In its simplest terms, TRE limits your food intake to a specific number of hours each day. The belief is that by shortening the number of hours you eat during each 24-hour cycle, you will eat less and thus take in fewer calories.

As long as you eat reasonably sized portions of healthy foods within a 12 hour window of each day, (we don’t suggest skipping breakfast as there have been studies suggesting this can have dangerous repercussions on heart health) chances are good you’ll enjoy the benefits of a fasting diet that’s not too difficult to follow, and you'll be able to stick with it over the long-haul.

An intermittent fasting program prescribes a diet approach that alternates between periods of eating and fasting.

During an intermittent fasting program, the individual will fast for an interval of time, usually no more than 48hrs, and then eat normally for the remaining period of time per week. The most common example of this is known as the “5:2” diet, where calories are severely restricted for 2 days (preferably non-consecutive), and then normal eating occurs for the other 5 days in the week. Other intermittent fasting programs include complete fasts where no food is consumed for a specific length of time (commonly 16-24 hours), also non-consecutive days per week.

While weight loss and fat burning results can be substantial with intermittent fasting programs, benefits that promote changes at the cellular level require a type of fasting program wherein fasting occurs longer than 48 hours (prolonged fasting).

The prolonged fasting diet is basically fasting for an extended period; usually anywhere from 4 to 7 consecutive days. The main goal of this type of fasting diet is to initiate the stress of fasting onto the body over the course of several days to stimulate healthy innate changes at the cellular level. An example of a prolonged fast would be either a water fast for 3-7 consecutive days (which should always be done under the care of a physician) or the potentially safer and easier to complete ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) where specific foods provided in the ProLon kit can be eaten while still allowing the body to remain in a fasting state and experience many of the same benefits as water fasting.

To learn more about ProLon’s 5-Day Fasting Mimicking Diet and its ability to support metabolic health, help you lose body fat while maintaining lean body mass when used once a month for three consecutive months, and trigger cellular renewal.