Eating Once a Day

quitter1973

I know there is always an arguement over this but wanted to see what you guys thought. I'm currently on day 4 of eating one meal per day. I eat nothing all day until dinner time when I make dinner for my kids. I decided to do this because I am always hungry regardless of if i eat lunch or not and I haven't been a breakfast eater most of my adult life. What do you guys think is 1000- to 1500 calories a day enough. I'm a male 39 years old 5'9" 178lbs currently. I would like to lose my belly and then focus on exercise after I've lost the weight.

lady6starlight

I don't know about you, but I get moody if I don't eat. If I only were to eat one meal a day, I would be difficult to be around.

candylilacs

The idea is to start how you mean to go on. Do you plan on eating one meal a day for the rest of your life? If not, then it's probably not the right plan for you.

Secondly, a 2,000-calorie meal at the end of the day seems like a bad idea. Why not eat breakfast with your kids? Eat a sensible lunch and try not to pig out during dinner? That seems to be like a better plan. You can also have snacks, too, you just have to stay in your caloric target.

kpeck40

At my heaviest, this was my way of life. Too busy to eat all day, and was never a breakfast type of guy, and then eat in the evening hours. My doctor told me that it had messed up my metabolism something fierce, and as he put it, "your body continues to eat whether you do or not", meaning it will find the nutrition it can in your body, and that usually means loss of muscle mass, and chemical imbalances that cause mood swings.

One thing I do for two or three weeks every other month is the 5:2 diet though. Pseudo fasting two days a week and moderate eating the rest of it. Really helped me break my plateau. I don't recommend it with anyone that has blood sugar issues though, and it is a very short term solution. The upside is that it does work, and there are pretty decent studies that show the body could use that type of cleanse from time to time. Again, just a reset tool, and not a permanent part of my lifestyle changes.

TheFitHooker

Eating all your calories at 1 time is not ideal for weight loss, you are just throwing everything into your body at 1 time, your metabolism will be slow. Food is to fuel your body, and eating 1 meal a day is not properly fueling your body. 5-6 small meals a day is ideal.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, at first I had a hard time with this but now it's become easy to eat a good breakfast. I find I can face my day better, I'm in a better mood, I have energy to keep up with my kids, and I feel great.

msarro

The biggest problem is that when you take in a lot of calories at once, it causes your blood sugar level to spike.

When your blood sugar spikes, your body releases a chemical which takes that sugar and stores it as fat in tissues. That chemical is insulin. This keeps you from going into a diabetic coma because the excess blood sugar keeps your body from working correctly. If insulin doesn't get released, you go into diabetic shock, a diabetic coma, and in extreme cases, you can die. If you are trying to lose bodyfat, insulin response is one of your worst enemies; you are doing a disservice to yourself by stacking everything into a single meal.

When you graze or at least split your meals, you have little peaks and valleys in your blood sugar level through the day, but never quite enough to cause insulin to be released (or at least not much). That's why in a perfect world, you'd graze throughout the day.

Also, if your blood sugar level drops too low, you can have moodiness, or in some cases, lightheadedness and even passing out.

If you want to see what I'm talking about first hand, become friends with a diabetic who has to test their blood sugar, and see if they'll let you test about 30 minutes after your "one big meal," and 20 hours later and see how the levels vary, and ask them to explain healthy blood sugar levels to you.

Then try grazing and take your blood sugar 2-3x across the period of a day. You'll notice very different numbers.

SJVZEE

I know there is always an arguement over this but wanted to see what you guys thought. I'm currently on day 4 of eating one meal per day. I eat nothing all day until dinner time when I make dinner for my kids. I decided to do this because I am always hungry regardless of if i eat lunch or not and I haven't been a breakfast eater most of my adult life. What do you guys think is 1000- to 1500 calories a day enough. I'm a male 39 years old 5'9" 178lbs currently. I would like to lose my belly and then focus on exercise after I've lost the weight.

Give it a try and see how it works for you, if you like it then sure, why not However, your calorie numbers are way to low, so work on getting more in (things like a handful of nuts, whole milk Greek yogurt or some evoo when your cooking are easy ways to get the calories in).
I currently eat two meals a day and one of those is a massive green smoothie, so technically I only 'eat' once a day. Works great for me.

diannethegeek

I know there is always an arguement over this but wanted to see what you guys thought. I'm currently on day 4 of eating one meal per day. I eat nothing all day until dinner time when I make dinner for my kids. I decided to do this because I am always hungry regardless of if i eat lunch or not and I haven't been a breakfast eater most of my adult life. What do you guys think is 1000- to 1500 calories a day enough. I'm a male 39 years old 5'9" 178lbs currently. I would like to lose my belly and then focus on exercise after I've lost the weight.

1000-1500 calories sounds like too little for you. In contrast, I'm a 5'8" woman eating about 1700 calories a day to lose. I've always seen 1800 as the bare minimum calories for men, and more if you're tall or active.

Personally, I don't see a problem with eating only one meal a day if it works for you. Take a look at the research out there and decide for yourself.

08kat

Think of your metabolism in terms of buidling a fire. You would never try to start a fire with ond great big log on it and expect it to burn. You would probably use several smaller pieces of kindling to start the fire and keep it going. I understand being hungry all day, but I would suggest up to 6 small meals a day rather than one big meal. Best of luck to you!! :happy:

aaronrlindemann

Blood sugar and insulin play a HUGE role in hunger. Decide to become a breakfast person. "Eat breakfast like a king and dinner like a peasant." Everything else will take care of itself.

j75j75

Different diets work for different people, so if this style of eating works for you then stick with it. I for example eat only 2 meals a day, but I also exercise 2 times a day and eat immediately afterwards. It works for me...

ItsCasey

So much crap in this thread. You are not going to lose muscle mass because you save all your calories for an evening meal. Your body does not digest food so quickly that it burns through a huge dinner and starts eating your muscle in less than 24 hours. And your metabolism is not a furnace that needs to be stoked at regular intervals. As long as your heart is beating in your chest, your metabolism is working.

I eat one meal a day. At night. 1700 calories. I'm losing fat and maintaining muscle just fine.

There's an intermittent fasting group on here if you're interested (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting), or you can read Leangains.com.

I would add that, at first glance, I think 1500 is way too low for you, OP, but it depends on your goals.

MG_Fit

So much crap in this thread. You are not going to lose muscle mass because you save all your calories for an evening meal. Your body does not digest food so quickly that it burns through a huge dinner and starts eating your muscle in less than 24 hours. And your metabolism is not a furnace that needs to be stoked at regular intervals. As long as your heart is beating in your chest, your metabolism is working.

I eat one meal a day. At night. 1700 calories. I'm losing fat and maintaining muscle just fine.

There's an intermittent fasting group on here if you're interested (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting), or you can read Leangains.com.

If you eat all of your calories at night, how does your body process all that food, since essentially your metabolism shuts down while you're sleeping?

Showcase_Brodown

There is nothing wrong with eating once a day. It will not have any adverse effects on your metabolism, despite the claims of some previous posters. There's really nothing to back that up.

I'm not sure the 1000 to 1500 calories is going to be enough, but if you're losing weight, go for about a 20% deficit from your maintenance calories. I wouldn't go lower than that.

As long as you are hitting your calorie goals every day, there is no difference between 1 or 13 meals in the day. I personally enjoy the freedom of essentially "skipping breakfast" and eating 2 meals a day. They are bigger, satisfying meals, and I rarely have any kind of issues with feeling super starving.

Showcase_Brodown

If you eat all of your calories at night, how does your body process all that food, since essentially your metabolism shuts down while you're sleeping?

Your metabolism NEVER shuts down, unless you are dead.

RockinTerri

My recommendation on this would be to change your eating habits to eating multiple small meals each day. You won't mess up your metabolism, and your body will absorb the nutrients you eat properly.

HealthyBodySickMind

I have an older (40-something, male) cousin that does this, and has for years. He doesn't do it as a diet (he's not overweight), that's just how he eats. He's a confirmed bachelor, and kind of a hermit, and that's just what works best for him. It's not a hard, fast rule for him, he just generally eats one meal in the evening.

jonnythan

If you eat all of your calories at night, how does your body process all that food, since essentially your metabolism shuts down while you're sleeping?

Showcase_Brodown

My doctor told me that it had messed up my metabolism something fierce, and as he put it, "your body continues to eat whether you do or not", meaning it will find the nutrition it can in your body, and that usually means loss of muscle mass, and chemical imbalances that cause mood swings.

If my body continues to eat even when I do not, I would take that to mean primarily fat loss.

homeyjosey

1 meal a day?

I do it.

I love it

j75j75

So much crap in this thread. You are not going to lose muscle mass because you save all your calories for an evening meal. Your body does not digest food so quickly that it burns through a huge dinner and starts eating your muscle in less than 24 hours. And your metabolism is not a furnace that needs to be stoked at regular intervals. As long as your heart is beating in your chest, your metabolism is working.

I eat one meal a day. At night. 1700 calories. I'm losing fat and maintaining muscle just fine.

There's an intermittent fasting group on here if you're interested (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/49-intermittent-fasting), or you can read Leangains.com.

If you eat all of your calories at night, how does your body process all that food, since essentially your metabolism shuts down while you're sleeping?

HUH???