You’ve Completed Your 5-Day Program. Now What? Tips for Living the Longevity Lifestyle
Starting - and completing - your Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) cycle is a huge milestone! By committing to those five days, you’ve taken a powerful step toward supporting your healthspan and reaping long-lasting health benefits. But the journey doesn’t end there—in fact, what you do between FMD cycles is just as crucial for maximizing results and achieving your health goals - and the majority of real Prolon users report that they are more motivated to adopt new lifestyle changes after completing their 5-day program!
While the FMD lays the groundwork, maintaining a balanced, health-focused lifestyle in between cycles can support, and build on, that foundation. Integrating principles of the Longevity Diet (based on the eating habits and lifestyles of those in longevity sites where people live healthily into their 100s) with over 25 years of research and product development from L-Nutra, the Longevity Lifestyle outlines key components of dietary choices and lifestyle habits that can be incorporated into your daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly routines. By adopting these practices even just one at a time, our hope is you begin to embark on a journey to a well, and long, lived life!
Discover the Daily Benefits of Intermittent Fasting & Time-Restricted Eating
Prolonged fasts like the FMD that last longer than 72 hours are only recommended to be followed periodically throughout the year. Intermittent fasting (IF) - particularly Time Restricted Eating (TRE, the most common form of IF) - can be incorporated into your daily Longevity Lifestyle, and considers the hours of the day that you are eating, versus the hours of the day that you are not. Compressing your eating window may offer numerous benefits, like better energy, weight management, sleep, and insulin sensitivity.
Tips:
- Try a 12:12 TRE: The 12:12 circadian pattern limits your daily eating window from sunrise to sundown, consuming food for the 12 hours the sun is up, while discontinuing eating the 12 hours when it is down (ex: 7am - 7pm), aligning with your body's internal clock, known as circadian rhythms. These rhythms regulate various physiological processes, including digestion, sleep-wake cycles, hormone production, metabolism, and more. For those with the goal of weight loss, you can use smaller windows for eating, such as a 14:10 or a 16:8 - but we only recommend you do these for a short period of time, as chronically restricting calories can result in nutritional deficiencies and negative health outcomes.
- Eat Breakfast: As mentioned above, eating with your circadian rhythm offers optimal benefit. Whether or not you are following IF or TRE patterns, it is recommended, therefore, to break your fast in the morning, as research suggests that skipping breakfast may increase the risk of heart-related issues. Eating breakfast can enhance the body's ability to utilize nutrients effectively and support optimal function of critical organs.
- Support Your Fasting Windows with Prolon: Whatever fasting window you prefer, we have products designed to help you support your fast while still offering nourishment. Our Fasting Bars and Fasting Shakes are specially made to provide nutrients and help curb hunger, while keep you in a fasting, fat-burning state without activating your body's nutrient sensors. You can use them daily— for breakfast, as a meal or snack during your fasting window, to extend an overnight fast, or as an after-dinner snack.
Include Longevity-Boosting Foods in Your Daily Diet
Food choices during our feeding window greatly impact healthy aging. The Longevity Diet promotes plant-based foods rich in colors, phytonutrients, vegetables, and fiber. When planning your weekly meals, consider the following guidelines:
- Aim for a daily intake of 55-65% carbs, 30-35% fats, and 10-11% protein (more on this below).
- Eat within a 12-hour window, prioritizing breakfast, and finish meals 3-4 hours before bed.
- Follow a mostly vegan diet, with fish 2-3 times weekly (low-mercury options). If over 65 or experiencing muscle loss, increase protein from plant based proteins as well as fish, eggs, cheese, yogurt, or a plant-based protein powder.
- Limit alcohol and processed foods; focus on nutrient-dense options without added sugars or unhealthy fats.
*Find shopping lists and two weeks worth of recipes in our FREE Longevity Lifestyle Booklet.
Balance Protein Intake
Research has shown that certain animal-based proteins like meat, poultry, dairy, or whey, when consumed in excess, can trigger the growth factor IGF-1 - potentially accelerating the aging process. Conversely, consuming inadequate protein can lead to low levels of IGF-1 which can impact muscle mass and lead to frailty. The Longevity Diet emphasizes balanced protein levels (not too much, not too little) that come from mostly plant based sources. To help you meet your healthy aging and protein goals, we created L-Protein - use it daily for post-workout recovery, as part of a nutritious breakfast, or as a snack within your feeding window.
Stay Active
Movement is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, both physically and mentally, and a component of the Longevity Lifestyle, playing an important role in healthy aging by supporting cardiovascular health and reducing the risk of various metabolic conditions. Here are a few ways to get moving: Go for a brisk hour-long walk daily, even to farther places when possible. Aim for 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate exercise a week, with a bit of intensity mixed in now and then. Build muscle with weight training or bodyweight exercises. To boost muscle growth, eat a low-carb meal with at least 25g of protein within 1-2 hours after a workout (try our specially formulated L-Protein).
Plan Your Next 5-Day
Even just one cycle of Prolon’s 5-Day Program can bring great benefits, but each round builds on the last, making those first three cycles even more impactful. To keep up these longevity benefits, we suggest doing the 5-Day FMD three yearly (once a quarter) —that’s just 15 days out of the whole year!
To learn more about how to support your longevity in between fasts, download the free Longevity Lifestyle eBook. From yearly to weekly to daily habits, our booklet offers real ways to build upon the benefits that your 5-Day Program put into motion.
