My Prolon Experience* in These Foolish Things

I’ve been asked by another PBer to write a review of my experience with the Prolon Fasting Mimicking Diet, so here you go!

If you’re not into hearing the nitty gritty of this plan, I suggest you keep scrolling - I’m about to get pretty detailed.

The Prolon FMD is a 5-day planned diet that gives you everything you need - all of your meals, liquids, daily vitamins and minerals, and instructions - in one box. It was developed by a guy named Dr. Valter Longo who has studied the effects of fasting on the body his whole career and built upon years of research.

The program seemed to gain a ton of traction and popularity when Gweneth Paltrow tried the diet in her Netflix series, The Goop Lab (if you’re interested in watching the episode where she actually partakes of this plan, it is the episode called The Health-Span Plan.

Shortly after the episode aired, I noticed that a lot of social media influencers were also trying out the plan. I am certain that the Prolon company gave away hundreds and hundreds of the kits to influencers because the shit ain’t cheap (reg. $199 for the 5-day kit, but I’ve seen it go as low as $159, and I think I got a 2-kit deal for $149/each during the Holidays last year).

The kit comes in one big box and inside of the box are five smaller boxes that are filled with all of the food and nutrients that you will need during this fast. It also comes with a water bottle that you will use to mix and drink this elixir that is supposed to give you energy during the fast.

The food consists of dried soups that you’ll mix with water and heat, plus some boxes have these amazing kale crackers (I say they’re amazing because you are not eating much at all and they seem to taste so good because you get so few of them!), some boxes have small pouches of olives and some have this incredible chocolate crunch bar that you will savor the hell out of because it’s the only “dessert” you’ll have. All of the days have something like a breakfast power bar, which I really liked and on any days where the chocolate crunch bar wasn’t part of the plan, I saved the power bar for dessert. Also, supplements are included that will give you the vitamins and minerals that your body would normally deplete in a several day fast. And some pretty decent decaffeinated teas that you can have on their own or infuse into the drink elixir to make it taste better (I love the hibiscus tea!).

The idea is that all of this is scientifically balanced to make sure your body stays in a fasted state to get the benefits of a fast, but that you are actually able to eat food while you’re fasting.

The kit also comes with instructions for each day. When to eat your meals and in what order. You can actually switch around the order of what and when you’re eating, but you should NOT switch around your days or food packets within the days. If you don’t eat everything for that day, that’s fine, but you can’t carry over any “leftovers” into the next day. It’s supposed to be THAT balanced.

The soups are supposed to be your big “entrees” for the day, and they get very old very quickly. After doing a little additional research, I found out the following: (1) you can doctor up your soups with spices. I liked adding some heat either with Old Bay seasoning or Tony Cachere’s seasoning. You can add red pepper flakes, black pepper, garlic powder, etc. ANYTHING is better than no seasoning. And (2) I recommend that you mix the soup powder and water in a sauce pan and heat them on the stove, adding in spices as you stir and bring to a boil. It just seems to taste better that way rather than doing any microwave. If you’re at the office and don’t have access to a stove, my suggestion would be to add very hot water slowly, a little at a time and mix until blended well and then add more water. Bon appetit!

The other items in the food box are self-explanatory. On the days when the daily box has five kale crackers, I like to ration them out so I’ll be able to have some with my evening soup. And like I said above, I like to ration out the breakfast bar. A bite late in the morning with coffee (oh! You’re allowed ONE cup of caffeinated coffee per day - no milk/sugar and any amount of decaffeinated tea all day long if you want).

I think that’s it for what’s actually INSIDE the boxes.

Now. The fasting itself.

Really, the idea is to give your body a good reset. People have fasted for centuries, and there is reasoning behind why - I won’t get into religious or political reasons, and I honestly don’t know a LOT about all of the scientific ways that it works, but from my limited knowledge I will try to explain simply like this: the fasted state is a means of putting your body into a state of ketosis and then autophagy so that the good cells in your body will actually “eat up” the bad cells in your body. The result is a “cleaner” body and mind, and naturally, a little bit of weight loss because you are in a caloric deficit.

I decided to try the plan at the very beginning of 2022. I had finished my colon cancer treatment three months earlier - survived a colon resection surgery and had gone through 12 rounds of chemotherapy. My body was feeling beat up, bloated, and in need of some kind of care in order for me to feel healthy again. In addition, my brain was foggy as hell. There’s a term called “chemo brain” and it is REAL and it doesn’t just go away after chemo is done.

During chemo, I’d lost about 15 lbs in the beginning and then gained about 25 as I was being pumped full of steroids and the doctors would all tell me to eat ANYTHING that tasted good to me. Losing weight during cancer treatment is a really bad sign, so I took the eating part to heart. Clearly, the only thing that tasted good to me going through chemo was comfort food - and lots of it.

So. I wanted to try this plan just to see if I could clean out all of the crap that had been coursing through my body over the previous year.

The Prolon fast is a very well thought out plan, and on Day 1, they give you the most calories so you feel the most satisfied. I never feel food-deprived on Day 1 as there are 2 power bars, 2 soups, crackers, olives and the chocolate dessert bar! Whee! Wash all that plus the supplements down with the tea, and it’s a decent day. No cravings, no headaches, no nothing. Plus, on Day 1 you’re excited to get the plan underway and have all of the good intentions in the world!

Day 2 gets harder as the calories go down and you start to feel like you’re invested. The good news is that you will also have looked at your scale and notice that it has budged - probably by a pound (if not a little more!). So you will likely have mixed emotions as the day goes by and see that there is less food in your box and you feel hungry and if you’ve weaned yourself off of a lot of caffeine, you’ll probably have a headache. I personally never had a headache on the plan because I’d already switched to decaf a couple of years ago.

For me, Day 3 into Day 4 was a mind-blowing experience. Yes, I was hungry and yes, I was already so bored with the soups, limited snacks and the tea drink elixir, but what happened late in the day on Day 3 was that my brain fog miraculously lifted! I had not felt a truly clear head since three YEARS earlier, before my carotid artery dissection! I knew at that point that my body was finally balancing out and at least something was happening in there! I decided that if nothing else, to have a clear head made the Prolon program worth it.

Days 4 and 5 were more of the same - the same soups, the same drink, the same breakfast bar, but again, every day I stepped on the scale I watched the numbers inch lower and lower - little by little. But not by a LOT, mind you - you’re not going to lose 10 pounds in five days unless you have a massive amount of weight to lose. If you’re not obese you’ll likely lose between four and six pounds on this plan.

But again, my goal was and is more of a whole body reset.

Prolon recommends that to get the maximum results of the fast plan that you do the program once a month for three months in a row. And after that, you can do the plan from time to time when you feel like your body needs a good reset. And because I had such amazing results with the first fast that I did, I ended up doing just that.

In 2022, I did the fast in January, February and March (the first week of each month), and then I did it one more time in May, I think it was. Each time I felt better and better and each time I lost about 5 lbs. Note that because this is just a 5-day thing, you’ll likely gain the weight back unless you use the Prolon plan to kickstart a regular diet. Each time I finished the plan I made it a point to eat very clean since I’d put in all that work and it felt so good.

In the end, I essentially lost all of the weight I’d gained during chemotherapy. My weight has fluctuated around 5 lbs here and there, but I’m very, very happy with the results of the program. The biggest thing for me was the miraculous brain fog lifting sensation when I did the plan the very first time. I have also felt just generally BETTER every time I’ve done the fast.

In addition to doctoring up the soups, I recommend the following for the most success on the plan:

• Start the plan on a Monday morning. That way you’ll have the weekend to look forward to after you’ve done the fast for five whole days. Friday night is hard and nearly impossible if you have any plans for the evening. Which brings me to…

• Try to start the plan when you have NO social plans for the week. Otherwise, you’ll be so tempted to just say screw this and break your fast when you’re out with your friends. Plus, people don’t seem to understand this program unless they’ve been on it.

• Don’t panic during the fast! Just know that your body will be doing its thing with the energy consumption and pulling from reserves when you’re fasting. You’ll probably not poop much during the plan. Don’t let that freak you out - you’re not putting much in there!

• When you go back to eating real food, start very slowly and with low fiber foods. Think scrambled eggs and toast. Your body has just gone through a massive adjustment via autophagy.

• Limit exercise to something light and steady. I still did my long walks with Martini, but nothing much more strenuous than that.

• Stick with it! Your body will thank you!

Anyway, those are my thoughts and my experiences with Prolon. If you have questions, note me below and I’ll try to add to this entry.

All in all, I give this plan an enthusiastic two thumbs up! I felt a huge difference on the inside and that helped me with the outside as well. To feel good is so, so important.

Thus concludes my review of the Prolon Fasting Mimicking Plan.

GS

UPDATE/FAQ:

• Q: Types of soups? Can I pick them out? A: The soup flavors are the only thing that you can decide, and there are only two “varieties” to choose from. Prolon 1 Pack (which is the “classic” variety and the ONLY one I’ve ordered) comes with the following soups: Minestrone, Tomato, Mushroom, Vegetable, Minestrone Quinoa. Prolon 2 Pack comes with these soups: Black Bean, Tomato, Spinach & White Bean, Butternut Squash Quinoa, Butternut Squash

• Q: What are the flavors of the powerbar? A: Only one. It’s a nut bar. It’s sweet and semi-crunchy. Tastes kind of like a cereal. Not bad. I like it.

• Q: Flavors of tea? A: All of the boxes come with hibiscus tea (my favorite), spearmint tea, and spearmint lemon tea. I do not love either of those spearmint teas and always have a lot of those teabags left over. You can have any kind of decaf tea on the program and I bought a big pack of decaf green tea and I drink that all day long. I put the hibiscus tea in my water bottle after I put the elixir in there and shake it up. You will drink the water bottle exixir all day long for energy

• Q: Promo code for best price? A: You just have to watch the ads. If you see the program go to $159 or below, that’s likely the best price. I think I saw a Black Friday sale last year where they went to $149 if you bought two…and that was my trigger. I’m sure Prolon has some other system they use with influencers. Like I said above, I’m pretty sure they gave away hundreds of these kits to the influencers.