One Meal a Day Results - I Survived 3 Months on OMAD Diet!
Here are my "One Meal a Day" results.
I've tried the OMAD diet for three months. Today, I'll break down my experiences to help you decide if you can benefit from it. In the end, I'll share one best thing and one worst thing about it.
I also made an audio to help you remember these principles fast. (Combining text-based and auditory information helps retention.) Check it out here.
My eating window on OMAD is 22:2. I wake up at 4 am. I eat at around 5 pm. Then I go to bed at 9 pm.
That said, let's look at the one meal a day diet results that I like.
Pros: Efficient time management for better focus
I like focusing on one thing. And OMAD lets me do that.
I focus the first half of my day exclusively on work. Then, I can do other stuff such as learning, exercising, and cooking. And finally, I can eat.
That's because I like the sense of completion: finishing a task before moving on to the next one. Whereas on a 2-meal schedule, my first meal (at 12 pm) breaks my workflow into 2 parts: before and after the meal. It's just impractical.
Plus, eating once takes a little bit less time than eating several times per day. This appeals to high-performing individuals who want to make their day as organized as possible.
Pros: It feels like a reward.
With OMAD, food comes as a reward for hard and concentrated work.
I like to enjoy my food, knowing that I completed my work for the day. On a 2-meal schedule, it doesn't feel like a reward. It breaks my workflow and feels more like a distraction because I still have to do a lot.
Pros: OMAD simplifies my cooking and eating.
When I ate 4 or 5 meals a day to gain weight, planning and eating meals was difficult. I carried a lot of containers with me. And I had to eat on the go or in the office. Now I just cook once and eat once. It couldn't be easier.
Another example is travel. Just as I focus on work, I focus on travel and don't worry about getting food. I can even go on a 48-hour fast if necessary because OMAD prepared me for longer fasting. It just means that I need to skip one meal.
I feel less hungry during the day. When I ate several times, I would wake up and feel hungry in two hours after waking up. But now I don't feel hungry for at least 6 hours after waking up. And I also could feel hungry a couple of hours after my dinner. But now I don't feel hungry after having a huge dinner of course.
Pros: Intermittent fasting
With OMAD, I get all the benefits of intermittent fasting:
· Autophagy: cellular cleanup.
· Compressing the eating window: less insulin and more growth hormone.
· Hormesis: using positive stress to boost resilience.
Pros: Use it as a pleasure for neuro-conditioning.
With OMAD, your meal becomes more enjoyable. You are hungrier and look forward to it.
Eating puts you in a peak state that you can use for conditioning your mind with the pain and pleasure principle. Whatever you do during that meal your mind will link with pleasure. For example, if you have a hard time communicating with your spouse, start talking to her during this one meal. And you'll like talking to her more.
I didn't lose much weight on OMAD. But I was already super lean from eating a 2-meal a day BP diet. If you have extra weight, you'll likely get leaner too.
Pros: Helps build self-discipline
By exposing myself to hunger, my willpower gets stronger.
Now moving along to the one meal a day diet results that I have doubts about.
My biggest concern is that I eat a lot in one sitting. The questions that come up:
· Isn't it too stressful for my digestive system?
· Can my body accept all nutrients from just one meal?
· How bad is going to sleep on a full stomach?
For example, I need at least 3 hours after finishing my meal before going to bed. When it's been only an hour or two, I feel too full and it doesn't feel right.
I experience an energy drop around 10 am, which is 6 hours after I wake up.
That's how I counteracted it:
· Completing more difficult work before that. I put off easier things that require less willpower for later. For example, I would work until 12 pm and then do learning, exercise, errands, phone calls from 12 pm to 3 pm.
· Drinking coffee. Even decaf gives me a good boost.
Cons: Does OMAD make my body too resilient?
I wonder if OMAD makes my body too resilient so that it doesn't respond to this positive stress well. Think of muscle training: when you do the same workout routine, your muscles get used to it and don't respond. With OMAD, I fast every day and my body gets used to it. As a result, I might not be able to reap the full benefits of fasting.
When you read supplement instructions, they often tell you to take it twice or three times a day with meals. With OMAD, there is no way of doing that.
OMAD might get you out of sync with your family, friends, or colleagues.
I don't get to enjoy breakfast with my family. I can't have lunch with clients or colleagues. While I do get to enjoy dinner with family, I have to do it quite early. This might not be easy because my family members might not be at home until late evening.
Conclusion: One best and worst thing about OMAD
The best thing is that OMAD gives a logical structure to my day and simplifies it.
The worst thing is that I'm still unclear about whether it's good for my body.
Perhaps, my next step is to cycle between a 22:2 OMAD and an 18:6 two-meals-a-day diet.
BONUS: People on OMAD who inspired me
· Wim Hof. "The Iceman" has been eating one meal a day for 38 years.
· General Stan McChrystal. He says his one day a meal comes as a reward.
· Jack Dorsey. In 2019, Twitter's CEO said he switched to a dinner-only diet (22:2 schedule).
