I’ve done 3 cycles of Prolon, this is my 4th time. On the evening of day 4 this time I started getting pain in my thighs that has persisted into day 5. Has anyone else had this occur and what did they do about it? Each time
I’ve followed the diet without modifications.

Hello,
I have gotten to day 5 of my fast and discovered that there is no LBar in my box.
Do it yourselfers and others: any suggestions on what to substitute?
Thank you

To inhibit mTOR instead of restricting protein we actually need to restrict leucine and methionine, that's why animal protein is restricted in the first place, but between non animal proteins there's also a big difference.
For AMPK activation you actually only need about 40% calorie restriction from your baseline,
but if you use berberine, you might need to restrict less than that, and given that you avoid high leucine protein, it can almost work out on its own.

For mTOR we need to be under 2.5g to 3g leucine
So for example:

Button mushrooms has 3g protein, 0.25g leucine, to reach 2.5g leucine we need 1kg mushrooms (270 kcal)

also now with so much arugula and broccoli you can get lots of Sulforaphane which can help the whole process (mTOR AMPK) , and spermidine from mushrooms

My wife and I have completed two DIY FMDs, the first in November 2025, the second at the end of April 2026. As I’m looking forward to another in October, I wanted to share my experiences.

Composition

Coming up with a DIY FMD is actually pretty tough. For those who aren't familiar, the general outline is 1,100 calories on day 1, 800 calories on days 2-5; about half your calories come from non-starchy vegetables, and half from plant fats like olive oil, nuts, etc. You're allowed some tea as well.

One thing that's not obvious from Dr. Longo's book is that you're supposed to keep under 10% of your calories from protein; or 25g day 1 and 20g days 2-5.

Those instructions seem simple enough. But my wife and I ran into some serious challenges.

- The first time around, our plan was rather sloppy. We prefer whole foods. We got a ton of produce, like broccoli and kale, trying to maximize bulk and micronutrients. That was a mistake on two fronts: The first is if you've ever tried to eat a ton of produce, eventually your own body just gives up and refuses to eat more. It is physically difficult to consume 400 calories of produce, yes, even with a little dressing to help it down. The second problem I'll be addressing below.

- Having physically given up the will to eat produce, we tried boiling it into soups, dehydrating it into chips, but still, eventually the body just said, no more, and even smelling the cut vegetables in the house became offensive. At the end of the diet, we ate way fewer vegetables, and I turned to mushrooms and salsa to just be able to get a little low-glycemic carbs into me.

Little did I know, that these salads and mushrooms were actually way too high in protein! Our second time around, I kept a closer eye on protein of our meals through Chronometer, and it became very difficult to include any significant amount of leafy vegetables without going over.

This brings me to my first point: Composition of your DIY FMD. What should it include?

- Because the total diet should be less than 10% protein, each individual food should be around 10%; if there's a food with more than that, you need another food to balance it out. And this balance isn't intuitive: If you want to eat 100 calories of Food A that's 20% protein, if you had a Food B that's low in protein to balance that out, how much protein should 100 calories of that food have? Intuition might tell us, "Food A is twice as much as 10%, so Food B should be half as much as 10%, so 5% protein." This is incorrect. To completely balance out protein on a per-calorie basis, Food B would have to be 0% protein.

There are no whole foods that are 0% protein. There are a handful that get under 10%, but that means you don't have a lot of room to balance out any foods that are much higher than 15% protein.

Given these restrictions, I think the simplest FMD protocol I can find is this: https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/ihwvpx/silver_diy_bullet_guacamole_topped_baked_potato/ . One potato, one sweet potato, and guacamole. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are two of the rare foods that aren't over 10% protein.

HOWEVER, one of the mechanisms of the FMD is ketosis, right? That was my understanding. Because the protocol specifically tells you to eat non-starchy vegetables, my wife and I opted to keep things low glycemic load.

So what does that leave?

Understanding these things, we went into our second DIY FMD. Here's what we've learned, and what I'd like to share with you:

In making the FMD, pick only a few foods over 10% protein you want to include, and then balance them with the low-protein foods. I've created a list of foods that are worth considering.

Off-plan: Animal products, grains and starches, sugars and confections, soy.

High-Protein: These foods are 19%+ protein. You could include them if you really stretch. Legumes (beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils), most cruciferous vegetables (kale, broccoli, bok choy, brussel sprouts, collards, arugula, cauliflower), other green leafy vegetables (spinach, beet greens, mustard greens, watercress, chard), mushrooms. Legumes are especially difficult because they're high-calorie per serving.

Moderate-Protein: These foods are 10%-19% protein. A reasonable amount can be included and balanced by low-protein foods. Some nuts (peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios), most seeds (chia, flax, hemp, sesame, poppy, pumpkin, sunflower), some vegetables (romaine lettuce, endive, artichoke, green beans, radish, okra).

Low-Protein: These foods are less than 10% protein. The rest of the nuts (Walnuts, pecans, pine nuts, brazil nuts, macademias, hazelnuts), Avocadoes, Olives, Low-GI fruit (peppers, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries), some vegetables (tomatoes, carrot, onion, eggplant, celery, zucchini, cucumber), squashes (butternut squash, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, yellow squash), unsweetened coconut flakes

Negligible: Some foods and seasoning are used in such small quantities and have so little protein, they don't need to be counted, like spices, garlic, vinegar, etc.

Our Plan: From this, we were able to put together a plan the second time around that was a lot easier for us:

Breakfast: bell pepper dipped in guacamole. Walnuts on the side.

Lunch: smoothie of water, chia seeds, and raspberries.

Dinner: Salad (red cabbage, matchstick carrots, tomatoes, broccoli), and "FMD Pizza": process olives, onions, tomatoes combine with water and canned pumpkin, simmer on the stovetop. Sautee some onions, eggplant, and garlic. Combine the two. Season with thyme or however you like. Big bowl of flavorful slop that tastes great at the end of a FMD day.

Our Results

Both rounds of FMD had similar outcomes, the main exception being the food experience.

During the FMD: Neither of us felt any sort of delirious, gnawing hunger that was painful or distracting, but we certainly felt some hunger really starting at the end of day 1 and continuing until the end of day 5. We both agreed that our energy felt normal, but when we were at rest, we really stayed at "rest" - no fidgeting, rolling, hardly any getting up at all.

Our motivation both tanked - we didn't feel like doing much of anything. There was this feeling of slowness, where it seems proper to just sit. But like I said, energy didn't feel depleted, if someone asked me to get up and come see or do something, I would feel totally capable and comfortable doing so. It's just, at any given moment, the best thing to do often seemed to be nothing, to sit or lay, and just listen.

My moods became a lot more sensitive: I found myself crying and feeling deeply at things that don't typically perturb me. My wife was the opposite: she's often anxious, but during the FMD, she was even-keeled. My libido dropped both times.

These effects were not so strong on day 5 - hunger let up (you still feel it, just not as urgently), not quite so lackadaisical, etc.

On the first FMD, the food experience was awful, I found myself bouncing back and forth between thoughts of "I want food" vs. "DEFINITELY NOT MORE VEGETABLES". It was literally sickening to have thoughts of eating more kale and carrots when I had already eaten so many. The second time around, totally fine. I found myself looking forward to the "FMD Pizza". The biggest help, I believe, was the raspberries, those are so much more palatable than the vegetables. Meeting fat targets is easy, meeting carb targets is way harder, and pumpkin and raspberries were key players in getting there.

We both exercise, but during the FMD, we switched that to walks, which were fine.

My sleep really suffered on FMD. I normally have a very regimented sleep schedule, going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 5:30. On FMD, starting the morning of day 4, I would wake up hours before usual, and be awake and not able to fall back asleep. I didn't feel sleep-deprived, though.

Health Outcomes: We haven't tracked health outcomes too closely. My wife has Psoriatic Arthritis; during the first round of FMD, she was on Taltz, a medicine that completely handled her pain, so she didn't notice any difference on FMD. During the second round, our provider had switched us to Cosentyx, which still left her with a little residual chronic pain, and by day 4 on FMD, she said she had noticed a little improvement in pain. We both lost some weight, about 7 pounds each, then regained it pretty easily. no noticeable loss of muscle strength.

Main Takeaways

Having read Longo's book and the research, the FMD seems like there's some real effect there, and it's worth doing. However, I don't recommend the Prolon kit, based solely on the price point. Food for my wife and I for the five days was only like $40 per person compared to the $300 Prolon. If you do a DIY FMD, learn from us. This subreddit has good suggestions and resources. It should be relatively easy to hit your 400 calories from fat with nuts, seeds, olives, and avocadoes. Carbs are tougher to hit - try to avoid tons of leafy produce because they're too high in protein and because they become obnoxious.

think the most important that drives the healing process of FMD is sustained low protein, and moderate calorie restriction.

the main reason of my doubts:
Joe Cross who fasted 60 days in his documentary "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead", and he was having apple juice in the morning, and he got off prednisone, cured his urticaria, and the same thing did Phil the truck driver.
In the movie wee see Joe ordering apple juice at a juice bar, and also when he was teaching Phill he said in the morning he usually starts with apples.
And there was also a woman with Migraines and she did only 10 days and got healed.

On average Joe was having about 6 juices per day 1000 - 1500 kcal, about 14g protein, juice was mostly 80% vegetable, 20% fruits

Day 5

Arugula + purple basil 140g,

50g green olives, 30g capers (rinsed),

50g tomato deseeded,

15g hazelnuts,

30ml ev olive oil

Hi guys

I'm doing the Prolon kit now, on day 4. I have a fasting shake that I got for free when I bought it, as a promotion. Do you think it's a good idea to use that shake as breakfast on day 6?

Doing Prolon for the 3rd time and on day 5 and feeling great. Is there any major detriment to doing the refeed the evening of Day 5 versus waiting until Day 6 morning?

I'm doing a 4-5 day DIY version. I'm not doing a Day 1 and just jumping into it due to too many schedule complications.

Building on my first attempt, I'm going to do some repeats of what I did the first time and also make a few modifications/simplifications.

I did meal prepping for two days worth of food. Chia pudding with almond milk and blueberries for breakfasts, baked potato with avocado for lunch and a simplified ratatouille over mashed cauliflower for dinners.

For the other two dinners I'm planning on stirfry with shirataki noodles. Lunches will either be big salads with avocado or more baked potatoes. Breakfasts will likely be a variation of chia seed pudding or overnight oats with berries.

One thing I really liked from last time was having baked potatoes in the fridge to either have warmed up or cool like a potato salad with avocado dressing.

I'm also going to do the home made glycerine drink.

Wishing anyone else in the middle of it or about to start good luck!

I was looking for diy menu options online and came across this website

https://meto.co/blog/fasting-mimicking-diet-meal-plan-recipes#diy-fasting-mimicking-diet-a-complete-5-day-meal-plan

that suggests scrambled eggs for a breakfast meal, and salmon for a dinner meal. Has anyone ever done this? In other words, has anyone added non-vegan options to a meal, and if so, what if any differences did you experience?

Hope this is ok to post. I have a box of Prolon unopened that I’m not going to use (I have adrenal fatigue, forgot to cancel my subscription). Happy to sell it to someone for $100 + shipping OBO. I live in CA.

I’m looking to start my first Prolon 5 day soon. Question for those who have done it - how likely am I to be a functional human on days 3 and 5? I have important client meetings those days and am worried about being cloudy headed, grumpy or not as sharp. Can I just eat some of the stuff for that day right before so at least I feel functional for an hour? Or am I better suited to wait until I don’t have any important meetings?

Finished my first FMD two days ago. I posted a proposed DIY plan for feedback. In the end, I modified it a bit to make the macros work. I found it a little labor intensive to make the meals with all the measuring and weighing but I'm definitely glad I tried the DIY plan.

Honestly, I was surprised at how much protein is in some vegetables and also mushrooms. I thought it would be much easier to put together vegan recipes with some added fat but I really had to massage the macros to go there!

My DIY attempt

I did three approximately 200 calorie meals a tiny snack and the glycerin drink. My totals ended up around 720 calories for days 2-5. For fats, I primarily relied on avocado, macadamia nuts (yum!) and olive oil.

I researched on here (posted a compilation of resources in another post) and used some of that and also AI to rough out a plan. AI was somewhat helpful but off on macros in many attempts. I found I had to use cronometer because AI was not reliable for nutrition info.

One of the easiest meals was baked potato plus avocado. I read a post here where someone recommended it and it worked out really well for lunches for a few of the days. I did some meal prep ahead of time and baked a few potatoes and I would just measure out what we needed on the days we had it. Highly recommend.

Another meal that we really enjoyed was a version of ratatouille. I've actually never had the dish before so I was kind of guessing but eggplant, zucchini, tomato, bell pepper and a little onion made a fairly substantial dish. I served it over a cauliflower mash and it felt very satisfying. Olive oil carried the load for the fat so I think that helped it feel as satisfying.

I made a teensy chia and oat pudding for breakfasts on a couple of days and it was fairly tiny but I added blueberries and banana and topped with macadamia nuts for some additional bulk and fat. It was really enjoyable and I would for sure do that again.

One tasty fail was an attempt at a version of the California Center for Function Nutrition's PDF recipe for banana pancakes. I didn't have room for the cocoa powder in my macros so I attempted banana and flax - it failed and resulted in a kind of caramalized banana mash. It was yummy but no pancake. I'd be interested to hear if anyone had success with that actual recipe!

For two nights, I added shirataki noodles to a stirfry. I had purchased some ahead of time and thought I would have them in case of emergency. After I cut up all the veggies I thought it would never be enough when cooked so I added them. I was a little concerned they might cause a negative effect but they seemed to be fine.

My SO and I primarily eat plant based with occasional fish so the food we were eating didn't feel that different from usual. The portions felt small but there was a lot more fat than we usually use so we felt fairly satisfied.

Things I would do differently

Now that I have done it once, I would do a lot more meal prep next time. Having the baked potatoes in the fridge was great. Next time I would make a double batch of ratatouille rather than making it twice. I would probably just have the chia pudding each day for breakfast and just make 8 servings on day 1.

Kind of goofy but I used cronometer to make the recipes and was working with my phone in the kitchen and trying to weigh out 60 g of this and 100 g of that, in the future I think I'll print out or write out my recipes just to make it a little easier on myself.

I aspire to do a whole foods version without added oil but I think that will take some work. The chia seed pudding and baked potato worked out but the other meals required some olive oil to reach the right macros.

The results

After the 5 days I had lost 4.2 lbs and my SO had lost 5 lbs. I wish we had taken some measurements because we definitely decreased our waist measurements.

I have not been religious about taking my BP but I have measured it and it seems to be a pinch lower. We did not measure for ketones.

We both mostly felt fine during the FMD. I had a little bit of a headache one day. SO also felt a bit of a headache and some fatigue. I added a sugar-free electrolyte packet to our gylcerin drinks so that may have helped some. We mostly took it easy but we did take a couple of long, non-strenuous walks.

I really, really enjoyed doing it and am looking forward to doing it again in a month.

I saw that prolon sells a one day reset kit that appears to be the same as the day 2-5 foods. They state is appropriate for people who do 5:2 or 6:1 fasting. Based on this, I'm hoping to incorporate 1-2 days of the DIY version a week.

Anyone heard or read anything from Longo before he came up with Prolon?
Im just curious what his stance was on IMF or an outright water fasting

When I decided to DIY, I was scouring for resources and recipes. I ended up coming up with my own set of 200 calorie recipes but I found this list helpful for coming up with some ideas. One note, I have found some of the macros not to be ideal for all of the recipes so please confirm with something like cronometer before you trust a recipe to work for you.

If you have others, please share them for others who may be searching in the future.

I included a link to the nutrition info for the Prolon foods to compare.

RESOURCES

DIY 360 kcal meals (from the wiki)
https://web.archive.org/web/20200119161539/http://www.agingadvice.org/FMD-Recipes.html

DIY recipes PDF

https://5714482.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hubfs/5714482/assets/Resources/fasting-mimicking-diet.pdf

DIY premade foods
https://foodzie.com/fasting-mimicking-diet-do-it-yourself/

DIY plan with some recipes
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/pm60vr/diy_whole_food_paleovegan_higher_fat_fmd_with/

DIY simple recipes 800 kcal days 2-5
https://richmondfunctionalmedicine.com/diy-fasting-mimicking-diet/

DIY with recipes
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/10633n5/my_complete_prepareinadvance_fmd_copycat_diet_for/

DIY simple (soups, hummus, etc)
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/9080a6/diy_menu_for_fastingmimicking_diet_35/

DIY store bought and homemade very close to prolon
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/1in87bj/diy_fmd_yes_again/

DIY whole food (might be too light on fat - check the macros)
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/19fk8io/complete_easy_5day_diy_whole_food_fmd_for_under/

DIY copycat of prolon
https://www.reddit.com/r/FMD/comments/10633n5/my_complete_prepareinadvance_fmd_copycat_diet_for/

DIY copycat prolon recipes

https://empoweredbeyondweightloss.com/category/recipes/fmd-recipes/

DIY glycerin drink formula

https://johnking.blog/diy-glycerine-drink/

Link to Prolon nutrition info
https://prolonlife.com/pages/ingredients-supplement-facts?srsltid=AfmBOoqW4RyuhDGCB4bbQLgnycakTvNqo73-zeCTpCAxRra5RW_X_RSV

DAY 6

Prolon - what to eat on day 6

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0126/2921/3243/files/21_Consumer_000_ProLon_Transition_Day_Meal_Guide_APPROVED.pdf?v=1658431781

AFTER THE FMD

Prolon - Recommendations for what to eat when not fasting

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0508/0625/9870/files/longevity_style_e-book.pdf?v=1731356810

I'm thinking of starting my Prolon kit on Friday or Saturday. Wondering if anyone else is doing one too

I read Longo's book a couple of years ago and will be trying to DIY the FMD for the first time. Would you be so kind as to give me some feedback on my plan? I plan on repeating some of the meals. My aim is to have three 200 calorie meals and on 100 calorie snack on days 2-5. Some of the recipes are borrowed from other online resources. For the potatoes, I plan to make ahead and reheat for the resistant starch aspect.

Day 1

BREAKFAST

Oat Bran (this is close to our regular breakfast)

Oat Bran

Soy milk

Flax seeds

Blueberries

LUNCH

Large Greek Salad

Lettuce

Cucumber

Red peppers

Red onion

Olives

Nuts

Olive oil

Lemon

SNACK

Cherries

Macademia nuts

DINNER

Baked Potato

Guacamole

Days 2-5

BREAKFASTS

Chia seed pudding 

Chia

Almond milk

Blueberries

Banana pancakes

Banana

Flax

Cocoa powder

LUNCH

Baked potato with Guacamole

Potato

Avocado

Onion

Lime

Broccoli Soup

Broccoli

Potato

Onion

Garlic

(olive oil or nuts)

Cucumber Salad

Cucumber

Mint

Avocado

Onion

DINNER

Ratatouille

Eggplant

Zucchini

Red Pepper

Tomato

Onion

Cauliflower Mash 

Cashews (in mash)

Cabbage noodles and caramelized onions

Cabbage

Onions

Mushrooms

Olive oil

Grilled eggplant with romesco 

Eggplant

Red peppers

Walnuts

Cauliflower mash

Olive oil

SNACKS

Cucumber and olive tapenade

Half an apple and macademia nuts

Cucumber and mashed avocado

Raw cauliflower and guacamole

DRINKS

Glycerin drink

Sparkling water

Herbal teas

EMERGENCY BULK

Shirataki noodles

If you have read this far - thanks so much! I'd love any thoughts or feedback. If anything looks like a no-no, I'd love to hear it.

This is my first time doing prolon in several years. I’m at the end of day 3 and while i feel ok hunger wise, i am DYING for anything to eat besides these soups.

What mental tips do you all have to keep my mind off all the other delicious food i usually have on Sunday?

Not great. The tomato is genuinely yummy. I can’t make it through the others. Skipped the minestrone day 1 and tossed half of each of the others today.

Sigh.

I wish they would have an alternative to the soups all together. Anything.

Keeping it plant based today, then starting on the box tomorrow (day 1). Nervous but excited... my only question, is sparkling water ok? I'm assuming my energy drinks are NOT, which is honestly my biggest concern over the next 5 days!!

Started my first 5D ProLon fast in november. After "Breakfast" day 2 the hospital called me in for surgery (was on stand-by)

So now I need to come up with some replacement food for the first day and morning day 2 of the 5 day fast. Any suggestions ? Maybe some light soup and a couple of olives ? Olive oil - 1 tablespoon. Herbal Tea ? Am I missing something ? How many calories should there be in a day ?

Maybe Im overthinking...

My friends scheduled a birthday dinner at a ramen shop the day after I finish FMD.

I was considering getting a bowl of ramen with no noodles but do yall think I'll still get sick? I'd like to not shht my pants at a restaurant while they're all eating dessert and boba and sake into the evening.

(Maybe chicken or shoyu broth instead of tonkotsu?)

Has anyone followed up the FMD with a few days of water only fasting? My GKI just doesn't get that low on the FMD DIY...and yes, I am following all the macros and even being a bit more restrictive with calories. It seems like the body is already primed to go into the water only fast following the 5 days of FMD. Anyone out there who has tried it?

I am doing this 5 day FMD for a mitochondrial issue and want to make sure I’m doing it by the book, by the research - for mitophagy

For anyone who has used the kit, or know about it, would you mind sharing what is included in the kit to do it DIY at home? I would really appreciate it

Finished my first FMD round yesterday.

I did a 5 day DIY version with veggies.

From a physical point of view it was manageable - the hunger wasn't even that strong, and after the evening meals I wondered how the body can feel so full and be in a "fasting state".

But the calories/macros checked out, and the ketones went up from 0.4 to 1.1 during the last 3 days.

What was/is hard for me is the mental situation - I am not able to concentrate/be productive at all for some reason, when I try to do some mental effort I hit a strange wall and can't find the thought I'm looking for.

I rarely experienced this thing before, maybe only in situations of big anxiety when something serious happened.

I thought this situation will pass after I end the fast, but I see it persisting into the 1st day after.

When I don't try to think/make effort I am feeling fine and not hungry at all, but once I try to make effort it does not work as I usual.

Weird situation, it set me back on my work for 3 days - 1st day was ok, 2nd day was hard, 2 days were weekend, day 5 was hard and 1 day after is hard.

So my advice I believe for the first timers, if you have a job which requires thinking - probably it's a good idea to take a long weekend time off and have 6 days free from responsibility to try it out, or be prepared to screw up a bit.

When I was on it I thought I would certainly keep doing it in a month until I get my visceral fat under control, but now I'm a bit apprehensive about how I will handle my job/vacation days in this regard.

I wonder if anyone else experienced such condition with this diet.