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Prolon Diet Review – Is This The Right Diet For You?

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By Leslie Waterson

Reviewed by Juliana Tamayo, MS, RDN - Last Updated

Prolon-Diet-Review

The Prolon diet is a fast mimicking diet that is built around the concept of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting is a popular new diet craze that is touted to be the ultimate way to burn fat. Intermittent fasting consists of rotating through periods of eating and not eating. Intermittent fasting does not specify what you should eat, only when you should. In that sense, it’s not so much a diet as an eating pattern. 

Intermittent fasting accelerates the breakdown of fats as the body has very few carbs to burn. As such, it is commonly related to keto diets, another low-carb diet trend. Of course, one of the most difficult parts of fasting is the feeling of tiredness and hunger pangs. Many people just can’t stick with the program and give up. If you can stick with it, the health benefits are well worth it. This is where Prolon comes in.

Prolon is a meal prep service designed to mimic the effects of fasting, so your body remains in fat-burn mode while you get to eat. Prolon is a 5-day dietary program and claims it promotes rejuvenating changes to the body. 

We like to stay on top of recent dietary trends, so today we are going to cover Prolon and talk about its meal selections, how it works, how much it costs, and if it is as effective as it claims to be. Keep reading our Prolon review to see if this is the right diet for you.

Prolon Fasting Diet Program

What Is Prolon?

Prolon is not a dietary supplement or workout powder but a full-blown meal prep delivery service. Similar to WeightWatchers, Prolon lets you craft your own weekly meal plan and has a wide selection of soups, snacks, drinks, supplements, and more. These selections are packaged as a meal kit that gets delivered straight to your front door. 

All of the meals are designed to promote positive changes in your metabolism, so your body remains in fat-burning mode. That’s why they call it a fast “mimicking” program. Their blends of plant-based foods are made to pass by cellular food sensing paths, so the body does not stop the breakdown of fat. This process can help aid weight loss and provide a handful of other health benefits.

Prolon Fasting Diet Products

Like pretty much every weight loss product, Prolon claims to be clinically backed. Unlike many weight loss products, Prolon actually has some pretty solid looking research backing its efficacy. The diet was designed over a period of 20 years. The research was sponsored by USC, and they have a handful of legitimate research papers showing that fast mimicking diets are effective at reducing body weight, waist circumference, total body fat, and lowering blood pressure. 

While you can engage in a fast mimicking diet on your own, it can be difficult to do so without guidance (especially if you lack self-control).

The real benefit of Prolon is how easy and convenient it is. The meal kits get delivered straight to your door, and the food selection seems diverse and actually tasty. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages we uncovered during our Prolon review.

Advantages

  • Easy and convenient
  • Mimicks the effects of fasting
  • Plant-based proteins and fibers
  • Delivered straight to your door

Disadvantages

  • Somewhat expensive
  • Limited food selections compared to other meal plans

Who Makes Prolon?

Prolon was designed and created by Valter Longo Ph.D., an Italian biologist and researcher. Dr. Longo created the Prolon diet as a way to get the benefits of fasting without incurring the negatives of food restriction. The diet is referred to as the “Fasting Mimicking” diet (FMD diet) because it mimics the benefits of fasting without the calorie deprivation. 

The Prolon diet is the product of over 20 years of research from the University of Southern California Longevity Institute, a research institution that focuses on the effects of obesity, cell death, and aging. Prolon is also designed to combat the negative effects of aging, including inflammation, loss of energy, and decreased cellular rejuvenation. 

Prolon is a subsidiary of L-Nutra, a Nutri-technology company focused on increasing human longevity. L-Nutra’s stated mission is “to give everyone the opportunity to live to 110, healthy.” L-Nutra holds the only patent in history for optimizing longevity and has the only patent where fasting is part of the dietary treatment of diabetes. 

How Does Prolon Work?

Prolon Fasting Diet How it Works

Prolon works by tricking the body to keep it in a continual state of fasting without having to cut back on nutrition. This is why the Prolon diet is referred to as a “fasting mimicking” diet. The meal plans are designed to trick your body into thinking it is in a fasted state so you can reap all of the positive health benefits.

The plant-based proteins, fiber-rich carbs, and healthy fats go unnoticed by the body’s metabolic systems so that your body stays focused on burning fat for energy. This is what they mean by “fasting mimicking.” The 3-day food plan circumvents the metabolism, so it thinks there are not any carbs there, so it resorts to burning fats for energy. The creators do not recommend Prolon for long term use but say that it is perfectly safe for 2-6 5-day cycles per year with normal periods of eating between. 

Prolon Meal Delivery

Prolon Fasting Diet Ingredients

When you sign up for the Prolon diet, you will be sent weekly meal kits with all of the food you need to eat.

What is In the Prolon Box?

Each box of Prolon comes with five different types of soup, including vegetables, minestrone, quinoa, mushroom, and tomato. Each box also contains olives, kale crackers, herbal tea, supplements, and their signature L-bar, a snack bar made from nuts and cocoa powder. Each daily meal is precisely calculated to give the optimal amount of nutrients so that you feel nourished, but your body still burns visceral fats.

Prolon Meal Kit

This meal kit box is designed to help you partake in a five day “fast” without actually avoiding food for five days. We really liked how easy the company made it to adhere to this diet. While the Prolon diet wouldn’t be described as “fun” or “enjoyable,” it is certainly easy to adhere to. You need a bit of discipline, but the efforts are well worth it.

Prolon Diet Benefits

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “If I’m going to fast for five days, it better be worth it!”

So, what exactly are the benefits of the Prolon diet?

Weight Loss

The first and most obvious benefit of the “fasting mimicking” diet is weight loss. When you’re body enters a fasted state, it is forced to burn fat for fuel. Normally, you would consume food, and your body would burn that food for energy (i.e., burning calories). When you are fasting (or mimicking fasting), your body doesn’t have any food to burn for fuel. Instead, your body will enter a process called “ketosis,” where it starts burning stored fat for energy. Stored body fat is converted into ketones, which serve as an on-demand source of fuel for your body. This is similar to the rationale behind the keto diet; however fasting takes it to the next level.

Enhanced Performance and Clarity

Believe it or not, fasting actually increases performance and mental clarity. This probably sounds counterintuitive since hunger usually makes it difficult to focus.

Fasting is a bit different, though. Once your body gets acclimated to this new fasted state, it will start burning fat for energy (as discussed above). This fat is a clean fuel source that is great for your brain and overall performance. 

It should be noted that there is an acclimation period. On day 1, you may feel lethargic as your body adjusts to these new conditions. As you progress with the diet, you will begin to feel stabilized energy levels and increased focus.

Enhancement at the Cellular Level

Fasting can help to improve your body at the cellular level. When you fast, your body goes through a process called “autophagy.” Autophagy is the body’s natural process of cleaning out damaged cells. Essentially, this is your body’s process of revitalizing itself. Your body will destroy damaged cells or remove dysfunctional components of a cell.

This process is incredibly beneficial for your health.

Prolon Benefits

Is Prolon’s Diet Plan Safe?

The Prolon diet is generally regarded as safe. There has been a lot of research on intermittent fasting, and this “fasting mimicking” diet is pretty similar to other intermittent fasting diets. 

The diet itself is a product of a lot of research from Dr. Valter Longo and his associates. Dr. Longo worked to create a diet that safely mimics the benefits of fasting.

In general, fasting is not just considered safe. It is also very healthy.

The only side effects of Prolon are the ones associated with fasting in general. These include tiredness, slight lethargy, and difficulty focusing. Prolon is specifically designed to mitigate these risks, though it’s unlikely it eliminates them completely. 

Prolon Fasting Diet

Keep in mind that long-term fasting is not a good idea and can lead to nutritional complications. The maximum amount of time for fasting is a 5-day period followed by two days of regular eating. The makes or Prolon also recommend that you use the routine only up to 7 times per year, no more. 

How Much Does the Prolon Diet Cost?

Prolon Fasting Diet Website

You can buy Prolon directly from the company’s website. Each purchase plan comes with 1-3 boxes of Prolon meal kits, each of which contains enough food for five days. A single box order of Prolon costs $249 though you can purchase up to three at once for only $225 per box. This is pretty expensive compared to other meal plans, but you can use the code “GETPROLON” to save 10% on your purchase.

While $249 may seem steep for a week’s worth of food, you should not think of the Prolon diet as a simple meal plan. It is an investment in your health. These meal plans are designed to help you shed weight, improve performance, and renew your body’s cellular structure. While you can find other diet plans for cheaper, very few of them will offer the same benefits as the Prolon diet.

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Does the Prolon Diet Work?

We’ve reviewed hundreds of nutritional supplements, diet plans, and health products. It is very rare that we can say a diet works with 100% certainty. In the case of Prolon, we will make an exception. When followed properly, the Prolon Fasting Mimicking diet will absolutely work! We can say this with certainty because there is plenty of research on the effectiveness of fasting. 

Fasting is an excellent way to burn fat, improve performance, and rejuvenate your body at a cellular level. The Prolon FMD makes it easy to reap the benefits of fasting by providing users with a strict, foolproof regimen.

Prolon FMD Questions and Answers

After our initial Prolon review, we received a lot of questions about the fasting mimicking diet. We decided it would be best to answer all of these questions in the review so everyone could have access.

How Much Weight Can You Lose on Prolon?

Weight loss will vary by individual based on prior eating habits and current body composition. The company behind Prolon actually ran a clinical study that offers some estimates. They found that people who completed a 5-day Prolon cycle once a month for three months ended up losing an average of 5.1 pounds. The majority of the weight lost was abdominal fat, and lean body mass was preserved.

How Often Can You Do Prolon?

Prolon’s official recommendation is that you do 5-day cycles of the diet once a month for three months. After that, you can do cycles of the program a few times throughout the year. Considering this is a restrictive diet, you shouldn’t get too carried away. If you want a more sustainable diet for the longer-term, you may consider intermittent fasting.

It should also be noted that you can experience the benefits of the Prolon diet after a single cycle. You can choose to go through more cycles to enhance the benefits, but you don’t have to.

Can You Drink Coffee on the Prolon Diet?

Officially, the company states that it is better not to drink coffee on the diet. That said, they also mention that it is acceptable to have an 8oz coffee or 16oz tea if you are experiencing caffeine withdrawals. Of course, you should not add any sugar or creamer to either of these drinks, as you will disturb the diet.

Overall Rating:
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Leslie Waterson

Leslie has been passionately involved in the health and fitness industries for over a decade. She is constantly reviewing the latest scientific research and studies in order to take a research-backed approach to lifestyle optimization. Her main areas of interest include nutrition and supplementation. Leslie shares her findings on Fitness Clone to help other health enthusiasts choose the products and routines that will help them achieve their goals.