OMAD Question (One Meal A Day) - am I doing it all right?

(Arie1985uk ) #1

I’m currently eating once a day, I really don’t feel like I need more, my body is not asking for more.
I’m 38 years old, 183cm, currently 92kg so my BMI is 27ish.

My goal is to get back to 84kg, the weight I had when I got married 10 years ago, so losing these last 8 kg might be more challenging, but I have to say the drop from 96kg to 92kg happened within 2 weeks so it was quite surprising to me, although I’m only really proper Keto now, I know that nuts make me lose less weights so I try to avoid nuts or eat a very small portion, and instead more fish, eggs, meat, olives, fatty cheese, these all work for me and don’t seem to prevent the weight from getting lost further and further.

Moreover as a Jewish person I found a Keto bread for our Saturdays (sabbos), that has 4gr of carbs and only need to eat it 2-3 times during the entire 24 hours of it so it works fine … I also used to drink sweet grape juice for our kiddush and now replaced it with a dry wine (I know alchohol is not ideal but dry wine is better than sweet grape juice by all means).

thanks god feeling great - am I do it all right? is it really possible/doable to reach 84kg?

Must say I don’t even go to the gym, and working a lot with the computer … does it all sound reasonable / okay to you?!

#2

As I have no idea how much you eat and anyway, I don’t know you, I can’t tell if you do everything right (you definitely need to avoid even low-key starvation. some people easily undereat on OMAD, others overeat and it works okay for many of us. I can’t do it often but my OMAD days are pretty good) but what you wrote sounds good :slight_smile: You feel right, you don’t overdo nuts (of course, overdoing meat can ensure lack of results but the chances are better :wink: still, it’s individual).
Yes, the last kgs are usually harder to get rid of… But it’s possible, of course, you have a realistic goal. Just keto alone may not be enough but you already focus on the right items, that’s good.
Exercise isn’t necessary for everyone (it probably is for me as I can’t help eating much but I do exercise for many reasons. it’s part of a healthy lifestyle) and it even may hinder fat-loss for people who get hungry from it.

I doubt you drink much wine so I wouldn’t worry about it. No idea how often you drink it though, I am not very familiar with your religion but it can’t be overly much if you have an okay relationship with alcohol.

Good luck!

(Arie1985uk ) #3

Thanks Shinita,
A normal OMAD for me consists of:

  1. 1 tomato, 2 medium cucumbers, 1 red bell pepper (first eat the veggies).
  2. Then 2 or 3 boiled eggs
  3. Avocado and/or some Olives
  4. Sardines in Olive Oil / Salmon OR
  5. Lean meat or Red Meat OR
  6. Fatty cheese (27% fat or more)
    (Choose 4 or 5, 6 sometimes can be combined with 4).

That’s the meal of the day, more or less.

Regarding wine - it’s only for Kiddush purposes i.e. only on Friday night and Saturday morning, if I could avoid it I would have chosen to avoid it but since it’s part of my religion it’s fine, in fact just a bit is not so bad … we’re talking about 50ml of dry red wine, i.e. not even a cup, so it’s a very small amount - same with the sabbos bread - it’s 4gr of carbs, one in the evening Friday night and one in the morning of Saturday (you’re supposed to also have it on Saturday lunch or so but it’s not exactly mandatory per religion etc. etc.)

(Allie) #4

Personally I don’t like constant OMAD as a weight loss method due to the way it tends to metabolic downregulation. Some days I do OMAD naturally, but wouldn’t ever do it every day deliberately.

I know some will disagree with me on this because they’ve had good results with it and that’s fine for them, but I really don’t think it should ever be relied upon as a weight loss tool.

(Arie1985uk ) #5

I don’t really do it deliberately, my body feels right now that it doesn’t need that much … that’s how I feel for some reason. Is it normal?

#6

Wow, you eat vegs alone? :slight_smile: Okay, I did that in the past (I could eat basically anything alone), I almost forgot about that…

Sounds good but I rather meant the amounts, you should eat the right amount of food. But you should know/feel better how much you need, it’s quite individual. I am lucky as if I don’t eat enough for one meal, I just get hungry later. But some people easily undereat. And you don’t have much extra fat to get energy from it, a smaller fat reserve can’t give as much per day as a bigger one.

I consider it my only chance to lose fat (if I exercise a lot too) and get healthier mentally too (I mean only my relationship with food. and it’s convenient not to eat “all day”. I rarely can do TMAD) but I don’t consider it a good idea for many. It’s quite individual.
But if your proper meal is 1500-2000 kcal and your energy need isn’t much higher, OMAD just sounds the only way or close, you know… I don’t have the huge self control or focus to ensure I don’t overeat when I don’t do OMAD. So of course it is a great idea for fat-loss (and chill, I want perfect satiation all day and OMAD has the best chances for it by far) for some of us.
It’s such a bother to think about how much and what should I eat for my first and second meal, I am still lost after years! OMAD immediately solves this problem. I eat whatever and as much as I want, it’s nice. It just doesn’t always give me a proper sized meal on carnivore for some reason. Or if it does, I eat too early so I get hungry later anyway. But my OMAD days are the best and I probably mostly lose fat on those days (and gain it back on my non-OMAD ones when I overeat).

Many things are normal :slight_smile: We are all so wonderfully different. I am a natural intermittent fasted but not a natural OMADer. But it’s quite fine for me to go for OMAD as I eat way too much, lose too much time and potentially need to be hungry without it. I am against forcing these things, a tiny push or a better plan to ensure it comes almost naturally may be the best we do. A tiny push in my case involves stuffing myself :slight_smile: Just comfortably :slight_smile: Without it I easily get hungry one hour after my already not small meal (like 1200-1500 kcal). But it’s me, obviously our OMAD is quite different. For me, timing means a lot. I like to eat at the time when I comfortably eat an OMAD sized meal but it’s close enough to my bedtime not to get hungry later (~8 hour before bedtime is perfect for me). The problem arises when I get hungry way earlier…

Maybe I shouldn’t have talk this much about my OMAD but maybe it’s interesting for someone.

(Arie1985uk ) #7

Yeah, maybe that’s what helps the body feel more full … when you start with vegetables your body feels more satisfied, i.e. not so hungry.

It’s definitely interesting.
The time is indeed important, I tend to eat the OMAD around 1PM during the day…

(Allie) #8

Normal as a sign of your metabolism slowing down yes…

#9

They make me hungry as all carbs but satiation is one thing where people are extremely diverse. I met someone who said they are completely unable to get satiated without a lot of fruit. And fruit always made my SO and me immediately SUPER hungry (even if I would have been perfectly satiated for 8 more hours without it).
Fibers and volume matters for many. Not at all to me, apparently. My satiation wants the right amount and kind of protein and fat. Carbs used to raise my need for fat and vegs aren’t exceptions. But many people are fine with vegs unlike with other carbs. I am only fine with animal sugar, that doesn’t seem to matter.

@Shortstuff: Why would someone’s metabolism slow down when they eat plenty of food? :smiley: It makes zero sense. We don’t hurt our metabolism eating the same amount of food in one sitting every day, even OMEODers seem to be fine but I rarely meet them. As far as I know, metabolism slows down if we fast for too long (I heard 3 days or more may do it, no idea if it’s true) or if we undereat. Yep, some (probably many) people undereat on OMAD but it’s not OMAD’s fault, it’s their bad choice and ignorance/negligence. Some people automatically undereat on keto too, they should eat more carbs (or if they need keto, do their best to eat more, there are good tips).
OMAD isn’t for everyone but I can’t imagine it lowering my metabolism, it makes no sense whatsoever. But if someone is worrying, I can imagine having a non-OMAD, higher-cal day a week does good :slight_smile: I always had high-cal days, even while losing fat smoothly. It may help with keeping our metabolism fine, it reminds the body there is food, no need to lower it for survival. I am not sure but I do it either way… But it’s the same without OMAD, keeping a deficit for months may or may not be good (it’s probably individual). I had my automatic high-cal days without OMAD, I guess my body knew what it wanted. But maybe it was for my sanity, 2000 kcal a day is so low, I couldn’t do it all the time.

(Arie1985uk ) #10

Why?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

There are a couple of issues here, where losing fat is concerned:

The first is to keep insulin low by restricting carb intake. This is necessary, because insulin, among one of its many jobs in the body, is the hormone that causes fat tissue to store fat.

The second is that in times of famine, as signaled by inadequate caloric intake, the body slows everything down and tries to hang on to its resources. It does the reverse in times of abundance. In fact, a significant number of forum members have reported that their fat loss didn’t really start to happen until they started eating more, not less. So even if we eat a ketogenic diet, we might still not lose fat if we don’t eat enough, paradoxical as that sounds.

If you think your metabolism might have slowed, you can increase it by a technique called reverse dieting. Essentially this amounts to eating slightly more than you need and slowly increasing the quantity until you are back to normal.

Something else to keep in mind is that people on a well-formulated ketogenic diet after years of restricted calories have been known to add lean mass even while shedding fat. This, of course, messes with the scale, and they think they’re not making progress. (Since muscle and bone are denser than fat, it is possible to lose inches without losing weight.) So we always recommend keeping track of the fit of clothes or taking body measurements as an indicator of progress.

#12

Apropos

, OMAD may help with that too. It depends, obviously but it’s true in my case, the less meals I have (while eating enough but I always do that), the easier to avoid carbs and food boredom (that always leads to eating more carbs in my case).

(Arie1985uk ) #13

Well, I keep on losing weight at the moment, I don’t see it stopping… yet.
I’m 92kg, goal is 84kg, and I really don’t feel hungry, it’s not like I feel I restrict myself - on the contrary, I just don’t feel the need to eat…

As soon as it changes then yes, I’d like to start maintaining the weight but I’m still 8kg far from 84… (17 lbs to lose in your own numbers)… I guess these ones are the hardest?

(Robin) #14

Oh, those rascally last 20 pounds! I lost 60 in one year, and then it took 1 1/2 years for the last 20. If you can, just carry on and ignore the scales for a while. My body composition was changing while the scale refused to budge. Progress is happening in other ways.
You got this!

(Arie1985uk ) #15

Thanks:)

(Allie) #17

Your body isn’t asking for fuel because it’s downregulated the amount of fuel it needs due to metabolic slowdown.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #18

Well, if you are still shedding excess fat, then you’re doing fine and don’t need to worry.

But yeah, the last 5 kg come off much more slowly than the first 50, alas! Also, sometimes our body just isn’t comfortable at the level we’d really like to be at. In such a case, you have to decide whether the results are worth the pain and aggravation of arguing with your body. Also, sometimes the body just wants a rest at the new weight before continuing to lose.

(Arie1985uk ) #19

Thanks Paul.

(KM) #20

It’s controversial, but I’ve found that a water only fast for 2-3 days drops my weight about 5 pounds. I then refeed and put back 3-4. My body on keto to satiety seems to reset to the new weight and stay there, so I slowly ratchet my way down with a fast every 6-12 weeks. I assume when my body gets to its natural setpoint, the refeed will bring the weight back to where I started, at which point I’ll have to accept the bulges I’d rather not have. I do see a decline in subcutaneous fat deposits as I do this, so I assume most of the permanent weight loss is fat and not muscle.

(Doug) #21

That sounds right on. We lose about a half pound or ~225 grams of fat per day while fasting. Very large people might lose a little more.

Having a setpoint - where the body seems to ‘want’ to be - is mysterious; we don’t know how it works, really, but I do think it applies. I picture hormonal influence (of course) and many feedback loops where the body is seeking…something. :smile: Some genetically-controlled balance of unknowns combined with aiming at survival - we’re evolutionarily constructed to save energy and store it when possible; humans are really good at doing that, i.e. putting on fat. :neutral_face: