It doesn’t even seem like a legitimate question.  Can you fast with food? Fasting implies purposefully abstaining from something and in this instance food. Even with the tremendous benefits of fasting, most individuals find fasting challenging. Fasting by definition denies the body nutrients in the process, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  

Like most things in the world, you can modify to your best needs. A modified fast is a valuable experience on many levels and there are a number of ways to consider a modified fast. One particular and popular diet that offers the benefits of fasting without all the hassle and risk of fasting the Fasting Mimicking Diet designed by thee incredible researchers at the University of Southern California, under the guidance of Valter Longo Ph.D.

Together this team developed a 5 day protocol and tested it in a clinical trial. Armed with the understanding, that calories and protein signal to your body that it’s getting fuelUltimately the researchers found that after 100 accepted participants participated on a fasting-mimicking diet, they lost weight, preserved their lean body mass, and maintained healthy levels of metabolic markers (glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure, c-reactive protein).

This protocol consisted of five days a month, 3 months in a row of a scientifically determined ratio of micro- and macronutrients that resulted in the mimicking of the physiology of fasting while eating! This diet consists of carefully prepared food that the body does not sense – meaning they foods do not activate the nutrient-sensing pathways – but it did stimulate fasting.