Anyone doin One Meal a Day (OMAD)

[Spl@]

I do one meal a day, but lately I have found that I need something, bulletproof coffee or such or the hunger gets quite unpleasant.

My weight is starting to reach the point where I will be lower than I want. Also i'm having to be careful with the evening meal. Putting enough fat and protein in sometimes upsets my family.

Made a lovely curry the other night, (no rice, cauli and broccoli for me) all low carb, worked out at around 30 carbs all in before divvying up the portions, lots of cream 4%, coconut milk4%, mince beef20% and pork. Spices, Plenty of butter. Next day I was on fire. Blasted the day.

Everybody else apparently was on the express loo!

 

[Bewildered]

Wow I’m still trying to learn, after reading about type 2 and then having my diagnosis changed. What do people eat as their one meal? And how do you transition to this?

 

[Ushthetaff]

I do it but it’s about the size of 3 normal meals, I don’t do breakfast ever but do eat dinner sometimes , and tea well that’s the big meal of the day my weight is totally stationary, it always has been , i am really lucky I eat enough for an army but don’t put weight on . I have the same size waist now as I had when I was 18 , it’s not a planned diet to be honest it’s just the way it is .

 

[cdpm]

on my 3rd day of omad now

it depends on my blood sugars if im to continue or not
ive recently like in the last few days
dropped from 10 to 12 fasting to less than 6
with no apparent reason
so idk if its going to stay steady or keep going down
as there was no known reason to be in the 10 to 12 fasting( for a few months steady)
i have no clue what its doing( i didnt have enuf strips to see but now i have a libre)
but i hope to be able to stay with omad

 

[LaoDan]

on my 3rd day of omad now

it depends on my blood sugars if im to continue or not
ive recently like in the last few days
dropped from 10 to 12 fasting to less than 6
with no apparent reason
so idk if its going to stay steady or keep going down
as there was no known reason to be in the 10 to 12 fasting( for a few months steady)
i have no clue what its doing( i didnt have enuf strips to see but now i have a libre)
but i hope to be able to stay with omad

Great work! If you feel it’s sustainable, continue on while monitoring. Lots of IF plans, so if you feel off, tryout another or make adjustments.

 

[Lilylala]

Been omad since 1/2/20 was taking humulin m 3 , 30 am/pm now only 16 pm. bs at start 10 am 8 pm now 7 am 5 pm lost 35 lb typical omad meal meat and salad veg , treat at weekend takeaway kebab / curry / Chinese.since the start only had a few hypos but not totally been insulin free don't think I ever will be.

 

[cdpm]

it worries me something that i heard dr fung say in one of his videos
idk if he talks about omad or not
but he has nice fasting videos
and in one im almost sure i heard him say that people get
complications even with good blood sugars or bad ones when diabetic
if i heard that right then it appears theres nothing we can do
we dont need good numbers
or all the struggle it takes to achieve them
please tell me im wrong and
i heard that wrong

 

[SLLH]

it worries me something that i heard dr fung say in one of his videos
idk if he talks about omad or not
but he has nice fasting videos
and in one im almost sure i heard him say that people get
complications even with good blood sugars or bad ones when diabetic
if i heard that right then it appears theres nothing we can do
we dont need good numbers
or all the struggle it takes to achieve them
please tell me im wrong and
i heard that wrong

I think perhaps you may have misheard. High blood sugar levels cause the damage.

 

[Widgets]

I've been LCHF since early this summer when I was told that my blood glucose had been creeping up over the last few years and I was now pre-diabetic. I got access to my results via the GP website and yes, they've been going up by just over 1 per year since I went on BP medication a few years ago.

I went hard on a low carb. diet and started exercising, and also started 16:8 fasting regime. Increasingly though that 16:8 was stretching to 18:6 or even 20:4. I've lost a fair amount of weight (I had a LOT to lose), but a week or so ago I'd been stalled on the same weight for what felt like forever (really it was about 5 days but, well, brains are weird lumps of tapioca aren't they?), so I thought I'd give OMAD a try.

2 days of OMAD is all it took. I didn't feel hungry at all for more than about 20 minutes at a stretch. I had a standard (new me standard) at tea time (about 7pm) and that's it. Yesterday I had a small lunch and a slightly bigger evening meal and my weight is still going in the right direction. My current plan is to do OMAD at least once a week or so, for a while at least, and see how it goes, with options for more frequently depending on how I feel/how my numbers look.

I do so love how supportive and informative this place is. Onward and downwards!

 

[bloograss]

Just started it coz I heard Jason Fung say that if you really want to empty the sugar from your cells you need to fast. He was recommending 36 hour fasts (twice a week I think). That sounds too hard, so I thought I would try omad three days a week. We’ll see how we go, but the first two times have been fine…

 

[bishee12]

I did a three day water only fast, then OMAD for two weeks and then a five-day water only fast and now I am on OMAD again. I thought I would give in … but hunger doesn’t last forever and, on the five day fast, the energy reserves in my belly fat kicked in and I felt more alert and my hunger faded as each day passed. I lost 10kg and I’m not silly enough to believe that a lot of that wasn’t due to water loss. However, I have to buy new trousers now and my resolve to continue is boosted by that thought. I haven’t lost enough belly fat to stop taking my blood pressure tablets yet but I haven’t taken any metformin in two months. I am trialing an electronic glucose sensor and it tells me that my HbA1C is ‘normal’ and I can see what foods spike my blood glucose … so it’s a super way of proving to me which foods I should and should not eat. I am really pleased at the outcome and on my way to a body weight I had 50’years ago!

 

[cdpm]

i am attempting to do omad again
as i had some success a few years ago
so far im at a snack and 1 meal
the way that helped me the most
when i did it before
was always having the meal to be something
i really really liked to eat
whether it was a mono meal or
a junk food meal sometimes
i dont remember making myself have any restrictions
its harder now as i had to make some major changes
in the previous year limiting what i can eat
such as worsening teeth issues limited transportation
and not living alone
those things bring up many more issues to deal with
like so much more food around or watching the other
person eat and cook frequently and different transportation now
making alot less trips out
it seems simple just eat the one meal
but i have to wade thru all the other stuff still
i will continue to work on getting there

 

[bishee12]

Wow I’m still trying to learn, after reading about type 2 and then having my diagnosis changed. What do people eat as their one meal? And how do you transition to this?

I went in with all guns blazing. I just though of the nicest food, with very few carbs, and started eating in a 2-hour window. Fillet steak, steamed fresh vegetables with roast butternut squash instead of roast potatoes. My snack beforehand was cold sauerkraut - to give my stomach microbes a feed-up.

 

[Madisons]

Hi, does IF help with fatty liver and prediabetes? I was already told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for prediabetics or else our blood sugars will skyrocket. So confused, don't know what to do anymore. And the One Meal A Day, concerned about eating everything at once, and the overload result on the pancreas and fatty liver. I am now starting to eat at around 1:30 pm, one big meal that lasts till about 3:30, I'm prepping and cooking it starting at 1:30. Then I don't have anything afterwards, maybe a bone broth at 8:00 pm. Then that's it. Am I doing my body harm eating this way? Since i'm pre- I don't have glucose monitor to test. I also take Apple Cider Vinegar and lemon when I get up, and then nothing till its time to eat at 1:30 pm. I don't think about the hunger but when it is time to eat, I may tend to overeat? I eat flax and chia porridge with nuts and seeds, some stir fry vege dish afterwards usually with a fish protein somedays, and then finish it off with cup of greek yogurt and more nuts, cocoa nibs and cinnamon with green tea. I should be having coffee for the liver, but I am too anxious already. I don't need to lose weight since I cut out all fruits and grains, I've become a skinny fatty liver. I'm worried that I'm eating too much in my one meal a day, and if I should go back to having 3 meals a day at normal times. What is the proper way to fast if I'm not looking to lose weight, just want to reverse NAFLD and maintain normal blood sugars. Thanks.

 

[Resurgam]

Ask whoever told you how you would react to not eating breakfast for the numbers to chose so you can win the next lottery jackpot, because they must have a working crystal ball.
As you are prediabetic I'd predict that just a slight alteration in your eating habits will do the trick though - there is no need to treat your higher than average blood glucose levels as anything needing drastic action.
Eating one meal a day doesn't overload the pancreas - quite the reverse, it is not having to do anything for most of the day, cells become more sensitive to the insulin it produces and so less is required.
I suggest buying a low cost to run glucose meter, it is the strips which are the main expense, and checking on what your levels actually are, and if your numbers tend to be high in the mornings, eat a meal with a small amount of carbohydrate. I plan on around 10 gm of carbs in the mornings and then I eat again in the evening as I don't seem to need lunch. I have no more than 40 gm of carb per day, and that keeps my glucose numbers in the normal range.
I am never hungry.
Today I had scrambled eggs and cheese with a tomato for breakfast, a cup of coffee, and this evening I cooked some mixed vegetables and chicken. That is a typical day.
Although I was not diagnosed with fatty liver, my middle was rock hard and I had a 'beer belly' when told I was a very bad diabetic. Now my waist is 12 inches smaller and I can bend down or over and can clean off the bottom of the fridge or find books on the bottom shelf of a bookcase.

 

[Waspdog]

I have been on OMAD now for just over a month, I have lost nearly 10 kg and my blood sugar is good. See attached a typical meal grilled chicken breast and some veggies. In the morning I have one cup of tea with a splash of milk and lunchtime one cup of coffee with a splash of milk. Occasionally I will snack on a very few pieces of pickled cucumber or a stick of celery

 

[MrsA2]

View attachment 54081

I have been on OMAD now for just over a month, I have lost nearly 10 kg and my blood sugar is good. See attached a typical meal grilled chicken breast and some veggies. In the morning I have one cup of tea with a splash of milk and lunchtime one cup of coffee with a splash of milk. Occasionally I will snack on a very few pieces of pickled cucumber or a stick of celery

Usually for a sustainable OMAD regime the meal should contain all the nutrients and sufficient quantity to sustain the body without hunger through to the next meal. The one you showed is quite low in fat, nutrients and protein. It might be sustainable for a short few weeks for rapid weight loss but you will need to increase what you eat to stop your body will go into starvation mode. Watch for weight loss stall, headaches, poor skins and nail. Take care

 

[Deleted member 543160]

Most of my life I've eaten two meals a day, normally skipping breakfast. I've always eaten normal full fat food and I believe that eating fewer carbs and burning mainly fats for fuel keeps me from getting hungry. I'll occasionally just have one meal a day but only eat my normal amounts. However if I was doing OMAD on a regular basis, I'd definitely need to be eating enough protein and fats in that single meal to sustain me.

 

[Loveday8]

Sounds like you are “fat adapted” so if you don’t “eat” enough calories your body dips into its fat stores to top up your intake. Well done.

Could you say more about fat adapted, please bulkbiker? Thanks!

 

[bulkbiker]

Could you say more about fat adapted, please bulkbiker? Thanks!

Fat adapted is when your body primarily is using fat to fuel itself rather than carbs.

You will have used up your stores of glucose and will be running on fat, either eaten or (if you have weight to lose) body fat.

This will have been achieved by eating as few carbs as you can over a period of days/weeks depending on your stores of glucose.

You'll be registering blood ketones all of the time when you are at this stage.

Those are my thoughts on it anyway.. hope that helps.