Anyone doin One Meal a Day (OMAD)

[Loveday8]

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.

Fab, thanks so much!
It's quite the exploration without a map, getting to grips with all the info and how individual responses vary, to find my own place in this. An exciting wake-up call....

 

[leicestertrev]

No rice! I could not survive without rice. What would I have with my curries? Or stir fry? AS for the lack of rice puddings ... rice is a staple. I cannot do without.

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!

 

[Sangre]

Hi Folks,

I have been doin this (by accident really) for the past 7-10 days... I was doin 16/8... I then found I wasnt hungry and was able to easily go past 16 hrs.

So to my point. It appears that Im comfortable with one meal a day, is anyone else doin this because I dont think Im getting enough cals. and wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

Regards

Rab

I do a functional medicine smoothie at 11 AM, have a snack of homemade plain yogurt with my vitamin K2 at 3 PM and then dinner before 6 PM. Dinner consists of quality protein and some non-starchy vegetables. I don’t eat again until the next morning at 11 AM. Occasionally, I will allow myself a homemade dessert that is sweetened without sugar and is also low-carb, like crème brûlée or a cream pie or some thing made with almond flour. I find I can lose weight and control my blood sugar on a very low carb diet, while only taking a half dose of Metformin ER (1000 mg, split am & pm). While I have not been able to totally reverse my type two diabetes, I am in very good control only eating one meal a day. And I’ve been able to drop the daily 100 mg of Januvia.

 

[bulkbiker]

No rice! I could not survive without rice. What would I have with my curries? Or stir fry? AS for the lack of rice puddings ... rice is a staple. I cannot do without.

I'm afraid that could mean that diabetes is with you for life..?

What you have with curries is simply more curry.
Maybe some veg?

 

[Deleted member 543160]

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!

As you appear to have discovered a lot of fat can have a bit of a disastrous "lubricating" action.

I was brought up before fat was mis-identified as something to avoid, and I work on the basis that the HIGH FAT in LCHF is simply high in relation to all the low/lite/reduced fat stuff that we're supposed to eat nowadays, and all we actually need to do is to eat enough normal full fat to satisfy our hunger, and not stuff our faces with it. It's essentially a balancing act replacing most of the quick fix frequent consumption carbs with enough normal full fat to supply our actual energy needs longer term. This may take a little time to get used to, but your body will eventually (re-)learn to be fat adapted, and be able use both dietary and stored fat as required.

 

[action replay]

I like to have a nice breakfast, toasted tea cakes, and fruit. A milky coffee and I’m fine ‘till evening. If Ifeel a bit hungry, I check my blood sugar and have some fruit. Still here after 71 years type 1

 

[SteadyAim]

I found when I was eating one meal a day it affected my nails and hair ...

Make sure you eat lots of protein, as we get older we need to eat more. E.g. if you weigh 50kg, you might need to eat 75g of protein a day, which might be 300g of meat / fish / cheese ... every day!

Higher protein intake should make your hair and nails grow quicker and stronger.

 

[Mdadds]

Hi Folks,

I have been doin this (by accident really) for the past 7-10 days... I was doin 16/8... I then found I wasnt hungry and was able to easily go past 16 hrs.

So to my point. It appears that Im comfortable with one meal a day, is anyone else doin this because I dont think Im getting enough cals. and wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

Regards

Rab

 

[Mdadds]

I also only eat once a day with low carb and high fat this keeps my bloods level and reduce the amount of insulin I have to take, my usual meal is 1 Avocado, 2 slices bacon and 2 poached eggs with a chaffle.

 

[maria200]

Hi Folks,

I have been doin this (by accident really) for the past 7-10 days... I was doin 16/8... I then found I wasnt hungry and was able to easily go past 16 hrs.

So to my point. It appears that Im comfortable with one meal a day, is anyone else doin this because I dont think Im getting enough cals. and wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

Regards

Rab

Hi to you as well, I like to congratulate on your new diet, hope it ends well and keep up , plus if this helps, I'm also on a one meal a day diet, started 2 days ago because my glucose levels were high, 300 plus .

 

[CMDG]

What a fascinating thread! I'm a type 2 diabetic, never had a HBa1C higher than 7. Mostly between 4.9 and 5.5. I've recently been diagnosed with heart failure and now take several medications - dapagliflozin and entresto that reduce blood sugar and increase the likelihood of hypos. Now my GP is saying blood test readings of 10/11 are OK! He would rather I had higher numbers than lower and risk a hypo. Never had one.
I've had the usual spiel about eat little and often but during the 2 years of Covid I've found that one meal a day (OMAD!) eaten about 2.30pm means I often dont need to eat in the evening. I've finally given up eating the odd sweet thing - premium ice cream was a periodic indulgence but still learning about handling carbohydrates - they pop up in strange places. Sabotaged myself quite nicely with a large parsnip in my roast veg meal for instance!
I do need to lose weight, which I am doing slowly but surely. Not before time, I might add. Reading the posts its quite clear our metabolisms vary enormously. If I ate what some of you do, I'd be clinically obese! I'd be a good member of a survival team. I dont need to eat much. A great shame as I'm a real foodie!
So glad I've found you OMAD eaters! I was feeling guilty but if it works for some of you...
My first post but I'll be back

 

[MrsA2]

! I'm a type 2 diabetic, never had a HBa1C higher than 7. Mostly between 4.9 and 5.5. I've recently been diagnosed with heart failure and now take several medications - dapagliflozin and entresto that reduce blood sugar and increase the likelihood of hypos. Now my GP is saying blood test readings of 10/11 are OK! He would rather I had higher numbers than lower and risk a hypo. Never had one.

That doctor seems to be giving you the advice given to type 1s....
Type 2 is a very different condition and your numbers are brilliant for that.
Any of the 'flozins' can cause a hypo, especially if you start losing weight fast as it is dosed on weight, so carry on doing that slowly but surely and make sure your medics reduce your flozin doses as you go along...keep an eye on your meter.
And possibly try finding a different GP

 

[LuckyLyn3s]

Hi Folks,

I have been doin this (by accident really) for the past 7-10 days... I was doin 16/8... I then found I wasnt hungry and was able to easily go past 16 hrs.

So to my point. It appears that Im comfortable with one meal a day, is anyone else doin this because I dont think Im getting enough cals. and wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

Regards

Rab

I'm trying to do this diet but I wander if it's ok to have drinks in between the meal times, e.g. tea and coffee?

 

[bulkbiker]

I'm trying to do this diet but I wander if it's ok to have drinks in between the meal times, e.g. tea and coffee?

Yes tea and coffee are fine to have when you aren't eating.
I have coffee with double cream as my fasting crutch which often helps through hunger times.

 

[Gmax]

No rice! I could not survive without rice. What would I have with my curries? Or stir fry? AS for the lack of rice puddings ... rice is a staple. I cannot do without.

Try a bed of cabbage or mashed veg, its actually easy, you have to want to do it

 

[Gmax]

I'm trying to do this diet but I wander if it's ok to have drinks in between the meal times, e.g. tea and coffee?

You can but every time you eat or drink anything sweet your insulin levels will go up, this includes sucralose and other sweeteners (see zoe project at UCL). Water, coffee or tea with no milk or sugar are fine. It depends how sensitive you are as to wether you can add a splash of milk, try and see. I add a little erythritol (1/4 tsp) to black coffee and it seems to work well, but sucralose doesn't. I'm intending to reduce it, but it substitutes for the sweetness that milk adds.

 

[Gmax]

I started OMAD last year after struggling to balance insulin levels (I'm coeliac and have reactive hypoglycaemia, which means I have too much insulin and not low sugars). It works very well for me, but as winter approached I was too cold, so I went back to 2 meals and have recently switched back to 1. How do I combat the cold? I work in an office above a factory and its freezing in winter.

 

[CMDG]

That doctor seems to be giving you the advice given to type 1s....
Type 2 is a very different condition and your numbers are brilliant for that.
Any of the 'flozins' can cause a hypo, especially if you start losing weight fast as it is dosed on weight, so carry on doing that slowly but surely and make sure your medics reduce your flozin doses as you go along...keep an eye on your meter.
And possibly try finding a different GP

Great to hear from someone on the same drugs and who has achieved considerable weight loss! Gives me courage. My blood glucose results have worsened after taking both dapagliflozin and entresto. No longer in the range I indicated more 8 to 14. Latest GP has said he'd rather my blood sugars ran at this level than giving me another drug and pushing me into hypos. He's reviewing at the end of April.
The cardiologist is insistent the Dapagliflozin should continue and the Entresto is likely to be titrated upwards, given my degree of HF, severe! My GP's is a small rural practice (3 partners and 1 salaried doctor) with its own pharmacy as most people live over 25 minutes drive from a pharmacy. There is little choice of GP in the area. Not many people!
I have had problems with the practice in the last six months, recieved an apology for one incident but after another I objected and am now on another doctors list within the practice. Not sure whats going on in the practice but my heart condition worsened under their watch, retrieved by the hospital!
I am loosing weight - courtesy of being a really good type 2 diabetic for the first time since I became diabetic 23 years ago but also I think the Dapagliflozin helps. I reckon I have 20k+ to loose slowly but surely!

 

[CMDG]

I'm afraid that could mean that diabetes is with you for life..?

What you have with curries is simply more curry.
Maybe some veg?

Try food processing white cabbage to a rice shape consistency, serves as rice and takes no time to cook. Can keep a stock in the fridge for a couple of days in an air tight container. Or Courgetti - you will need a spiraliser.

 

[bulkbiker]

Try food processing white cabbage to a rice shape consistency, serves as rice and takes no time to cook. Can keep a stock in the fridge for a couple of days in an air tight container. Or Courgetti - you will need a spiraliser.

Not much point telling me as I'm virtually carnivore. Don't eat veg at all.