Can you get the benefits of Fasting... WITHOUT fasting?!?

The Fasting-Mimicking Diet was developed by Valter Longo to deliver the benefits of fasting without an actual fast. What does the science show about the Fasting-Mimicking Diet? What are the benefits and limitations? And how does the Fasting-Mimicking Diet work exactly?

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Animations: Even Topland @toplandmedia

References & additional resources:
Benefits of FMD in mice & men:

Compared to a Mediterranean diet:

Disclaimer: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor to replace medical care. The information presented herein is accurate and conforms to the available scientific evidence to the best of the author's knowledge as of the time of posting. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions regarding any medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of information contained in Nutrition Made Simple!.

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0:00 The Fasting-Mimicking Diet
2:20 Effects in mice
3:12 Effects in humans
4:30 Does the weight loss explain it all?
5:38 Comparing to a Mediterranean diet
10:54 Bottomline
11:29 Limitations
12:35 Recreating it

[not_old_yet]

If I remember, Longo initially did his research on fasting wrt patients receiving chemotherapy. His team showed a benefit, and I think the fasting mimicking diet came around as a way to give such patients the benefit easily without risking missing essential nutrients during an already trying time. It’s unfair how many commenters are automatically assuming he’s some diet guru out to make a buck.

[lindalarue]

I lost 80 pounds over the course of two years, and started to do the FMD once a month at the point where I was at my lowest weight. It was disastrous! The FMD restarted an old familiar pattern: the diet-binge cycle. I regained all the weight I lost over 18 months. No matter the longevity benefits, I won't go back to ultra-low-calorie diets like this, even for 5 days a month. Right now, I am doing a slow and steady weight loss. I'm down 25 pounds over a year's time. I learned my lesson!

[andrewnorris]

t must be stated - Longo does not profit from this. All proceeds go to a health charity. Same for his book. Also, it's pretty easy to DIY - Longo gives enough details for people to easily do so.

[cindysmallwood]

thanks so much for all you do. In this age of influencers that wing it, and hucksters promoting their own products or sponsored items, it's very refreshing and no nonsense. Much appreciate Gil!! BTW, I just finished my first FMD and was skeptical but A) I wasn't hungry and B) I felt great and like the science behind it.

[Sobchak]

Dr Carvalho, for the first time since I started to follow this channel years ago I found a video that I believe has some room for improvement :)
The FMD has been investigated in clinical trials as part of the treatment for several diseases and conditions, I think this part would be worth mentioning. And not only by the Longo group, but also by many others around the world. In particular, evidence showed that FMD can reduce side-effects and improve efficacy for some anticancer therapies.
I understand that the commercial kits were developed to standardize the meal kits given to patients during clinical trials. It is possible to design your own DIY FMD starting from the ratios of macronutrients in published papers.

We had the pleasure to host Prof Longo in our research institute some time ago, and his talk provided a very good background of the science underpinning the FMD. Especially on why not all fasting regimens were created equal. Dr Carvalho, perhaps you could invite him on your channel? Of course this is just a suggestion, please feel free to disregard it.

[peterbedford]

In his book, Longo has a DIY version of he FMD. I've done it a few times. Its pretty easy. His book is an interesting read as he has many studies regarding fasting benefits that were done by his team at USC

[OhBeshica]

Love your videos! Just a suggestion on a future video - could you do something on eating styles, peri/menopause, weight fluctuation? I've read there a benefits to going to a plant based diet on the quality of life during this phase, particularly in hot flashes. I would be curious to hear what you think.

[britfrancis]

These kits are around $300 for 5 days of food. With some research and planning you could easily design the same or similar program for a fraction of the cost and perhaps more importantly with a more environmentally friendly footprint.

[andrewnorris]

Longo outlines in his book how often people should do the FMD according to their current level of health. He also recommends a specific science based med diet as the main way to be healthy.

"Once a month for overweight or obese patients with at least two risk factors for diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular or neurodegenerative disease Once every two months for average-weight patients with at least two risk factors for diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular or neurodegenerative disease Once every three months for average-weight patients with at least one risk factor for diabetes, cancer, or cardiovascular or neurodegenerative disease Once every four months for healthy patients with a normal diet who are not physically active Once every six months for healthy patients with an ideal diet (see chapter 4) who engage in regular physical activity"

Thanks for featuring his work. I think he is one the best most reliable sources out there.

EDIT: he also urges people consult their Doctor and also over 70s avoid the FMD diet. The FMD diet is still thought to be much safer than a 3 day water fast which it mimics. As well as being a lot easier to achieve. Longo explains why in his book.

[carstars]

I find it a usual tool. Have done several FMDs using my own food. Just matching the macros. It's a 6-day pattern as they recommend a 1-day refeeding day then return to normal diet on day 7.

[deersakamoto]

I got Dr Longo's "The Longevity Diet" book from the library and there's lots of fillers in the book (about him pursuing music etc) and it's a little light on science. This video was pretty informative and 100% spot-on about proprietary diet business he's running (say what you will about Bryan Johnson but he's at least open sourcing all of his diet plans)

[jimbort_de_breces]

Be interesting to see the results of combining the Mediterranean & FMD

[Annie]

I thoroughly love your videos, Dr. Gil, since you cover all the science on timely-topics for nutrition and health. My husband and I did do the FMD--he made it 1 day and I made it 3. We did this right after the holidays and wanted to "jump start" eating healthier, hoping this would be easier than water-fasting. All the longer water fasting or longer FMD is difficult for me (both were 3 days). I lost 4 # but didn't keep it off --either with longer water fasts or FMD. I realize the best for me is to just start intermittent fasting again after I have gotten off-track --16:8 and get the processed foods/sugars/snacking out of my diet. We have several FMD boxes or days left to use-up sometime and it is a costly program. It doesn't have to be this hard though--it can be done more simply.

[tinyjungle_]

Everyone is wrong. My anecdote is superior to your anecdote. Facts!

[nanduthalange]

As always, thank you for a scientific and unvarnished explanation of an important topic. It would be interesting to know what would be needed to do a DIY FMD diet

[Physionic]

2:27 - I heard the mice on the FMD graduated from Harvard with their Masters degree, which is mildly impressive, I'd say 😛

[drbachimanchi]

As an endocrinologist what i understood is

For healthy longevity we have to maintain lowest healthy level BMI and bodyfat, highest vo2 max for the age and finally all these with eating least possible protein

[Scatial]

My understanding is that the reason to do the FMD is to increase autophagy. Could you comment on its effectiveness in that respect Gil - as compared to other, easier methods? For example, Dr. Gregor mentions coffee, natto, wheat germ, mushrooms, soy, and lettuce in his new book as good inducers of autophagy.

I am interested in ketogenic diets (like the FMD) not for weight loss, but for the possibility of reducing brain fog and improving long term general wellbeing. However, I'm reluctant to do any type of caloric restriction 1) for fear of muscle loss and 2) because, in the past, after going off fasts, cravings hit me like a freight train. 😏(Is that the emoji for a wry expression?)

[siegfriedverheijke]

My wife, a friend and I did FMD 2-3 times with our own foods. The outcome was similar to what is described in the video. For me personally, while I did lose 2.5 - 3 kg of weight over those 5 days, it doesn't work in the long run and I regain the weight by eating a lot more than usual in the weeks after FMD. This is probably because of the shock to the system that FMD causes. Mind you, there is not that much to improve on for us, as we eat a 100% plant-based diet with very limited processed food, so for us the Mediterranean diet is not very healthy (11x consumption of unhealthy foods per week).
For me, the most important positive of FMD is how the skin and the inside of the body feels much cleaner and younger, even after 3-4 days. It's a wonderful feeling. You do feel younger and you need much less sleep during those five days. That's because your body doesn't have to spend that much energy on digestion and therefore regenerates faster during the night.

[mangiari]

I'm trying to harness the results of Valter Longo's and others research the following way:
1. Try to eat a healthy diet, just like Longo also suggest, also very much influenced by Tim Spector etc...
2. Once a quater do 5 days of water fasting and if I do not manage, I switch to FMD for a day. Also often I try to lead in to the water fasting switching to a more FMD style diet.

If you read Longo's book and have a general understanding of the topic, it is not very hard to design food for 5 days, that mimic the FMD quite well...
But I'm sure that is different for an avarage US-citizen, as my regular diet already is quite similar to the target, except for the distribution of the makros...

As I'm just a sample of one, no control, no double blind no random no nothing, my results are not interesting, and I'm also on the plan for not even a year yet.