ProLon Diet: A Beginner’s Guide and Meal Plan

The ProLon diet is a 5-day fasting-mimicking diet created by Dr. Valter Longo, a professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in Los Angeles. ProLon serves as a way to give your body a break from regular eating habits while still providing essential nutrients and vitamins needed for energy. 

The benefits of the ProLon diet is that it helps you lose weight, improve energy levels and boost your immune system. While some negative side effects are present, such as fatigue, brain fog and energy loss, the benefits outweigh the side effects according to those that follow the ProLon diet.

This article discusses the ProLon diet’s explanation and implementation, history, and benefits. It also includes sample meal plans, so you will know what the ProLon diet is like.

What Is a ProLon Diet?

ProLon is a fasting-mimicking diet, which means that your body goes into a state of fasting, but you can still consume food. It is based on years of research by the leading experts in longevity, medicine, and diet.

The ProLon diet consists of pre-packaged meals and snacks that are plant-based, nutrient-dense, and free of soy, gluten, dairy, and sugar. ProLon meals and snacks contain more than 50 ingredients, including plant-based proteins, plant fibers, healthy fats, and various vitamins and minerals. 

ProLon also provides users with multiple teas, soups, and drinks to ensure they stay hydrated during the ProLon fasting period. ProLon meals provide around 1000 calories daily, helping users steadily and predictably lose weight.

It’s important to remember that you should not use ProLon to replace everyday meals, every day. Using the ProLon diet for extended periods can cause serious health problems. You can follow this diet plan occasionally throughout the year to give your body a break from regular eating habits. 

Because of the calorie deficit, you should not attempt the ProLon diet if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, underweight, or have a chronic medical condition. This diet can make these conditions worse.

If you do ProLon correctly, it can be an effective way to help you lose weight and improve your overall health. ProLon helps reduce inflammation and the risk of disease and improves cellular repair. ProLon also has benefits for mental clarity, mood, and energy levels.

One of the primary advantages of the ProLon diet is that it can help reset your regular eating habits. Studies have shown that one of the most common reasons that people don’t reach their weight loss goals is because of their poor eating habits. Following the ProLon diet will teach you healthy eating habits that you can follow after the diet is finished which will help you keep the weight off. 

How Does ProLon Diet Work?

The ProLong diet works by putting your body into a state of fasting. It accomplishes this by only giving you specific nutrients which regulate your body’s nutrient-sensing pathways. 

However, you can still eat a small amount of specific food. While following the ProLong diet, you must eat only the foods included in the diet. Otherwise, you risk exiting a state of fasting and losing the health benefits.

By controlling what nutrients your body receives, you can trick your body into going into a state of fasting. While fasting, your body gets the necessary nutrients through the metabolic and hormonal changes associated with fasting.

There is a large body of scientific evidence that supports the benefits of fasting. While your body is in a state of fasting, your cells cleanse your body of toxics and undesirable materials. These processes only occur when your body does not have access to constant supply of food. 

When you are fasting, your cells no longer have access to glucose, your cell’s primary source of energy. As a result, your body enters gluconeogenesis, which is a cellular process of creating sugar for energy. The source of this sugar comes from stored fats in your body. This process helps you to burn fat and lose weight.

Fasting also has the potential of helping with reducing inflammation, improving cardiovascular health, and stimulating autophagy – a natural process of clearing out damaged cells from your body.

What Are the Health Benefits of the ProLon Diet?

There are a wide variety of health benefits of the ProLon diet such as weight loss, reduction in blood sugar, inflammation reduction, cancer prevention and improved cardiovascular health.

• Weight loss: The primary benefit of the ProLon diet is weight loss. You can expect to lose several pounds over the course of the diet.
• Lower blood sugar: One of the other benefits of the ProLon diet is lowering your blood sugar. The diet accomplishes this by cutting out all processed sugar from your diet. You must adjust your diet after completing the ProLon diet to sustain this benefit.

• Reducing Inflammation: Fasting for several days can dramatically reduce your body’s inflammation and alleviate joint pain.
• Cancer prevention: One of the most significant benefits of fasting is cancer prevention. When you go into a state of fasting, your cells clean themselves out, reducing your chances of developing cancer.
• Improving cardiovascular health: ProLon fasting helps improve cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels.

What Are the Health Risks of the ProLon Diet?

Despite its benefits, there are some health risks involved with the ProLon diet. They all revolve around the caloric deficit that the diet puts you in such as lethargy and fatigue, decreased cognitive functioning, and headache.

• Lethargy and fatigue: The ProLon diet puts in a calorie deficit which can result in low energy levels and fatigue.
• Decreased cognitive functioning: While fasting, you may not be as quick on your feet or think as clearly.
• Headache: Staying in a calorie deficit can cause minor headaches.

How To Do a ProLon Diet?

The ProLon diet lasts five days which consists of four steps. It is not a long-term diet, and you should not complete one cycle more than once per three months. Extending the ProLon diet for more than five days carries serious health risks.

• Step One: Get a ProLon meal kit. ProLon has various options for its meal kits that you can purchase. The ProLon diet lasts five days, so you will need to purchase ProLon meals for the duration of your ProLon diet.
• Step Two: Stick to the ProLon meal plan. During the ProLon diet, you must stick to ProLon meals and snacks that are included in the ProLon diet. You should not add additional foods or snacks to the Prolong meal plan.
• Step Three: Stay Hydrated. ProLon provides various teas, soups, and drinks to ensure that you stay hydrated during the ProLon diet. Ensure that you drink the ProLon drinks to stay hydrated throughout the ProLon diet.
• Step Four: Incorporate regular exercise into your daily routine. ProLon encourages light to moderate exercise during the ProLon diet. Exercising can help improve weight loss.

The daily meal plans for ProLon allow you to eat between 700-1000 calories per day. Your body needs between 1800-2500 calories per day so the ProLon diet is a relatively extreme calorie deficit. For this reason, you cannot sustain the ProLon diet for long periods of time. 

There are some best practices you can follow while on the ProLon diet to maximize your benefit. To ensure you get the most out of ProLon, following the ProLon meal plan is best, not adding any additional foods. You should also exercise regularly and stay hydrated.

What Are the Foods That You Can Eat While on a ProLon Diet?

The only foods you can eat while on the ProLon diet are included in the meal plan. The meals are plant-based, nutrient-dense, and free of soy, gluten, dairy, and sugar. You should follow the ProLon Diet food list precisely. 

• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Grains
• Legumes
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Healthy fats
• Proteins

It is essential only to eat these foods because the experts at ProLon designed each meal to keep you in a state of fasting.

What Are the Foods That You Should Avoid While on a ProLon Diet?

You cannot eat any foods beyond the ProLon pre-packaged meals. 

• Meat: You cannot eat any red meat. 
• Poultry: This is a plant-based diet, so you cannot eat poultry. 
• Fish and shellfish: Avoid all fish and shellfish. 
• Meat-based ingredients: No meat-based ingredients (i.e., sausage) are allowed. 
• Eggs: No eggs or egg substitutes. 
• Dairy products: Avoid dairy products. 

You are not allowed to eat other foods while following this diet. Eating foods besides what is included in the ProLon diet will take you out of a state of fasting. 

What Are the Tips To Follow a ProLon Diet?

While following the ProLon diet, you should hydrate to avoid cravings and stick to the diet precisely. Removing different foods from your home may be a good idea to avoid temptation.

Who Should Do a ProLon Diet?

People who want to lose weight, improve their digestive health, and reduce inflammation should do ProLon. ProLon is safe for most healthy adults. Those with chronic illnesses, especially diabetes, should consult a doctor before attempting ProLon.

What Is a Sample ProLon Diet Plan?

Here is an example of what you would eat each day.

• Breakfast: Cold-pressed nut bar and herbal tea
• Lunch: L-Drink, supplements, and olives
• Dinner: Chickpea and Leek soup

What Are the Best Recipes for a ProLon Diet?

The ProLon diet provides all of your meals for you. You do not need to cook during the ProLon diet, and you should avoid eating other food because it will take you out of a fasting state.

What Is the Best Duration for a ProLon Diet?

The recommended duration of the ProLon diet is five days.

What Are the Facts About the ProLon Diet?

These are some crucial facts about the ProLon diet including how your body reacts to the diet, the cost, the results of the diet, and how it compares to other diets. 

• The First Week: During the first week of the ProLon diet, your body will go into a state of fasting. In a state of fasting, your body will begin to consume body fat, and the cells in your body will clean out extracellular material.
• The Cost: It costs $250 for one complete five cycle. However, you can also purchase a single day for $80 if you want to try it before committing to the complete diet. 
• Comparison to Atkins: The ProLon diet is significantly different from the Atkins diet. ProLon is a fasting-mimicking diet that restricts caloric intake and focuses on nutrient-dense foods, while Atkins emphasizes high fat, low carbohydrate intake. ProLon does not require long-term adherence to a specific meal plan, as Atkins does.
• Weight Loss: The ProLon diet is excellent for short-term weight loss. It accomplishes this by putting you into a state of fasting and the fact that it is low in saturated fat and cholesterol. It can help you shed a few pounds but is not an effective long-term weight loss solution.
• Healthy Diet: The ProLon diet is healthy in the short term. Many studies have quantified the benefits of fasting. However, it would be best if you did not attempt to follow the ProLon for extended periods because it does not have enough calories or nutrients to sustain you.

Is the ProLon Diet Expensive?

Yes, the ProLon diet is expensive. It costs $50 per day for a total of $250. This cost is significantly more expensive than other diets like the SlimFast diet, which only costs $100 per month.