I did it. Something I said I’d never do… a 5-day fast/cleanse, whatever you want to call it. Specifically, the ProLon 5-day Fasting Diet. I’m not a “dieter,” I’m not a meal-prepper, I’m not a calorie or carb or anything counter.
But, I came home from a recent trip and I was so, so, so bloated from eating all of the junk.
I wanted to do something to clear out all the bloating and quickly. I asked my friend Chelsea, who is always trying these sorts of things and she recommended I try ProLon, the fasting-mimicking diet. She had tried their 5-day fasting diet last May and she was pleased with her results.
I ordered it and got started just a few days after returning home from my trip.
So, here is my honest review of the ProLon 5-Day Fasting Diet
What exactly is the ProLon Cleanse?
The ProLon Cleanse is a diet plan that mimics fasting. You eat the food they provide (soups, snack bars, small packets of olives, and small packs of crackers) for five days. An evidence-based review can be found at Healthline.
How much does ProLon cost?
Let’s start with the elephant in the room – how much did it cost? Well, at face value, it was a bit pricey. The total cost was $199. But, this was literally everything I put in my body for five days. Additionally, shipping was free and I received 20 additional intermittent fasting bars for free (which I’ve been eating each morning for breakfast since completing the fast- but more on that later.)
I should also mention that I skipped food shopping that entire week. I typically spend between $150- $200 a week on food shopping for my family of four. However, I told my husband that he and the kids were on their own for food for the week. I know, harsh, but I didn’t want to be preparing delicious meals I couldn’t touch. He ended up using all the stuff we had in the pantry that typically sits there until it expires.
So, in that sense, it was a win!
Day 1:
I felt really good for most of the first day. I enjoyed both soup flavors, and the crackers with lunch were so good, I’d eat them even when not cleansing. There were plenty of snacks and I wasn’t hungry at all.
In fact, I felt so good that I decided to ignore the explicit warning in the instructions to avoid strenuous exercise and extreme temperature environments and I went to hot yoga. Yes, HOT yoga. After hot yoga, I went home and developed an awful headache. I assumed the headache would go away as I slept through the night but boy, oh boy was I wrong. When I woke up on the morning of day two, my headache was unbearable.
Day 2:
I woke up with a raging headache. At this point, I should have taken an Advil, but I was nervous that taking an Advil on an empty stomach would make me nauseous. Silly me, headaches also make me nauseous. Instead, I took a hot shower. Then I vomited.
Now, I probably should have called it a day, but I’m no quitter. Instead, I took an Advil and ate two gluten-free crackers (this was the only moment I even slightly strayed from the program). Then I lay down and took a two-hour nap. When I woke up, I felt a little out of it… but overall, fine. When I woke up, I also weighed myself and was pretty crushed to see that I had gained two pounds. Like, how?
As the day went on and I ate my meals, I felt better.
Days 3-5:
During the last three days of the fast, I felt completely fine. I wasn’t hungry at any point. I actually started to feel pretty energized. I did, however, notice that I was pretty stinky. I smelled like I was sweating out pure vegetable broth.
By day five, I was completely over squash soup. Like, I never wanted to see it again and considered not even eating my final dinner. But I did and it was fine.
When I woke up on the morning following the final day, I weighed myself and I was down six pounds since the last time I’d weighed myself (the morning of day two – after vomiting), and four pounds total from starting. I’m not sure how/why I gained weight initially but I figured it was all part of the process. But, more so than the pounds, I was so happy to feel less bloated in my tummy (that was, after all, my primary goal)!
The Twist – Days 6 and 7
This is where things got crazy for me. And I’m talking crazier than day two. I felt so great, I was almost paralyzed, or afraid to eat anything.
So, I started with one of my free fasting bars, but then I didn’t know what to do! I knew that during the previous five days, I’d eliminated a lot of things from my diet: dairy, gluten, sugar, and meat. But now I wanted to know which of those (or which combination of those) had made me feel so awful and bloated.
The ProLon Fast program did give ideas of what to eat on day six, but even so, I couldn’t bring myself to eat. I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t want to eat something that would make me feel crappy again. Finally, for dinner, I made some gluten-free pasta with a smidge of olive oil and fresh basil.
The next day, I had the same problem. I didn’t want to eat anything, or, I didn’t know what to eat. I’m not sure what it was. I ate one of the fasting bars in the morning and had a salad for dinner. That was all.
By the third day post-program, I was almost ready to call an expert. Why couldn’t I eat? Why didn’t I want to eat? I’m still not sure, but in retrospect, I wish I had come up with a strategic way to reintroduce foods. I had assumed that by the end I’d be craving everything and that I’d have to hold myself back from running to Taco Bell. But, the exact opposite was actually true. Crazy, right?
My Final Thoughts on ProLon
Overall, the food that was included was pretty tasty. I wasn’t ever hungry. In the end, I felt great and had gotten rid of loads of bloating. All in all, I lost four pounds and have kept them off (I’m over two weeks out from completing at the time of writing this).
So, would I do it again? Maybe. I don’t think I could do it every month, but maybe quarterly, as the seasons change. I think I will almost certainly do it in early January – post-holidays, to clear out the bloating.
This was me after the last holiday season…
Have you ever tried ProLon or any fast or cleanse? I’d love to know how it went for you. Let me know in the comments. And, if you have a particular brand or program that you recommend, let me know that, too.
Looking for more content on eating habits? Check out these posts:
- The Climatarian Diet – Reducing Our Carbon Footprint Through Food
- Intermittent Fasting – How to Lose Weight Without Dieting
- Ayurveda in Motherhood: a 5,000 Year Old Science Helped Me Heal 7 Years of Damage
- How to Eat Local in Rutland County
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