So Matt walks into a bar....

I finished! On fifth day I discovered I'd been eating 90 calories too few for my weight. The FMD's patent has a chart with recommended calories & weight. If you are using a recipe set from the internet, make sure you do something to adjust for weight. I added 1/2 oz of walnuts to my day. I figured the magic of this diet comes from being low protein & high fat, so walnuts are least likely to mess with the ratios. Also on 3rd round, I now firmly understand that if you buy anything in grocery store sizes for a recipe set, you will have enough for five days of cooking. So, say if you buy cabbage for a single cabbage recipe, you will have enough cabbage to eat cabbage recipes for all 5 days of a FMD. So when you pick recipes, pick recipes from 2 "families", say carrot recipes and bok choy recipes. Or eggplant recipes & spinach recipes. I lost between 8 and 10lbs, about double what I should have. I don't know why, possibly because I was 90 calories shor...

There are a lot of skepticism about fasting & skepticism is a good thing. It is possible this protocol doesn't pan out- lots of great ideas didn't pan out - transfat margarine, protocols that are probably based on really bad data (carnivorism). So what are the FMD immediate benefits: - If you are cooking from scratch, it is cheap, you probably save $50-$100 provided you don't waste any left over ingredients. - The prolon boxes are $50-$60 a day, so about the cost of eating all your meals at a restaurant for five days. If you use the prolon boxes, you don't have to cook much for 5 days - It is an amusing activity involving planning, cooking, and exercising self control - When I am fasting, I'm so hungry that the food that I eat is the most delicious food & incredibly enjoyable. This is one point in favor of a FMD over water fast. When I'm fasting, I drink water and tea when I feel hungry, but it isn't the most delicious tea I've ever ha...

ABSTRACT. I've been doing health related experiments my whole life. FMD is a continuation. The goal is to not die, not just out of a fear of death, but because I have dependents who need me to live well past 60 and to be healthy enough to work well past 60. Well, it starts back when I was in my teens and started reading books at random at the library. I ended up in the health section and found it a strangely compelling genre because unlike fiction, it had actionable advice. So starts a lifetime of health hacking. First major experiment - vegetarianism. A read a book that made a solid case about the environmental, ethical and health case for vegetarianism. I signed up as a vegetarian, aka cheesatarian, because I could find cheese & egg dishes my family made & restaurants served. I spend the next 20+ years eating too much dairy, bounded only by some low-fat protocols I followed. Second major experiment - low fat. This was highly compatible with vegetarianism. It...

I'm doing a Fasting Mimicking Diet again. This my 3rd. I've been too cheap to buy a Prolon kit, so I'm using Enid Kassner's recipe set . I'm starting late because it is hard to do the cooking in addition to regular cooking during the week. I couldn't start any later because I don't want to end fast exactly on Thanksgiving. I'll have 24 hours of regular eating to prepare for the big lunch on Thanksgiving. Yesterday I did my last run until after the fast. I'm training for a 5K in 6 months. I'll just be doing my unavoidable walking for exercise. My weight is 148 or so, so I should survive losing the 5+ lbs. The first FMD I did, I went from 150 to 145, and mostly felt fine. The second FMD I did, I went from like 145 to under 140 and I was ravenously hungry all the time. After that one, my new rule is I don't fast if I'm not at or near 150 lbs. My cheats enumerated: * Swapping sesame for walnut, my knee hurts from running & sesa...