributions to healthy aging.
We ourselves have a lot of fasting experience and are in principle very skeptical when it comes to special fasting products. However, since we know the research work of Prof. Valter Longo very well and consider it extremely valuable, the ProLon concept based on this research aroused our curiosity.
If you are well versed and have the time to put together the meal plan for a mock fasting cure yourself, there is nothing wrong with planning it on your own. Below are instructions on how to do this.
Extract from “Eat you young” by Valter Longo:
