How to have
1 Meal A Day
Doctor Reviews OMAD (One Meal a Day)
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OMAD or one meal a day is a form of intermittent fasting where you only eat... well, once a day. pretty self-explanatory
OMAD has become really popular. in fact i got a lot of requests to talk about it So I looked at all the science on OMAD
let's look at the main positives and the potential concerns
1st the positives. #1. OMAD is simple. not easy (we'll get to that in a second), but simple
You eat once a day, within a 1h window, and that's it you’re doing OMAD.
No counting calories, no cutting out entire food groups, no complicated meal plans
simple. ok, I Iike simple. what else you got? 2.
OMAD can help you cut calories.
unless you're 1 of those competitive eaters you're probably not going to eat as much in one meal as if you ate all day long
So it naturally cuts calories even if people aren’t focused on them.
That can help with weight loss and the usual metabolic improvements that come with it (better glucose, etc)
3.OMAD saves time
Less time spent eating and cooking and doing dishes and whatnot
I like it so far. simple, saves time. sounds like my kinda diet
ok let's look at the concerns. you're gona ruin it aren't you?
not necessarily, they're not negatives per se. more like a heads up. something to bear in mind
I don’t have a horse in this race. i don't have anything personal for or against OMAD.
As long as people are healthy and making informed choices, whether it's OMAD or IF or whatever acronym they like, fine with me.
stop softening the blow. let's just hear the negatives
#1: OMAD can be hard. some people may find it difficult to fast 23h/day. you might feel very hungry
But it's a personal thing
some people may find it super convenient and doable
#2 is the issue of quality. I raised this in the 1st intermittent fasting video.
Fasting focuses on quantity but the main issue with food in our society is quality
the last time I mentioned this some of you brought up an interesting point
fglend73 said
most people who promote fasting promote healthy foods. that's great!
if this is clear to everybody out there, great news! and I have no doubt this is obvious for most of you who watch my videos
my concern is I keep seeing these diets marketed to the general public as cheat codes
as this article says: ‘You can eat or drink pretty much whatever you want on OMAD, even pizza burgers and beer
and as much as you want, as long as you do it during your scheduled mealtime’
so that's what I'm talking about
Fasting won’t fix a bad diet. like I said last time,
the main issue is not the fasting, it’s the feasting.
It’s possible to lose weight and remain unhealthy. here's another issue
someone goes on OMAD and loses some weight.
then what?
OMAD doesn't teach them how to eat healthy so they're a little trimmer and they think 'problem solved'
and they go back to eating the way that created the problem. it's a vicious cycle
several studies show the weight lost during fasting is often regained unless there is an overall change to how people eat
So I hope that viewer's right and everybody who’s fasting is super clear on this and eating really healthy!
everybody wins! moving on. #3: if you're gona do OMAD,
I suggest you make sure your nutrient requirements are met. maybe run your OMAD meal through cronometer
to make sure it covers all the vitamins and minerals and fiber and even protein
which normally is one of the easiest nutrients to get enough of but at one meal a day, you might wana make sure
4. if you have conditions like type 2 diabetes talk to your doctor before you start any form of fasting (OMAD or otherwise)
So: make sure I eat healthy foods between fasting, make sure I get my daily requirements
and make sure I don’t have a condition that makes it dangerous.
Anything else?
here's a concern I've seen raised but I don't necessarily agree
this video by a big channel makes an interesting observation
that OMAD may worsen glucose metabolism based on this study
I love that he's showing solid scientific sources. I wish more people would do it. but I'm not sure about that interpretation
the study compared eating 3 meals a day with eating all the food in a big dinner
the negative effects could come from eating only one meal a day but there's another possibility
it could come from when the meal was eaten
as we saw in the time restricted feeding video, our circadian rhythm has a strong effect on our physiology
and on how we react to food
It’s part of a whole field called chronobiology
crown of what?? speak English, son
if people eat a snack late at night, they can have higher cholesterol
and burn less fat than if they eat the same snack in the morning
your body uses up more calories to process food in the morning than at night, so when you
eat earlier you end up with less calories even if you ate the same amount of
calories. I'll say that again in case it's confusing
if you eat the same amount of calories earlier and later in the day
your body uses a higher percentage of calories earlier
so you end up with less even though you ate the same amount of calories
crazy, right? researchers call this effect diet-induced thermogenesis
thelma what?
here we go. he's gona start with the nerd fest
back to cat videos it is!
and that's not all.
research has shown we tend to get hungrier, feel less satiated and crave more fatty foods at night than in the morning.
many studies point to this circadian effect and suggest we front load our calories, a
strong breakfast and lunch and lighter meals later in the day
so personally if I was going to do OMAD
I would do the OMAD meal in the morning or early afternoon
that will give you the benefit of cutting calories from OMAD plus
the chronobiology benefit of eating earlier in the day
this is why it's important we make sure we look at all the data in a field
we normally call it the totality of the evidence but I don't wana get too nerdy on you
ok no risk of that...
in general, with any new dietary trend we're not gona have a lot of data, precisely because it's new
so it's always a bit of an educated guess with these novelties
so there's a lot of unanswered questions with OMAD
as long as we're honest about we do and do not know
because the marketing is always gona be hypey and the new diet is always gona be a miracle
that gives you wings and immortality and great hair
so as long as we have the data and we don't fall for that, that puts you in a good position to make an informed choice
here’s the video on intermittent fasting and the one on meal timing in case you missed them
let me know if you have any questions, see you next week
