cutting down on meals???

Are you actually being serious?

Why would you want to do that? What good will it achieve?

In terms of losing weight, you can lose weight with just one meal a day, as long as you have a calorie deficit. I don't think that is wise, because that means you have to spend a lot of time trying to avoid eating. You would probably be hungry most of the time and you would be setting yourself up for failure.

Some people do use one meal or a small window of 8 hour allowed eating (intermittent fasting). I will say trying to do intermittent fasting is very hard mentally. I find even doing 3 meals a day very easy to go into NOM NOM Mode and eat everything in sight eventually.

Do not stop eating all together. That is a horrible idea. You might lose weight but you can develop all sorts of health issues (heart problems, organ failure, death...). Not to mention once you go back to eating you're more likely to go to feeding frenzy because you've STARVED yourself. Your body will basically go what the heck just happened and you'll want to eat the entire fridge and kitchen in one sitting.

Going from one extreme to the other is just setting yourself up for failure. Plan on losing 1-2 lbs a week and adjust your lifestyle to it then go back and adjust it again in a few weeks. It's an endless cycle. You need to look at this in the mindset that this will be a lifestyle change not a diet, else you'll just yoyo back and forth.

I find accurately counting food (with a scale or by measuring cup), eating 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, exercising 5-6 times a week, avoiding preprocessed food, and eating clean (fresh produce or only things I cook/bake) the most effective for me.

There are plenty of great guides on here to get you started safely.

One meal a day for a few months could be reasonable. Zero meals a day for a few months, less so.

kimmaltsev wrote: »

Any thoughts on eating just one meal a day for the next few weeks/months? Is it a wise choice to do this? Or even stop eating all together?

You can eat all of your calories in one meal or spread them out over 3 meals or eat 16 times a day. You'll lose weight the same if you eat the same amount of calories. You might find you function better one way or another.
I function best eating every 3-5 hours during the day.

I don't think it is wise or healthy or necessary to stop eating all together. Maybe get some professional help if you are having these unhealthy thoughts.

Stop eating altogether? Seriously? Can you really imagine that anyone will tell you that's a good idea?

I do the one meal a day thing when I want to eat something special, like a high calorie meal at a restaurant and want to avoid blowing my daily calories. I do it about every two weeks. As far as I know the odd full day of fasting does not kill anyone (many people do it for religious reasons) so one day without eating is not going to cause you any health problems as long as you stay hydrated (with water). Remember the 40 hour famine? That was a fundraiser in which normal people could skip food for the day and donate the money they would have spent to the needy.

I don't think asking these sort of questions implies an eating disorder. Most of us are overweight. It it was that easy to just stop eating, we probably would not have found ourselves in this position to begin with.

Short answer - limited fasting (a couple of meals or one day) is fine. Starving for days or weeks is not. Unless of course, you believe the political cause to be worthwhile.