OMAD or one meal a day is a form of intermittent fasting where you eat once a day. OMAD has become extremely popular
So I went over the science on OMAD
1. OMAD is simple. You eat once a day, within a 1h window, and you’re doing OMAD. No counting calories, no cutting out entire food groups, no complicated meal plans
2. OMAD can help cut calories. you eat less in one meal than if you ate all day. So it naturally cuts calories even if people aren’t focused on them. That can help lose weight with the usual metabolic improvements (glucose, etc)
3. OMAD saves time. Less time eating and cooking
I don’t have anything for or against OMAD. As long as people are healthy, OMAD or IF, fine with me.
concerns:
1. OMAD: it can be hard to fast for 23h/day. But that’s personal
2. Quality. I raised this in the intermittent fasting video. Fasting focuses on quantity. most people who promote fasting promote healthy foods? but OMAD marketed as cheat code: ‘You can eat or drink pretty much whatever you want on OMAD and as much as you want, as long as you do it during your scheduled mealtime’
Fasting won’t fix a bad diet. the real issue is not the fasting, it’s the feasting. It’s possible to lose weight and remain unhealthy. OMAD may help lose weight. then what? OMAD doesn’t teach how to eat healthy so people go back to eating the way that created the problem. weight lost during fasting is regained unless there is a change to how people eat. So I hope everybody who’s fasting is eating super healthy!
3. Look at nutrient requirements on OMAD. run your OMAD meal through cronometer
4. if you have conditions like diabetes talk to your doctor before fasting (OMAD or otherwise)
So: make sure I eat healthy foods between fasting, make sure I get my daily nutrients and make sure I don’t have a condition that makes it dangerous. Anything else?
5. OMAD may worsen glucose metabolism? 3 meals a day vs one. effect could come from eating only one meal or from when the meal was eaten
time restricted feeding video: our circadian rhythm can affect our physiology and how we react to food. It’s part of chronobiology
effect of meal timing: 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 energy to process food in the morning than at night, so when you eat earlier you end up with less calories even if you eat the same amount of calories (diet-induced thermogenesis)
we 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
I would do the OMAD meal in the morning or early afternoon (benefit of cutting calories from OMAD + chronobiology benefits of eating earlier in the day)
with new diets it’s an educated guess. unanswered questions with OMAD. marketing claims are hypey. here’s the video on intermittent fasting and the one on meal timing
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Animations: Even Topland @toplandmedia
Video by Polina Tankilevitch, Pexels
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4122067/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2121099/
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/ajpregu.00115.2012
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1506
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.20460
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413118302535
Disclaimer: The contents of this video are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor to replace medical care. The information presented herein is accurate and conforms to the available scientific evidence to the best of the author’s knowledge as of the time of posting. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions regarding any medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of information contained in Nutrition Made Simple!.
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