One meal a day

I do intermittent fasting, at a 21-3 hour window, that's 3 hours to eat, essentially just one big meal, I typically don't even use the full 3 hours.
It still takes me 4000 calories to bulk, for reference, I'm a barely average height, 145lb gymnast, sure my workouts are around 2 hours long and brutal beyond belief, but the fact of the matter is that it's the makeup of your diet that will screw your metabolism, not the frequency of it. Of course your metabolism is going to be utter garbage if your macronutrient and micronutrient split isn't up to snuff, but as someone who's studying in the field of dietetics, it's generally considered total BS that meal frequency has anything to do with metabolic efficiency.
Unless you're completely stupid and only eat a meal every 30 hours, but that's just the basic concept of starving yourself and not being an idiot, there is obviously a point where it will adversely affect you, and you shouldn't do it while bulking, because stuffing 4000 calories in your face within 3 hours is not only extraordinarily painful but also pretty bad for you.

Sumo wrestlers eat only one or two meals a day. They never eat breakfasts. They exercise on empty stomach...Go figure....

That's totally not true. Sumo wrestlers eat about 20,000 calories a day, and they certainly eat breakfast. As for exercising on an empty stomach, their stomachs are pretty much never empty, due to the extremely high calorie intake they require.

Pretty much, sumo wrestlers consume an inordinate amount of calories, just like any other athlete in an intensive sport (obviously sumo wrestlers have a different goal as far as body composition goes). It takes time for your body to process all those calories, and it's much longer than just 3 hours, like every fool who has been lifting for two month purports is necessary.

Hey everyone,

So I just wanted some input.


I started a new plan for myself and i can tell its already going to be the start to something amazing.
I decided to eat 1 meal at 5pm with a healthy dessert . I have never been a breakfast person and I would usually snack at lunch time on unhealthy things. Waiting until 5 pm and drinking water gives me the full feeling that grazing through out the day does not.
Or to constantly think about the meals i have to prepare etc. I will be going to nursing school in september and things will be hectic. So eating one meal a day is the best way to go RIGHT?


My friend said its not good for my metabolism and that i would gain it back if i were to eat breakfast.
Im sorry but I call BULLsh** :grumble: back in the caveman days people were to busy looking for food they only had 1 meal a day. and was there obesity NOPE.. plus if your goal is to get your calories in should it matter when. Its easy for me to stay busy in the morning and excercise until 5pm hits and than i have my 1 meal, yoga, tv and bed.

Is it to good to be true, or do you think if you eat one meal a day within your calories, excercise and build a calorie deficent that i will loose weight

starting:378

Logical fallacy on the cavemen aspect.

They VERY active - hunting, gathering, building etc. Their meals were to maintain their large calorie expenditure.

Not lose weight.

I'm not going to jump in on all the health discussions here, but I would just throw this out there: I'm in nursing school too, and I have to wake up crazy freaking early for my clinical rotations (4am, to be exact). If I didn't eat anything until 13 hours after I woke up, I don't think I'd make it. I'd be a heap on the floor of the hospital by noon.


If you're going to be waking up really early for classes, or especially for clinicals, I wouldn't recommend not eating until such a late time. Plus, with clinicals, you often don't really have time to sit and eat a proper meal halfway through- you're not guaranteed any breaks! So I'd definitely suggest you eat something before hand, or you'll be experiencing first hand the symptoms of low blood sugar.

I'll second her here. Won't jump into the health discussion because it's pretty crazy, imho, but in year 3 when I started my rotations in med school, esp. surg, it was 10000000% impossible to not eat anything before going to the hospital, and the few times I did manage to do that, I crashed (as in literally PTFO'd on the floor like an idiot) 2hrs into it and had to get IV dex - happened more times than I can count, and not only it was embarrassing, it interfered with that particular rotation (case in point, I learned to carry dex + protein bars + apples + nuts/seeds + w/e else I could find at home to munch on while on the floor and running around from one dpt to the next)

You'll be studying like crazy at home and during your clinicals in the hospital, you won't have time to really do much other than that, your patients will drive you nuts, plus the job is VERY physical and a workout on its own (as I'm sure your colleague here will be happy to tell you) and you will need LOTS of energy (that means food, too), so I think it will do you much good to get your calories throughout the day instead of just in one meal.

Medicine/Nursing IS a workout, esp. when you're a student nurse/doc in training - and congrats for getting into nursing school!

EDIT: my English/grammar skills are non-existent today

I've heard of "something" like this before......it's some sort of "fasting diet" lol.....only the variation was.......eat all you WANT in 24 hours......and eat nothing for the next 48......lol. I wish I would have bookmarked it.....or remembered the name.......

But the whole idea, is you eat all you want for one day......and don't eat anything else for the next 2.......kind of like a fast......I'd be interested in how this 1 meal a day works for you......

Im sure you still gotta keep it healtyhy though.....lol. Kinda funny, cause this is kind of my "epic cheat meal" - nights she wants to go to all u can eat (she likes the sushi......lol. It's cheap.....and hell, all u can eat!) - I typically don't eat anything until that next night anyways haha.

I'm no scientist - and I dint stay at a holiday inn express but ...

Every doctor I have spoken with about weight and everything I've read basically say the same thing -

"Typically" (the magic word cuz were all different)
- skipping meals Slows your metabolism
- breakfast should be the largest meal of the day and dinner the smallest (unless you are. Shift worker)
- if you want to loose weight, you need to eat all 3 meals plus snack every 2 hours
- do not go to bed right after dinner
- Walk to loose weight. Don't run, or lift weights - just walk.

Explanations:
- skipping meals results in your body thinking food is scarce. It's a safety mechanism. Want to increase your metabolism, eat frequently and eat small. Most recommendations say eat every two hours.
- breakfast should be about 1/2 to 2/3 of your full daily intake of calories. You have a whole day of being awake and moving around to burn it off.
- dinner should be the smallest because your body is winding down and preparing for sleep.
- walk

When you see others not following these general rules they probably have a high met rate air are burning a ton of cals in exercises.

I, like you, ate 1 meal a day after leaving the military. I was just too busy. And I packed on the weight. I just didn't think about it until one day recently at the Dr my weight reached 297. That was in April. I changed my habits in mid may.

After returning to the simple outlines above, I am dropping back down again. Down to 277 today. That's 20 pounds in two months.

(My TrendWeight - https://trendweight.com/u/c4802ced70134e/chart/1y.png)

I started walking just short durations. - about 1/2 a mile a day. Now I'm between 6 and 12 miles a day. I walk for one hour in the morning and one hour at night on weekdays. At work I walk between 1 and 3 miles each day going about normal office stuff like meetings, lunch, in and out from the parking lot. It all adds up pretty quickly - I was actually shocked. On weekends my wife and I do two laps around one pf the local shopping malls. Shopping speed, you wouldn't know us from any other browser in the mall.

It's not a power walk, it's a leisure walk. If you can't hold a conversation while walking then you are going too fast. As you get accustomed to it you can increase the pace. My weekday walks are now at about 3.1 or 3.2 MPH depending on how I feel. But it all adds up in calorie burn?

Breakfast is juice, milk, coffee, and either pancakes or cereal and fruit. It tops in around 1k calories. Lunch is around 500 and dinner around 400. Sometimes more depending on my evening walk. At that rate I have a net loss of about 1300 calories so I can an splurge and have a cookie if feel the need for a treat. But, at that rate I should be shedding more weight than I am - the result of skipping so many meals for so long. The last time they checked my metabolism they said it was as low as it could go without bring considered "abnormal".

Now I'm working to repair that damage.

I use myfitnesspal to record my intake and if I can't find nutritional value I don't eat it. I try to keep sodium levels equal or below calorie count for each item as sodium contributes yo water retention and I drink at least 64 ounces of water each day. Water helps flush your system. I also us a fitbit to track my walking distance, pace and calorie burn - and I'm on a very active and supportive group on the fitbit page for those who need/want to loose 100+ pounds.

I'd say talk with your doctor, the first thing they will probably tell you is to stop skipping meals and start a light exercise program if you aren't already on one.

I wish you luck and success in whatever road you take -

I've heard about this sunshine water diet...all you do is drink water and live off the sunshine like a plant.

Can't help but laugh at the pictures of very ripped people as proof that eating one meal a deal is the correct path for losing weight.

Once you have 200lb's of lean mass on your body burning calories and causing expenditure you're in a VERY different category than someone who is obese and is trying to lose weight.

Those people have absolutely nothing to do with an obese persons situation in losing. Even whilst in a cutting cycle.

Please point out where I said that it is the correct way to lose weight.

And the real person I put up wasn't always ripped, just to let you know.

I'm no scientist - and I dint stay at a holiday inn express but ...

Every doctor I have spoken with about weight and everything I've read basically say the same thing -

"Typically" (the magic word cuz were all different)
- skipping meals Slows your metabolism
- breakfast should be the largest meal of the day and dinner the smallest (unless you are. Shift worker)
- if you want to loose weight, you need to eat all 3 meals plus snack every 2 hours
- do not go to bed right after dinner
- Walk to loose weight. Don't run, or lift weights - just walk.

Explanations:
- skipping meals results in your body thinking food is scarce. It's a safety mechanism. Want to increase your metabolism, eat frequently and eat small. Most recommendations say eat every two hours.
- breakfast should be about 1/2 to 2/3 of your full daily intake of calories. You have a whole day of being awake and moving around to burn it off.
- dinner should be the smallest because your body is winding down and preparing for sleep.
- walk

People on here are going to roast you for this post. Everything I have ever read from people who are educated in this field say the exact opposite of what you just posted.

Can't help but laugh at the pictures of very ripped people as proof that eating one meal a deal is the correct path for losing weight.

Once you have 200lb's of lean mass on your body burning calories and causing expenditure you're in a VERY different category than someone who is obese and is trying to lose weight.

Those people have absolutely nothing to do with an obese persons situation in losing. Even whilst in a cutting cycle.

Because none of the very ripped people in this forum have never been obese themselves?

And furthermore, no one is labeling it as the correct path. Whatever path you take which allows you the greatest amount of total dietary adherence is the optimal path.

People are simply stating that is POSSIBLE to eat one meal per day and still experience significant results if you are consistent with your caloric and macronutrient intake.

Dat der reading comprehension is far from optimal.