I’m fasting for longevity purposes. I was seeing that mouse studies on fasting would not be correlated to IF or OMAD which is what I’ve been doing. They would be closer to a 3-5 day fast. I was further reading how Apoptosis of cells peaks at the 3 day mark. That got me wondering what a sustainable way to fast 3 days at a time would be. At first I was thinking to cycle 3 days fast, 1 day to eat whatever. But then I don’t know If that day would be adequate to not lose weight. The other option I was thinking was to do a 3 day fast, and 4 days OMAD. That would fit nicely into a weekly schedule and be similar to what I’m doing now
My understanding from Valter Longo is a multi day fast every quarter or so with Mediterranean diet and some form of time restricted eating is best , if you do not have a disease to heal (obesity; diabetes etc). Constant fasting is not advised by him; the building period after fasting is just as important. I think keeping glucose/insulin low and exercise is probably as /more important to longevity and too much fasting can also disrupt exercise….There are a couple good podcasts on longevity diet etc . I try to avoid the chiropractors preaching and selling supplements though.
When it comes to fasting for heath and longevity a lot of people seem overlook the importance of what they eat and drink between fasts. What is your diet like when you do eat? What do you mean by “eat whatever”? People go on about autophagy but they ignore the importance of properly fueling the “rebuilding” and maintenance.
I’d start a 3 day fast on Thursday afternoon. This works for me as the weekends are lighter workout days and I’m usually too busy to think about food. I have a desk job and there are always snacks and drinks at meetings etc. so I’m constantly having to turn down food. This is much less of an issue on the weekends. I grocery shop and meal prep on Sundays so breaking the fast then works well for me.
You’re not starting from scratch at every fast in terms of benefits. I’m not sure rolling 72s are necessary long term. It’s hard to tell as there’s not a lot of information out there. I’ve read that one 5 day 3-4 times a year is sufficient for most. Of course this assumes you’re doing something to support your body the rest of the time (moving, eating nutritious whole food, not drinking etc.). Unfortunately most of the information and community around fasting is around weight loss and using it as a tool to allow people to “eat whatever” so it’s difficult to find much information beyond how to use it to lose weight.
I’d do something like a 3:4 (minimum 4 days eating after a 3 day fast). But if you don’t want to lose weight you’ll have to eat about double your normal amount (to get to the same weekly total kcal number)