Despite its health benefits, fasting can be difficult for even the most determined and health-conscious among us. Serious calorie restriction from fasting isn’t recommended for extended periods.

As the body uses up the last of its glucose during fasting, it searches for energy in the form of glycogen, amino acids, and glycerin to help maintain blood glucose levels. Fasting can lead to a significant loss of muscle mass over just a few days when the glycogen and amino acids stored in the muscles are depleted for energy.

Meanwhile, essential micronutrients and amino acids aren’t being synthesized by the body — a combination that isn’t sustainable for optimum health over an extended period of time. The side effects of fasting, including hunger, dehydration, headache, fatigue, and others, make extended fasting unpleasant and impractical.

The solution? A fasting-mimicking diet. This is a diet that avoids hunger by allowing calories from selected foods while tricking the body into a fasting metabolic state.

When followed over a five-day period, the fasting-mimicking diet can promote the body’s natural ability to protect, regenerate, and rejuvenate its cells to help reduce risk factors for aging and age-related diseases.

With the aid of a meal program that consists of macronutrients (fats, carbohydrates, proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals), the fasting mimicking diet shuttles nutrients from food into the body without releasing the signaling factors for cellular growth and aging.

The body receives essential nourishment and can maintain muscle mass without interfering with the beneficial effects of fasting. The fasting-mimicking diet doesn’t cause hunger or disrupt normal daily activities, making compliance easy.

During a fasting-mimicking diet, the body conserves energy by decreasing cellular growth pathways such as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), target of rapamycin (TOR), and protein kinase A (PKA). Reductions in these pathways cause cells to enter into a protected state and activate the body’s clean-up mechanisms.

By reducing these pathways, fasting also promotes resilience and protection from aging and disease.

For instance, reduced IGF-1 levels have been shown to lower the risk of cancer, improve stress resistance, reduce TOR signaling, and reduce insulin levels while increasing insulin sensitivity.

Low levels of IGF-1 are also associated with the longest-living human populations.