Keto OMAD - self defeating?

omad
#1

Hi,

I’ve been trying to get back into shape these last 4 months, started by just resuming going to the gym, cutting my calorie intake, sort of naturally stumbled into 16/8 intermittent fasting without having heard about it, then discovered that IF is a widely known thing, jumped to the next level - 20/4 IF, spliced in some 24 hour fasts on weekends, then moved on to OMAD. All of this was without keto, seemed to work fine - I lost about 15kg total body mass in a little over 3 months, probably more in pure fat, since I definitely had at least some muscle gains - I moved from not being able to bench 70kg for 10 reps, to benching 100kg for 10 reps with ease.

At the end of all that, since I’m down to those last 5-10kg I’d ideally want to lose to really have some abs, I decided to give keto a try, since being in ketosis longer sounds like a good way to burn more fat.

I’ve been doing keto OMAD for 5 days now, haven’t really had any trouble with it - maybe some light keto flu, maybe my body has some ketone adaptation already from the fasting before that, not sure, or maybe it’s not working yet, but no huge case of the keto flu yet; yes, decreased strength in the gym, but that’s to be expected; overall, no big issues.

My keto OMAD meal is about 1800-1900 kcal (calorie calculators tell me my maintenance is about 2200), with about 33 grams total carbs / 15 grams net carbs (total - fiber), with a roughly 77/16/7 percent split between fat/protein/carbs, with carbs being only ~3.5% if you count only net carbs (it is my understanding that it’s safer to count the total, my goal is to get under 30g / 5% total carbs by switching some foods around),

It seems to me I’ve been doing everything right so far, but over the last 5 days that I’ve switched from my regular OMAD to a keto OMAD, it looks like I’ve gained some weight - the scales are up just a little bit, but mostly I’m concerned because it looks like I’m losing some of the definition in my upper abs that I had just gained - it looks like I’ve put on some fat at least there. Also, my whole appearance has become a little bit more sluggish and puffy - maybe that’s just because of the decreased energy levels while adapting to keto, maybe not.

My personal theory is that if something is going wrong, maybe doing a keto OMAD for fat loss may be a little bit self defeating. From what I understand, after not eating for close to 24 hours, my insulin sensitivity will be high, and eating anything will bump up my insulin, and since my keto meal does have a lot of fat in it, all my cells will be highly likely to grab some of that fat that’s now freely available. Am I thinking in the right direction? Should I turn my OMAD into a more of an “hour of food”, getting the veggies and protein in at the start, waiting for 30-60 minutes and then getting the fat in, after insulin response has dropped a little bit? Do the same, but eat the protein with the fat, not in the first “veggie round”? Is there something else that I’m doing wrong and not seeing?

Any help will be appreciated, thanks,
JHitch

(LeeAnn Brooks) #2

While most people lose water weight right away, it’s very common to put some water back on after a couple weeks as electrolytes normalize.

I’m wondering if already doing OMAD means you were already down your expected water weight loss and are now seeing the rebound as you’re adjusting your electrolytes.

It’s just a theory.

#3

This could be - my weight jumped up a little too much for it to be just fat gain, I suspected water weight, that’s why I’m not too worried about the uptick in the number on the scale. The purely visual effects are what worries me.

Anyway, even if there’s no problem here to notice, and I’m just scared of normal fluctuations in weight / look that will even out in the long run, any thoughts on keto + omad, in terms of minimizing fat gained by timing errors are welcome.

Thanks for your ideas!

(LeeAnn Brooks) #4

There are some experts who say OMAD can damage your metabolism if done all the time because you’re doing restricted calories. I find this is true for me, as I have a very hard time getting more than 1000 calories into a single sitting.
That being said, I do still do OMAD at least once a week because I have recently started doing some more extended fasting. This won’t harm the metabolism because the lack of food never spikes insulin so your body just burns it’s own body fat. In fact, some studies suggest it helps your metabolism.

I would say if you can make sure you aren’t eating to starvation level of calories, OMAD is fine. Otherwise I’d start moving towards EF.

#5

Keto depletes glycogen. Glycogen depleteion makes your muscles look flat and ruins definition. That explains the way you look, but it should make the scale go down not up, as glycogen holds water and depleting glycogen makes you shed that now unneeded water weight.

(Omar) #6

I think if you confuse your body (Time wise ) you can shake the metabolism.

Any method which is out of synchronicity with the 24 hours natural cycle will shake the metabolic system such as OMAD once a week.

If the OMAD is every day then, the body will synchronize again to the the OMAD and it will defeats the purpose of OMAD.

Just a hypothesis which can be wrong.

#7

Thanks, guys, I will probably chalk this one up to water weight changes and not being used to the glycogen depletion yet for the time being, and not worry about it. I will also think about not doing OMAD every day long term, to avoid getting the body too used to it, I have some reading to do on this issue.

(Blessed with butter ) #8

What is omad

(Empress of the Unexpected) #9

One meal a day.

(Running from stupidity) #11

I got thread-chronoed and didn’t realise it. Shame, it was a genius answer, too :slight_smile:

(David Cumming) #12

My experience has been that no single keto/fasting strategy is optimal - I do find that changing it up on a regular basis produces more sustained losses - I think of it as the “keep the metabolism” guessing approach. Don’t over-analyze it; your body is way more complex than you know.