A fasting-mimicking diet is a type of intermittent fasting.
A growing body of research conducted over the past decade or two have suggested that fasting – or abstaining from eating food – for certain periods of time might pay significant health dividends, such as improved weight management, lowered risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a reduced risk of cancer.
Fasting-mimicking is “a low-calorie diet designed to mimic fasting without fasting,” explains Dana Ellis Hunnes, a senior clinical dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and assistant professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in Los Angeles.
The approach effectively “tricks” your body into thinking you’re fasting while you’re actually still taking in some food. The eating period lasts five days, a time span that’s been associated with the benefits of fasting.
The rules of the fasting-mimicking diet are fairly straightforward. You’ll be tricking your body into thinking you’re fasting by removing most of the calories you’d typically eat each day.
The general idea on the fasting-mimicking diet is to consume 800 calories or fewer on fasting days and to adhere to a ratio of macronutrients that are roughly 10% protein, 45% fat and 45% carbohydrates. The fasting period lasts for five days and should be undertaken once per month until your target weight has been achieved.
The diet lasts for five days, and the approach breaks down as follows:
Day 1: You consume 1,100 calories. Of those calories, 11% should come from protein, 46% from fat and 43% from carbohydrates.
Days 2 to 5: You’ll consume just 725 calories per day, with a macronutrient breakdown of 9% protein, 44% fat and 47% carbohydrates.
During each of the five days, you should consume a minimum of 70 ounces of water. This fast period should be repeated once per month for a minimum of three months to achieve optimal results, Dilley explains.
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