A New Relationship with Aging
Aging shows up in ways we notice long before the number of candles on a cake. It shows up when we wake up groggy even after a full night’s sleep. It shows up when recovery from a busy week takes longer than it used to. It shows up when our joints feel stiff, when digestion feels unsettled, or when our mood lingers low after stress. These are the signs that our body’s repair systems are carrying more weight than they can manage.
Healthspan gives us a way to think differently about this. Instead of counting years, we begin to ask: How well are we able to live through the years we already have? Can we move with ease, rest deeply, and return to balance when life pulls us off course? Extending life without that capacity is not what most of us want. What we long for is more time that still feels like ours to use.
Fasting-mimicking gives us a gentle way to support renewal. For a few days at a time, our meals shift in a way that allows the body to focus on deep repair while we continue with daily life. These cycles open space for recovery and rhythm, reminding us that longevity can be supported with simple practices woven into the year.
Shaping the Path of Preventive Nutrition
Renee Fitton, MS, RD brings leadership, clarity, and strategy to the intersection of nutrition science and healthcare innovation. As Director of Education and Healthcare Sales at Prolon, she supports practitioners with evidence-based tools to guide cellular repair, resilience, and long-term health. Her work strengthens the bridge between research and real-world practice, making longevity insights more accessible across clinical and professional settings.
With a strong background in nutritional science and healthcare education, Renee has become a trusted guide for clinicians, educators, and wellness professionals. By combining scientific precision with a deep understanding of preventive care, she is helping move healthcare toward a future where nutrition is central to long-term wellbeing.
Why Biological Age Matters
We all celebrate birthdays, but those numbers don’t always match how we feel inside. Two people of the same age can live in completely different bodies. One may move with ease and recover quickly, while the other struggles with energy, sleep, or balance. That difference comes down to biological age, a measure of how well our systems are working, regardless of how many years we’ve lived.
More Than a Number
Biological age is reflected in the everyday things we notice. How fast do we bounce back after stress? How deeply do we sleep? How much steadiness do we feel in our mood and energy? These details give us a clearer picture of aging than a calendar ever could.
Shifting the Clock
Research has shown that short fasting-mimicking cycles, practiced just three times a year, can reduce biological age by more than two years. Fifteen days is enough to make measurable change. For many of us, that means more clarity, lighter joints, steadier digestion, and renewed energy moving through daily life.
Protecting Our Healthspan
Because aging itself drives much of our disease risk, slowing its pace protects us across the board. Supporting biological age helps reduce the chances of chronic illness, but it also gives us something even more immediate, a stronger sense of resilience as we live our days.
A Different Way of Fasting
Many of us are familiar with the idea of fasting. Maybe we’ve skipped meals before, or heard about water-only fasts that promise dramatic results. In practice, these approaches can feel harsh. Hunger builds, daily routines keep moving, and it quickly becomes hard to sustain. What often gets lost is the very strength we want to preserve.
A Pattern That Fits Into Life
Fasting-mimicking is different because it lets us keep eating while our body enters repair. For five days, our meals are structured in a way that provides nourishment but still signals the body to shift into renewal. The rhythm is simple enough to follow without stepping away from our responsibilities.
The Five-Day Flow
On the first day, we eat about 1,100 calories. Days two through five drop to around 750. Each morning begins with a nut-based bar. During the day, we snack on olives or a seeded cracker, and we sit down to bowls of soup; tomato, lentil curry, minestrone, carrot ginger. At night, there’s even a small piece of chocolate. The meals are designed to be light but satisfying, and to carry us steadily through the cycle.
Repair with Strength Intact
Muscle is one of our most important allies as we age. It supports balance, metabolism, energy, and immunity. One drawback of strict fasting is the loss of lean tissue. Fasting-mimicking protects muscle while still allowing repair to happen at the cellular level. It helps us renew without giving up the strength that carries us forward.
How Our Body Responds
When we step into a fasting-mimicking cycle, the shifts begin quietly. At first, it may feel like any other week. Then, as the days move along, the body starts responding in ways we can both measure and feel. Repair pathways switch on, inflammation settles, and energy begins to steady.
What Research Shows
Studies have found that fasting-mimicking can reduce markers of disease risk by anywhere from 4 to 25 percent in healthy adults. For those of us starting with higher blood sugar, blood pressure, or cholesterol, improvements can reach up to 35 percent. These numbers show us that a handful of days, practiced with rhythm across the year, can bring meaningful change.
What We Notice Ourselves
By the fourth or fifth day, many of us feel something shift. Joints may feel lighter, digestion calmer, and our thinking clearer. Food often tastes more vibrant, and our senses feel sharper. Once the cycle is complete, sleep tends to deepen, leaving us more restored. Appetite cues also settle, making it easier to choose foods that truly nourish us afterward.
Beyond Metabolism
Most research has focused on metabolic health, but early studies suggest fasting-mimicking may also support immune balance. For those of us living with inflammatory strain, the idea that a simple rhythm of meals can help the body regulate itself opens a new sense of possibility.
Food as a Builder of Resilience
The meals we eat outside of fasting-mimicking cycles matter just as much as the cycles themselves. Food has the power to weigh us down, but it also has the power to build strength and resilience from the inside out. When we choose meals that are colourful, nourishing, and rooted in variety, we extend the benefits of repair into our everyday lives.
Nourishment that Strengthens Us
Resilience grows when our food feeds more than hunger. Beans, lentils, nuts, seeds, leafy greens, herbs, and brightly coloured fruits and vegetables all carry compounds that calm inflammation and strengthen our microbiome. These foods keep the pathways of repair alive long after a fasting-mimicking cycle ends, helping us feel steady and supported day to day.
Rhythm in How We Eat
The timing of meals also shapes how well our body restores itself. When we eat at regular times, our nervous system feels more settled and our digestion runs more smoothly. Fasting-mimicking gives us a clear rhythm for five days, but many of us find that carrying steady meal patterns forward; perhaps an earlier dinner or more consistent times across the day, helps us sleep more deeply and wake with more clarity.
Flexibility as a Foundation
Healthspan depends on flexibility. A metabolism that shifts smoothly between fuel sources and recovers quickly after stress helps us stay steady as life changes. Meals built on unprocessed foods and natural variety support that adaptability. Each fasting-mimicking cycle deepens it further by teaching the body to draw on its own reserves while still being gently nourished.
The Sensory Side of Repair
Food carries signals beyond calories and nutrients. The texture, the aroma, the pace of eating; all of these shape how a meal feels in our body. During fasting-mimicking, when meals are lighter and simpler, these details help keep the experience nourishing.
Texture that Satisfies
A bowl of soup feels more grounding when paired with something to chew. The crunch of a seed cracker alongside the smoothness of a lentil or tomato base gives the meal substance. That balance of textures helps us feel more settled and complete.
Flavour that Engages Us
The scent of herbs rising with steam draws us in before the first spoonful. Ginger, rosemary, or citrus can make the meal feel alive, awakening our appetite and preparing us to receive it. Flavour brings warmth and makes each bowl feel intentional.
Eating with Presence
When we take time to sit down, place food in front of us with care, and eat more slowly, the body responds differently. Digestion feels smoother, energy steadier, and the act of eating becomes part of the practice itself. These small choices help the five days feel calm and restorative.
Fasting-Mimicking as a Mindful Practice
Each fasting-mimicking cycle brings more than changes in what we eat. It also invites us to slow down and notice the rhythm of our days. Because the body is working a little differently, we often find that our pace shifts too. Gentle movement, quieter evenings, and earlier nights become natural companions to the meals. These adjustments help the body lean more fully into repair without asking us to push harder.
The five days also teach us how to listen more closely to our own signals. Hunger may feel stronger on the second or third day, then soften by the fourth. Some of us notice a brief dip in energy before a steadier clarity sets in. These are the rhythms of the body adapting, and when we tune into them, the process feels less like a program and more like a conversation between what we eat and how we live.
Simple rituals can make the practice even more grounding. Brewing a pot of herbal tea, journaling for a few minutes at night, or taking a slow walk after lunch create moments of presence that support both body and mind. Over time, these rituals become anchors that help us return to the cycles with ease, turning them into a rhythm we can carry through the seasons.
Seasonal Living and Connection
Fasting-mimicking becomes easier when we weave it into the natural rhythm of the year. Many of us find that a spring cycle feels like a reset after the heaviness of winter. A late summer cycle helps us settle after travel and long, busy days. An autumn cycle supports us before the colder months when rest and immunity feel more important. Tying the practice to the seasons creates anchors that are easy to remember and return to.
The rhythm also touches how we connect with others. Sharing a light meal after the cycle, walking with a friend instead of meeting for heavier food, or simply talking about the experience with someone close turns repair into relationship. These moments remind us that health is not only an individual pursuit but something that grows in the presence of community.
Planning helps the practice fit smoothly into life. Setting aside a quieter week, keeping water nearby, or preparing simple meals for the rest of the household makes space for the body to repair without stress. With each cycle, these preparations become familiar, and the practice begins to feel less like something we schedule and more like a rhythm we live by.
The Takeaway
Aging moves with us every day, yet the way it feels in our body is something we can influence. When we step into fasting-mimicking cycles, we give ourselves a pause that allows the body to focus more fully on repair. These short windows create space for renewal without asking us to step away from the life we are already living.
The shifts are both measurable and felt. Biological age can move in a younger direction, but we also notice lighter joints, steadier energy, clearer focus, and deeper sleep. Our appetite finds a calmer rhythm, and we feel more at ease in our own body. Fifteen days in a year may sound small, but practiced with consistency, it becomes a foundation that carries us forward with strength.
The promise of longevity lies in the freedom it offers. Freedom to climb stairs without strain. Freedom to focus through the afternoon without fatigue. Freedom to share meals and moments with those we love and still feel present. When we bring repair into our year with intention, that freedom grows...
...and our years become not just longer, but more fully our own.
