OMAD for women?

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warriorprincess5373xx
warriorprincess5373xx Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I want try OMAD. But kinda scared cause I haven’t done it before. I am a huge snacker and sometimes this leads to binging. My goal is to lose 8kg. Has anyone tried it? If so, can you please give me some advice. Like the times you eat. Also once you reach your goal weight, can you return back to normal eating like 3 meals a day? Obvs you would still eat healthy and maybe a cheat meal here and there.

Thank u!

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  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited June 2019
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    It's just eating one meal a day. I think the challenge would be eating sufficient cals that also meet your nutritional needs. It would not be safe if used to try to reduce cals drastically (should be the same you'd be eating on other ways of eating at a deficit). But if you plan and meal and try it, I'm not sure why it would be scary. I've fasted full days for religious reasons, so the not eating for most of a day wouldn't be scary IMO. You might not like it or find it impossible to eat well, but then you could stop and eat how you normally do again.

    My understanding is that people eat their one meal at different times depending on personal preference (I'd likely do dinner as I think that would be easier).

    Losing and maintaining weight is about calories, so you could maintain eating whatever number of meals you like, so long as you found some way to avoid overeating. (You'd lose on OMAD if you also counted cals or found it helped you eat less, but again I'd plan and log your meals at first to avoid being way low on cals or protein or fiber, and I'd also make sure it included plenty of veg.)

    There are apparently some hormonal issues for women, but trying it for a few days shouldn't cause any issues unless it plays into a bingeing tendency.

    On the possible hormonal issues: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/intermittent-fasting-women
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    I've never done OMAD but used to be a snacker. I have no urges to snack when:

    1. I am not running too steep a calorie deficit - with less than 20 pounds to lose you shouldn't be trying to lose more than a pound a week, and soon bring that down to a half pound per week.
    2. I get enough protein and fiber. If I'm eating typical snack foods, which are high on carbs and fat and low on protein and fiber, I can eat and eat and eat and never feel satisfied.
    3. I get enough sleep. I work very hard on my sleep hygiene to insure I'm not sleep deprived, which definitely triggers the munchies.
    4. I exercise regularly. Mild to moderate exercise is a mild appetite suppressant for me. Exercise also gives me the "happy hormones" I used to seek from food.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited June 2019
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    I don't think that's true for all. I'm not encouraging (or discouraging) OMAD, but I've done day long fasts for religious reasons and more eat nothing until dinner and make dinner just vegetables on occasion (also for religious reasons), and while I missed eating the hunger wasn't unbearable (and I was not eating low carb).

    It's not my personal experience that low carb makes me less hungry between meals if I am eating generally healthfully and sating (for me) foods. What actually does make me want to eat between meals is, well, a habit of snacking between meals or starting to snack.

    What I wouldn't frame it as, however, is that if you try it and don't like it and decide to do something else then it's "failing terribly." The point is to find an eating pattern that makes it easier, not an eating pattern that seems like a challenge to succeed or fail at.
  • neversaynever_43
    neversaynever_43 Posts: 59 Member
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    Have you tried starting 16:8 first? I am doing that with MFP and walking. Just started about 2 weeks ago so not exactly an expert. I think as time goes on some people close their eating window to 20:4 and then OMAD. It’s not as bad as you think it will be but you may want to ease into it. Just drink a ton of water.
  • HereToLose50
    HereToLose50 Posts: 154 Member
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    It would be hard to wait 24 hours between meals. Also that one meal needs to be nutritionally balanced every day because you are never filling in necessary nutrients with other meals or snacks.

    I can go about 12-16 hours, occasionally a little longer, without eating and that has helped with overeating for me. BUT, I still have to log everything and be careful about calories. I found by basically cutting out one bigger meal a day, I have more calories for other meals and snacks. I still do lunch and dinner about the same as traditional times are thought of then a filling, low calorie snack late evening before bed.

    An added note - the hours I don't eat: the further it gets from the last time I ate I also stop drinking any beverages at all. Even water. Drinking anything at all starts hunger pains *for me*. It helps to have a lot of those hours as my sleeping time and then not eat until lunch. I'm usually not dying of hunger until around 11 am or noon.
  • Clarisse_McClellan
    Clarisse_McClellan Posts: 44 Member
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    HereToLose50 wrote: »
    An added note - the hours I don't eat: the further it gets from the last time I ate I also stop drinking any beverages at all. Even water. Drinking anything at all starts hunger pains *for me*. It helps to have a lot of those hours as my sleeping time and then not eat until lunch. I'm usually not dying of hunger until around 11 am or noon.

    Weird. I never thought about it, but I'm pretty much the same. It's not anything I've been doing consciously, but I break my fast at 4:00 pm, and I never drink anything between my morning coffee and that time.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Some people essentially eat OMAD even when they are not trying to lose weight because it fits into their work schedules or sleeping schedules or whatever.

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