Lose weight without starving: How to lose those annoying kilos with false fasting

Mock fasting is intended to enable sustainable weight loss without the yo-yo effect – and without real fasting. You can read what’s behind the trend here.

BUNTE.de receives a commission from the retailer for certain links in this article. All links relevant to placement are marked with an icon. More

During mock fasting, the body reaps the benefits of abstaining from food. The highlight: you can still eat. That sounds totally practical.

We asked experts what they think of the fasting concept.

The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) was developed in the USA, at the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California under the leadership of aging researcher Valter Longo. The difference to other types of calorie restriction: False fasting is not a classic “zero diet” that leaves you hungry and in a bad mood.

It is also not the same as what has become known in recent years The interval fast to compare. You just act as if you were really fasting. The positive effects supposedly still occur.

Mock fast: Lasts five days

“During mock fasting, you consume around 1,000 calories a day for five days,” says Bernd Kleine-Gunk, President of the German Society for Anti-Aging Medicine. That is “about half as much as normal”.

The diet consists of complex ones carbohydratesfor example from salad and vegetables, from healthy fats such as those in nuts, Avocado and olive oil, as well as vegetable protein, which is found in legumes. You can eat three times a day.

However, people skimp on simple carbohydrates such as white rice, bread and pasta, sugar and – which may sound unusual for those who are experienced in losing weight and fasting – animal protein.

Mock fasting stimulates the cells’ waste disposal system

“Animal protein gives the body the signal for growth,” says Bernd Kleine-Gunk, explaining the background to the abstinence. “With mock fasting, however, you want to have the opposite effect.”

You don’t want to “feed” the cells, but rather give them a break from the building processes. “It is only during this break, in standby mode, that the organism dissolves defective or old cells and recycles their material.”

This process is called autophagocytosis or autophagy – it is based on a kind of internal waste disposal system of the cell that causes its renewal or “rejuvenation”.

According to the anti-aging expert, other positive metabolic processes are set in motion during false fasting: for example ketosis, i.e. fat burning.

Reading tips

Flat stomach

Six everyday routines help you lose weight

“The body does not enter the state of ketosis during intermittent fasting,” says Kleine-Gunk. Because the body only uses up its carbohydrate stores after long periods of fasting and only then begins to use its fat stores.

The calorie restriction phase of intermittent fasting is too short for lasting anti-aging effects.

A typical pseudo-fasting breakfast would be a vegetable smoothie, for example. A cup of coffee is also allowed. Vegetable curries with lentils and coconut milk, salads and soups are served for lunch and dinner.

Add three to four cups of unsweetened tea and water throughout the day.

This is how often you should fast

The 5-day fasting cycle can be repeated approximately every three months. In between, it is recommended to look for the so-called Sirtfood principle to feed.

The name is derived from sirtuins, a group of the body’s own, multifunctional enzymes. Their activity should be specifically stimulated through the absorption of certain secondary plant substances.

Anyone who tries to eat according to this principle between fasting phases will additionally support cell renewal.

Bernd Kleine-Gunk speaks of “sirtuin activators”. They are found, for example, in broccoli, kale, apples, Blueberrieswalnuts, olive oil, onions, turmeric, coffee and red wine.

“A sirtu-inactivating breakfast would be quinoa porridge or chocolate tonka quark. Both can be eaten with fresh berries,” says the expert.

For lunch and dinner, dishes such as savoy cabbage and mushroom stew with buckwheat, orecchiette pasta with broccoli or kale soup with meatballs can be considered.

You can also snack between fasting days. For example, homemade muesli bars or “superfood” balls made from kernels, seeds and dried fruits.

Mock fasting: does it really work?

The nutritional doctor Hans Hauner from the Technical University of Munich is not really impressed by the new fasting concept.

“Mock fasting is well-known knowledge wrapped in a new guise,” he says. He sees clever marketing in the sale of the fasting boxes, which can be bought for the fasting days.

“The fact that people in Sardinia or Japan, for example, live longer has long been researched,” says Hauner. “The reasons for this are also obvious: predominantly plant-based food, plus fish, healthy fats such as olive oil, enough exercise, a favorable climate, less stress.”

Hauner considers it positive that during false fasting the levels of insulin and the hormone IGF-1 are kept low. They activate and possibly accelerate aging processes in the cells.

In addition, dealing with nutritional issues generally makes sense, says Hauner. “With this fasting variant, the view of food and its nutrient composition certainly changes. You perceive the feeling of hunger differently.”

He also makes it clear: “But if you want to lose weight in the long term and live healthier, you obviously won’t achieve that in five days.”

For long-term success: Nutrition is also important

So the question is how you manage to continue eating healthily after fasting and maintain your weight. The plant-based Sirtfood diet is certainly a good starting point. Also because it is easy to implement.

You should eat as varied and colorful a diet as possible. Red tomatoes, green broccoli, yellow Turmeric. You can say: the more colorful, the more healthy secondary plant substances.

And since the plant-based foods are also very filling fiber included, it is easier to maintain the figure.

This article first appeared on Fit for Fun.de.