I am sorry I couldn’t do it shorter.
I have much experience with TMAD as I have 2 natural mealtimes, it’s not something my woe or time could change. I usually want food around 2-3pm and around 6pm.
I consider myself a natural intermittent faster, I am among the ones who did IF way before they learned it is a thing. I have very serious overeating tendencies but I am usually nicely satiated until 2pm and don’t get hungry until around 3pm (“not satiated but not hungry yet” is a pretty nice state when well-fasted, it never triggers eating. not being satiated late at night usually do). Even on my 5MAD days, I almost never eat before 3pm, it’s just my natural way.
I never ever thought I ever should eat when I am satiated and don’t even have any appetite… I eat plenty later and as a human, eating even once a day should be just right as long as I can do it, enjoy it and get enough nutrients in the process. But if I lower my carbs, OMAD isn’t viable so it’s time for TMAD. I find it nice, I can eat lunch and dinner together with my SO (not always, he tends to have either super early lunches - weekend - or 1-2 hours between lunch and dinner, that’s not always enough for me), I have enough meals to enjoy them fully but not too much to complicate my life…
It isn’t for people who can’t eat big enough meals, obviously.
I can eat my 20 oz meat in 2 meals just fine, usually not at once though, that’s another reason for me to have 2 meals.
I currently am in a phase of 2MAD with a 3 hour eating window, it seems to work well for now (as long as I fight hard to minimize my fat intake. not easy for me).
My SO needs way more energy and he wakes up hungry, 2MAD would be a hungry suffering for him - but he would slim down quickly, needing 3 meals again. Each to their own, only you can figure out if it’s for you, good luck!
I noticed that whenever I change my average number of meals (as I can’t do 1 or 2 or 3 meals each and every day, it’s not how I work), I need to change my food choices a bit to get the right sized meal with the right satiation. I always eat similar food items but the ratio must change. The ratio of more and less satiating items, especially. TMAD is kind of my default so it’s more like for 1 or 3 meals. If I suddenly have less meals, I can afford fattier, less satiating items as a bigger meal satiates me better anyway and I need the extra calories per meal, I don’t want to get satiated with too little. In my case, it’s almost only a concern on carni OMAD though but if I jump a plate of leaner pork and little else, I may eat too little for my first meal in the end. It happened yesterday, I successfully had a pretty lean small meal, it was very satiating and not as tempting as something fattier, I didn’t want more for lunch but I got hungry in no time again.
So the change may not work so well with the usual attitude and style, some changes may be needed. You eat super little meat, not like it is necessarily a problem, you can eat other nice protein sources.
That isn’t enough for everyone, some people undereat then, even when underweight. Okay, that must be some serious problem with their body feedback but not being able to eat big meals is normal. We are different. I met people who said they simply unable to eat more than 300 kcal at once (quite extreme, isn’t it? it must be horrible) while I tend to need a big meal when hungry. I had it over 1200 kcal before keto, now it’s usually smaller. And sometimes it’s way bigger with 150g protein, oh that is a nice OMAD meal…
On some days I have tiny meals though and it can’t be helped. We need to eat as much and as many times as we need to get our nutrients, just eating to satiaty may not be right. If I eat to satiaty whenever I get hungry, I typically overeat, the same for my SO. I have better chances as my food items actually matter. If I choose them “wrong” (though it feels sooo right, fatty dairy, mmm), I eat A TON without getting satiated. If I eat leanish pork, I get satiated with very little (and get hungry again as I wrote before). Many people on this forum wrote about keto items they overeat, they are just triggering and not satiating.
It’s good to just eat to satiation (you don’t want to stay hungry or get too stuffed if possible) but it matters WHAT exactly you choose. Usually, there are interesting exceptions among people.
You don 't need to count calories, it MAY be useful in the very beginning to avoid undereating if you are prone to it. I just get hungry if I undereat (so I don’t undereat, in the end) but I can easily MASSIVELY overeat if I just get satiated too so I tracked and figured out what items I should focus on.
You totally should ensure you eat enough somehow. Tracking or not.
I lost some fat without exercise but I was younger and my energy need still was decent… Now I strongly suspect I need extra exercise and more muscles to have any chance at fat-loss. I can’t eat little (2000 kcal is little enough if you ask me, I can’t even stay that low for long. but with very good food choices and going against my own desires a little, I can go a bit lower!). You seem to be better at it but possibly your energy need is lower too. But working out and other exercise have so many benefits, I don’t do it primarily for fat-loss
I hear that from so many people, it’s a bit strange to me as I never was like that. I ate vegs because I couldn’t not to, they are so SUPER delicious and tempting! Except the green leaves, I ignored most of those all my life. I needed the miracle of losing almost all interest in them to finally eat healthy. Vegs aren’t healthy to me due to their huge carb content (otherwise all are fine, I am not sensitive). It’s so very nice to get rid of them. They are often very very expensive and time consuming too. Meat is just superior
(A tiny juicy thing is still welcomed now and then.)
My pyramid never had much to do with ANY common ones including keto and carnivore… I am just different but I get my nutrients as far as I know so it’s fine.
My thought exactly when we visit my SO’s Mom who always make chicken in sunflower oil… I ate a tonne of that stuff in my life, don’t want much more but the teeny-tiny occasional amount won’t hurt me much, my body should handle those tiny negative things I inevitably get from my food. And the way, way higher negative things I get from elsewhere, hopefully… I look at the whole picture and denying the food would surely bring somewhat more serious consequences than the tiny oil.
Perfection is unattainable anyway. We should draw the lines somewhere, usually, without causing extra stress and anxiety that ruins the positive result.
I render my lard from 70/30 pork Nice lard, tastes like scratchings a bit.