One Meal a Day (OMAD)

rotters · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:21

So im a big guy (ex prop forward) and was 24 stones at one point. I lost some weight prior to my knee replacement 3 years ago and was hanging out about 20 stone until a month ago...I just happened to come across a facebook group called OMAD lifestyle. I eat all of my calories in 1-2 hours of eating then fast for 22-23 hours. I have gone from grazing at all times ( I mean if I was awake I was eating) to fasting for over 22 hours a day...and I love it.

I've dropped 30lbs in 31 days (a lot of it water weight) and now fit into clothes I haven't worn in 8 years. Im training with a personal trainer and practicing my judo with no strength loss in fact I feel stronger as I'm carrying 2 stone less. now 17 stone 10 lbs and working on losing more whilst getting my fitness in check.

Is it a diet, no I dont think so, I've eaten pizza, cheesecake, fried chicken as well as a whole load of other foods. Is it working for me because I'm in a calorie deficit oh absolutely, I'm probably eating half the calories I was eating. Tonight I'm eating roast beef, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese and veg with gravy and some home made cheesecake. ill be eating over 2.5k calories....and when I'm satiated Ill stop.

Anyone else had a go at this. Im sure to many its stupid and that fine but for me I'm really enjoying the weight loss. not denying myself just delaying til my window.

rotters

Skillmister · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:31

You'll be eating 2.5k calories over 1-2 hours. How does that compare to your calorie count when "if i was awake i was eating"?

E: Just re-read and seen you're eating about half what you were before. Well no **** sherlock

Scam · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:51

Calorie deficit in weight loss shocker.

No seriously, if it works for you then fine. But from reading what you are eating, it's still rubbish and is not going to improve your health. You're just starving yourself rather like a third-world prison inmate. How do they end up? Can you sit back and think honestly that eating one meal a day is a positive thing for your health? I'd worry about what permanent damage you may do.

For me I couldn't do it. I have a fast metabolism and get hungry every 4-6hrs. If I don't eat I suffer, and so do the people around me

Glaucus · 2 Oct 2017 at 16:58

done it for a few weeks before, once you're in the routine it's pretty easy. first few days is pretty hard though.
It has other benefits over just calorie deficit. After 24hours your insulin levels have dropped by about 70%.
high levels of insulin make it very hard to burn body fat. Good for anyone whos been overweight for a fair few years as you are probably insulin resistant and anything to lower it is a good thing.

Scam said:
For me I couldn't do it. I have a fast metabolism and get hungry every 4-6hrs. If I don't eat I suffer, and so do the people around me

its only as thats what you have trained your body to expect food. After a while, on a new eating plan your hormonal response change and your body will only expect food at the new time. Through Ghrelin hormone. Which will spike when you normally eat and make you hungry.
Which is why eating all the time and not having set meal times causes issues for a lot of us.

ChocolateStarfishRammer · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:15

I wouldnt say I've tried it.. but its how I've lived for 10 years+ now.

I eat dinner.. apart from that 5-10 cups of tea get me through the day.

But, I do sit at a desk for the whole day, so I dont 'need' lots of energy to see me through. If I'm doing something abit more energetic, particually at weekends, then I'll have lunch too.

rotters · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:22

Skillmister said:
You'll be eating 2.5k calories over 1-2 hours. How does that compare to your calorie count when "if i was awake i was eating"?

E: Just re-read and seen you're eating about half what you were before. Well no **** sherlock

Scam said:
Calorie deficit in weight loss shocker.

No seriously, if it works for you then fine. But from reading what you are eating, it's still rubbish and is not going to improve your health. You're just starving yourself rather like a third-world prison inmate. How do they end up? Can you sit back and think honestly that eating one meal a day is a positive thing for your health? I'd worry about what permanent damage you may do.

For me I couldn't do it. I have a fast metabolism and get hungry every 4-6hrs. If I don't eat I suffer, and so do the people around me

yup I get the no **** sherlock response. But honestly I feel the best I have felt in a very long time. I drink hot water and coffee through out the day. Im hardly starving myself at 2.5k calories. as for eating junk it was more of an example that I still enjoy the occasional "fun food" but mainly eat good, home cooked food.

I work as an ITU nurse, I eat either after a day shift or before a night shift from around 5-7 in the evening. feel much less foggy.

rotters

ttaskmaster · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:40

ChocolateStarfishRammer said:
I wouldnt say I've tried it.. but its how I've lived for 10 years+ now.
I eat dinner.. apart from that 5-10 cups of tea get me through the day.

I do this too, except I live on coffee instead....

rotters said:
Anyone else had a go at this. Im sure to many its stupid and that fine but for me I'm really enjoying the weight loss. not denying myself just delaying til my window.

I find it a very bad way to live.
I used to weigh just 9st, while ploughing through tons of food and being pretty active, while still maintaining a 28" waist...
Now, because I've cut my intake to just one third, I no longer have enough physical energy to keep active and lack the mental energy to do anything about it.

I'm up to about 14st, now but lack the energy to get active, end up slouching around all bloated after pretty much any size meal and occasionally it's too much effort to even bother with food. Last time I got like that, I ended up skipping all food for about 6 days, but of course the first meal I did then eat just bulked me up even more and the cycle continued.

So while I'm sure it works in terms of losing weight if you're active, a steady intake throughout the day is probably better for an even ride.

Glaucus · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:44

ttaskmaster said:
So while I'm sure it works in terms of losing weight if you're active, a steady intake throughout the day is probably better for an even ride.

That suggests you should go to the doctor and have a check up. your body does not need constant feeding and if it does something is wrong.

ttaskmaster · 2 Oct 2017 at 17:57

Glaucus said:
That suggests you should go to the doctor and have a check up. your body does not need constant feeding and if it does something is wrong.

Not constant, exactly (although there's an argument that humans are naturally grazers), but surely something to eat before 9pm, just to get you through the day and avoid massive spiking?

Glaucus · 2 Oct 2017 at 18:03

ttaskmaster said:
Not constant, exactly (although there's an argument that humans are naturally grazers), but surely something to eat before 9pm, just to get you through the day and avoid massive spiking?

no, the human body is extremely good at keeping itself balanced.
especially with your bloating and drastic change in weight, you really should think about getting checked out.

Psycho Sonny · 2 Oct 2017 at 18:16

Scam said:
Calorie deficit in weight loss shocker.

No seriously, if it works for you then fine. But from reading what you are eating, it's still rubbish and is not going to improve your health. You're just starving yourself rather like a third-world prison inmate. How do they end up? Can you sit back and think honestly that eating one meal a day is a positive thing for your health? I'd worry about what permanent damage you may do.

For me I couldn't do it. I have a fast metabolism and get hungry every 4-6hrs. If I don't eat I suffer, and so do the people around me

It's BS that you need to eat every so often or X meals a day.

Cave men used to go without food for days. It's why you could last like a month without food but only a couple of days without water. Not eating for 20 hours is perfectly fine in fact it's probably healthier than eating constantly.

Captain · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:00

I have done something like this in my younger years but i went too far and starved myself for days even 7-10 days in one go living off Redbull, Lucozade and coffee.

If i were to take a more sensible approach i think i'd enjoy it.

At the moment i'm working 6am-4pm,so i could come home and have a meal about 5/6pm and then eat nothing until 5/6pm the next day?

I'd find it hard at first because i have breakfast at work at 9.30am, normally cereal or toast, missing that out will be hard for the first week i think.

rotters · 2 Oct 2017 at 20:25

my 1st 3 days where interesting but not horrible. The only struggle I have atm is when I eat I get tired, half of my shifts are night shifts, eating at a similar time means eating before a night shift and this means feeling sluggish for the 1st few hours. Its something I'm trying to get my head around.

This is a pretty interesting 13 minute video.

FlakGunna · 3 Oct 2017 at 00:38

Psycho Sonny said:
It's BS that you need to eat every so often or X meals a day.

Cave men used to go without food for days. It's why you could last like a month without food but only a couple of days without water. Not eating for 20 hours is perfectly fine in fact it's probably healthier than eating constantly.

And their life expectancy because of this was around 25-30 years. No thanks.

rotters · 3 Oct 2017 at 01:27

Intermittent Fasting has been around a long time. its not shocking that it works and it isnt for everyone.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3946160/

Glaucus · 3 Oct 2017 at 06:14

FlakGunna said:
And their life expectancy because of this was around 25-30 years. No thanks.

lol, so nothing to do with any other factors then. You also need to understand what average means. That stat in no way shows that you would expect to die at 25-30. Its hugely skewed by the high infant mortality rate and women dying in child birth. You could expect if you survived those to make it to a ripe old age.

if you missed the last few years and that calorie restriction extends life spans in well everything even primates and there's no reason it wouldn't work in humans (just a bit harder to test) although there is a 120year club of scientists who are in and around that topic who are experimenting on themselfs.

Psycho Sonny · 3 Oct 2017 at 08:23

FlakGunna said:
And their life expectancy because of this was around 25-30 years. No thanks.

Nothing to do with modern medicine, free access to doctors and hospitals?

krooton · 3 Oct 2017 at 09:21

Glaucus said:
done it for a few weeks before, once you're in the routine it's pretty easy. first few days is pretty hard though.
It has other benefits over just calorie deficit. After 24hours your insulin levels have dropped by about 70%.
high levels of insulin make it very hard to burn body fat. Good for anyone whos been overweight for a fair few years as you are probably insulin resistant and anything to lower it is a good thing.

its only as thats what you have trained your body to expect food. After a while, on a new eating plan your hormonal response change and your body will only expect food at the new time. Through Ghrelin hormone. Which will spike when you normally eat and make you hungry.
Which is why eating all the time and not having set meal times causes issues for a lot of us.

This, I do a 16/8 fast during the week (so only eat between noon and 8pm) and do OMAD over the weekend.
My gf has been doing OMAD for the whole of September, and has lost 20lbs.

Only took 2 weeks for me to train my body to not expect food constantly (I have been a all-day grazer my whole life). It's mainly psychological and a bit physiological, and our bodies and brains adapt pretty quickly.

ttaskmaster · 3 Oct 2017 at 10:24

Glaucus said:
no, the human body is extremely good at keeping itself balanced.
especially with your bloating and drastic change in weight, you really should think about getting checked out.

No, I need to get up a gym or something.
This weight gain is over about 5 years, mind, not overnight. The rest is just an increasingly sedentary job and piling all the food into one meal... likely with a slowed metabolism from quitting smoking and/or just getting old.

Somnambulist · 3 Oct 2017 at 10:40

It's one way to diet. Wouldn't advise it for relatively lean folk and/or if you're involved in any sort of training, be that strength/power or endurance related.