THIS Is MUCH EASIER Than Fasting With Amazing Results

And just like fasting, it can provide weight  loss, but it's not so much the weight you lose  

during the fast as it is the cleansing. You  start reversing, and it's a metabolic reset  

that helps you lose weight in the future.  It also provides a great cleanse. If you eat  

this specific way for five days, you can get  the same benefits as a three-day water fast.

Hello, Health Champions! Today, I want to talk  about something that's a lot easier than fasting  

but can still give you the same benefits as  an extended water fast. These benefits include  

reversing or reducing insulin resistance, which  is very powerful for losing weight. You can also  

create autophagy, a form of the cleansing process  in the body. You can start reversing degenerative  

diseases associated with chronic low-grade  inflammation, such as cardiovascular disease,  

type 2 diabetes, cancer, and dementia. Fasting  can act as a metabolic reset and a cleanse,  

where you start reversing all of these conditions.  Typically, fasting means that you only drink water  

and don't eat anything else, but we're going  to talk about how you can fast and eat at the  

same time by eating in a very specific way. You  can mimic fasting and get the same benefits. If  

you eat this specific way for five days, you can  get the same benefits as a three-day water fast.

This means you can still get the insulin drop,  which means you're starting to reverse insulin  

resistance. You can also initiate autophagy,  which means that when protein is scarce,  

the body gets really good at upregulating the  recycling processes. It starts going into every  

little corner, every nook and cranny, to find  residues of protein, which could be bacteria,  

viruses, damaged cells, misfolded proteins, or  any sort of junk. When you stop eating protein  

and your protein intake is very low, the  body has to go out and find these things,  

so it acts like a very powerful cleanup. Just like  fasting, it can provide weight loss, but it's not  

so much the weight you lose during the fast as it  is the cleansing. You start reversing, and it's a  

metabolic reset that helps you lose weight in  the future. It also provides a great cleanse.

Let me comment on strict fasting.  I'm not opposed to it in any way;  

I just want you to keep your options open. If  you have trouble with extended water fasting,  

this would really be something to look into.  Water fasting works for a lot of people. If  

you're one of those who can do it without much  discomfort or even enjoy it, then by all means,  

keep doing it. But still, keep your options  open to try things out and get some variety.

The biggest reason to look into this mimicking  diet is that many people have trouble fasting  

with just water because we're all different. It  can be due to genetic differences or differences  

in our gut flora, as the bacteria in our gut  provide a lot of signaling about inflammation,  

hunger, and insulin resistance. We're not all  the same. Some people don't do very well when  

they try a water fast. They might be okay for 16  hours, but beyond that, they start feeling weak,  

very hungry to the point where they don't function  well, or they might get light-headed, dizzy,  

or nauseous. In other words, they're  just not doing well on a water fast.

If you want to eat in a specific way to still  get fasting benefits, the rules are very simple.  

The first rule is that you eat less than 50%  of your normal calories. The second rule is  

equally important: keep your protein between  15 and 20 grams per day. Fifteen grams would  

be for a smaller person, and 20 grams would be  for a slightly bigger person. The only other  

rule is that I believe low-carb will work  better. Many people do this without going  

specifically low-carb, and it still works, but  it's easier and works better if you do low-carb.

Let me give you an example of what I did for one  day out of these five days. I started with a soup  

and salad. There was 50 grams of lettuce,  zero grams of fat, 50 grams of tomatoes,  

25 grams of cucumber, 50 grams of bell pepper,  and 25 grams of onion. So far, there are basically  

just trace amounts of fat in here, but then you  want some good fat, like extra virgin olive oil on  

that salad. I had two tablespoons of that. I also  had some soup. You can make your own, and I did  

for some of the days, but this particular day, I  just bought a vegetable soup from a store that had  

2.3 grams of fat in it. When we add that all up,  it's about 30 grams of fat for that first meal.

Then we look at the protein. Again, I picked  foods that are very low in protein. So far,  

we basically just have trace amounts of protein,  which is the whole point of this diet. The soup  

had a little bit more at 4.5 grams, so all in all,  it was 6.12 grams of protein in this first meal.  

The carbs are all very low, with half a gram  or one gram each, until we get to the soup,  

which had some carrots and a few other vegetables  in it. That had a little bit of carbohydrate,  

but it's not that critical to keep the  carbohydrates super low. All in all,  

there were 20 grams of carbs in that meal,  and the calories were very low until we get  

to the olive oil and a little bit more from the  soup. That entire meal had about 380 calories.

Then I made a little stir-fry, and you can  spice these up any way you like. For this one,  

I had salt, pepper, and some curry, and I cooked  it in olive oil as well. I used leek, onion,  

cauliflower, asparagus, avocado, and some sweet  potato on the side. If you're really trying to go  

low-carb, you can cut out the sweet potato and do  something else, like more asparagus or avocado. I  

cooked this in extra virgin olive oil again. When  it comes to fat, all of these vegetables have very  

close to zero fat until we get to avocado, which  has 6.9 grams, and the extra virgin olive oil,  

which is pure fat at 28 grams. Just like the first  meal, if we add that all up, it's 36 grams of fat.

The protein is again very low, which we  are choosing on purpose. The cauliflower  

is a little higher because there's a lot  of it, 200 grams, and that's the foundation  

for that stir-fry. The rest have less than 1  gram of protein each. When we add it all up,  

we get 8.4 grams of protein. The carbs  are going to be a little higher here,  

with a few grams in each vegetable.  All in all, it ends up at 32.3 grams.

When we add this all up, we see that the  leek has 15 calories, the onion has 29,  

the cauliflower has 45, the asparagus has 7,  the avocado has 70, the sweet potato has 69,  

and the olive oil has 256 calories, for a  total of 486 calories. When we add this all up,  

taking the soup and salad that I just mentioned  and the stir-fry and vegetables, the totals are  

66 grams of fat, 15 grams of protein, 52  grams of carbs, and 867 calories in total.

Now let's look at the macros: how many percent  of the calories come from fat, protein, and  

carbohydrates. We see that 69% of calories come  from fat, so compared to general guidelines or  

how people eat for the most part, this is still a  high-fat diet. The protein is extremely low, which  

is where we want to keep it. Ten percent would be  the absolute top, but seven percent is better if  

you can get there because that's the main thing  that drives autophagy. The carbohydrates, at 24%,  

are a little higher than I would typically  recommend because on a ketogenic diet,  

you want to be around 5%, and on a low-carb  diet, you want to be around 10-15%. This is a  

little higher, but it's not a problem because  the calories are so much lower overall. Since  

you're eating much less food, you're still  going to get autophagy and be in ketosis.

The main challenge in selecting food for this  fasting mimicking diet is finding foods that  

are low enough in protein. A lot of the things  you normally eat will be too high in protein,  

so you can't just eat less of the  stuff you usually eat. Normally,  

protein is very important, and we want to  eat a significant amount of high-quality  

protein every day to rebuild our bodies. But  the point of this is to mimic fasting. If we  

keep the protein super low for a  few days, it won't do any harm.

The things you can't eat are all animal products  because while they are nutritious, they are too  

high in protein for this diet, including  bone broth. Many people love to have broth  

when they're fasting, but a single serving of bone  broth could have 8-10 grams of protein, which is  

over half of your protein allowance in a single  cup. You can use vegetable broth, chicken broth,  

or beef broth for your soups, but not bone  broth. You also want to stay away from legumes,  

such as beans, lentils, and peas, because they're  too high in protein. Avoid eggs, dairy, nuts,  

and seeds as well, as all of these foods will  make it difficult to keep your protein low enough.

Here's what you can eat: leafy  greens, almost unlimited amounts;  

lots of non-starchy vegetables, though  not unlimited, but you can have a lot;  

some tubers, which are great for your  soups, such as sweet potato, rutabaga,  

celery root, parsnip, etc. You can have some,  but don't overdo it because they do have some  

starch and calories. I recommend extra virgin  olive oil for most of your fat and calories,  

but still limit it to four to five tablespoons  a day to stay under 50% of your normal calories.

There are lots of resources to  find different recipes online,  

and hopefully, you've watched enough of my  videos to know what real and good food is,  

so you know what to avoid if these recipes  contain something you don't want to have.

There is one more way to do this: buy a  prepackaged fasting mimicking diet kit.  

It's extremely convenient and costs about $200,  which is a lot of money for what you're getting.  

However, you won't spend money on any other food  for five days. I would not recommend getting this  

kit unless you absolutely have to. If you know  anything about cooking and have time to figure  

this out yourself, you'll be better off. This  kit has no vegetables other than a few dried  

pieces in the soup mixes. There is a lot of  starch in these soup mixes for thickener,  

and it mostly consists of soup mixes and  various forms of crackers and food bars,  

many of which are sweetened with chicory root.  If you have a little bit of dysbiosis or small  

intestine bacterial overgrowth, you're going  to get very bloated from eating this way.

The big question is, does it work? Yes,  absolutely. They have spent a lot of time  

formulating it and getting all of the  numbers, grams, and macros together,  

so it's very convenient. You don't have to  measure or cook, and you minimize the risk of  

straying outside the guidelines. It will get you  into ketosis and autophagy, even though it has a  

lot more carbohydrates than what I was showing  you. Comparing my macros (69% fat, 7% protein,  

and 24% carbohydrate) to their kit, you're going  to get only 37% fat and 10% protein. It will  

vary a little day by day, but it will be between  7-10% protein. The carbohydrates will be over 50%,  

mostly from various forms of starch and  soup thickeners. It will work precisely  

and pre-planned, but I believe that if you can  cook and have patience, you'll be better off. By  

eating a lot of salads and getting a lot of  fiber, you can drop that carbohydrate component,  

get some good fat, and have tons  more fiber and bulk to keep you full.

If you do great on a three-day water fast,  there may not be any reason to try this. But  

if you have trouble going longer than one day on  a water fast, then this could definitely help.  

You can do this about once a quarter if you're  just maintaining, trying to prevent diseases,  

get some good autophagy, and build in some  prevention. If you're reversing a condition  

like type 2 diabetes or any condition associated  with insulin resistance, you can probably do more,  

maybe as often as once a month. Even if you  just do this once a quarter or twice a year,  

it's pretty easy once you get the hang of  it to throw in one or two days here and  

there. Instead of eating your usual  stuff, just back off a little bit,  

maybe one day a week or two days every month,  whatever suits your needs and makes you feel good.

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