Unintentional OMAD
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MsCzar
Posts: 1,042 Member
I'm not planning to move to one meal a day, but circumstances, namely DST sleep in, long-winded friends phoning at mealtime and higher-than-normal calorie meals, have pushed me in that direction this past week. Result? A satisfying drop on the scale without feeling hungry. Now I'm thinking of making OMAD a regular feature and possible plateau buster. Anyone have any experience or advice?
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Replies
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Did the timing of your weigh in change vs. food intake, sodium/carb intake, hydration, sleep, bathroom habits, exercise/sweat? Has your appetite been less at the same logged calories or food choices as before?
It's hard to tell anything from one week alone, and unusual quick-ish multi-pound changes IME often come down to water or waste.
Obviously, people swear by various forms of TRE, but I haven't seen persuasive research that timing is significant at constant calories . . . but I'm no expert, by far.0 -
Why is OMAD?
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One Meal a Day.
AnnPT77- Everything is the same with the exception of the DST time change. So that extravagant weekend brunch happened at my body clock's noon-thirty and I simply wasn't hungry before 6PM - my usual acid reflux/no night-time bathroom trip food and drink cutoff. Today, an overly chatty friend called and my brunch became coffee, allowing half a homemade pizza and yogurt with raspberry preserves for dessert to become my one and only meal at 4PM.
Anyway, it's been surprisingly painless and something I may just plan for in the future.1 -
It happens to me periodically and mostly on really busy days. I'm not hungry generally speaking and need to remind myself to eat some days, so these OMAD days for me go by unnoticed from that consequence it seems. Anyway, right now I'm on a build muscle at 70 regimen and need to focus on my feeding and OMAD isn't something I would want to dominate my feeding times anyway. Personally I think it might be difficult to get all the required nutrients in 1 meal, but whatever. Cheers.0
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Not sure why getting nutrients in one meal would be any different from eating the same amount of calories across several. Then again, I am not strength training; I am deficit eating after a lumpy February spent mostly hibernating.0
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Not sure why getting nutrients in one meal would be any different from eating the same amount of calories across several. Then again, I am not strength training; I am deficit eating after a lumpy February spent mostly hibernating.
Calories don't necessarily equate to adequate nutrition, let alone the essential ones. Cheers0 -
Not sure why getting nutrients in one meal would be any different from eating the same amount of calories across several. Then again, I am not strength training; I am deficit eating after a lumpy February spent mostly hibernating.
Mostly, it's not different (with maybe some quibbles around the edges about timing some nutrients, but that's majoring in the minors, IMO).
I think the issue is that - for some people - OMAD may be either fewer calories (because of satiation changes), or a different nutrient composition alongside those calories (because of what's filling, what makes tasty combinations, or whatever). Either of those factors could result in different nutrition on the same calories, or less nutrition because fewer calories.
You're seeing your logs, we're not. If your nutrition is the same, and your calories are the same, the results shouldn't be dramatically different on average over a reasonable time period.
If I were 70 and trying to add muscle, I'd probably be concerned about protein timing (there are some hints that spreading it out is more helpful as we age especially). I wouldn't consider OMAD an ideal eating pattern in that scenario, personally. Heck, I'm 67 and just trying to stay reasonably fit/functional, and that's one of the reasons I wouldn't do OMAD without some major, truly strong reason (but mostly it's because I'm a hedonist and would hate it
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Every Thanksgiving I practice OMAD, and boy, what a meal! However, the idea of trying to get in 2000 calories in a single meal with 150g+ protein and all the micronutrients, and doing it every...single...day... Thanks, but for someone like me it wouldn't work.
That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now, eating the large bulk of her calories in our dinner meal. She snacks a little bit throughout the day, so it's not strictly OMAD, but the snacks are small enough to not add up to a meal by themselves. She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.2 -
Hedonism is precisely what draws me to OMAD as an occasional choice. An indulgent meal satisfies my soul nicely, but will not work as one component of a multi-meal day.1
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Hedonism is precisely what draws me to OMAD as an occasional choice. An indulgent meal satisfies my soul nicely, but will not work as one component of a multi-meal day.
Totally makes sense. Pleasure is in the eye of the beholder.
I'll eat smaller meals/snacks sometimes in order to eat a bigger meal later, and routinely calorie bank a small amount of calories daily for the same reason. But "I can't eat until X o'clock" or "I can only eat one meal today" feels restrictive and unpleasant to me. (It absolutely helps that I have a relatively high calorie goal, realistically.)
I've said it here so many times: I think personalization of tactics is key, because we each have different preferences, strengths, limitations, and challenges.1 -
That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now... She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.
Same here. The 1200-1300 calorie target is easy to hit in a single meal. For me, a large traditional weekend breakfast is 1000+ calories and leaves little room for another meal.
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That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now... She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.
Same here. The 1200-1300 calorie target is easy to hit in a single meal. For me, a large traditional weekend breakfast is 1000+ calories and leaves little room for another meal.
Can someone meet their nutrition needs/requirements on 12-1300 calories without supplementation? just asking out of curiosity.0 -
No clue. I'm a sedentary old broad who knows only that the numbers on the scale creep up if I stray much beyond 1500-1700 calories. I mostly stay away from added sugar and processed foods and take my dailies.1
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neanderthin wrote: »
That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now... She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.
Same here. The 1200-1300 calorie target is easy to hit in a single meal. For me, a large traditional weekend breakfast is 1000+ calories and leaves little room for another meal.
Can someone meet their nutrition needs/requirements on 12-1300 calories without supplementation? just asking out of curiosity.
I track on cronometer (I find it a lot more accurate/better entries, shows way more nutrients), and according to it, yes, for what it's worth. Most nutrients are from vegetables, which are generally pretty low calorie. And I can also get more than enough protein.3 -
I generally only do OMAD for years now. Once you get in the habit; it becomes regular and I’m rarely hungry beyond my dinner meal - which is when I eat.
I do have some coffee in the morning though here & there; beyond that water.
Couple things for me, I’m this way naturally, never really interested in breakfast & so-so on lunch. - If I have lunch a couple times in a week because I go out with friends or something, I will start to feel hungry earlier until I get back in my flow so just the habit helps a lot to train your body. When I broke this trend for a long period of time and went out for lunch regularly at work and such is when I gained most of my weight, because once I got in the habit - I was always hungry at lunch and not exercising enough.
Because of this I regularly log 18+ hour fasts in my log, essentially every day.
I enjoy it as well because when my meal comes around I can usually do whatever I want (with-in reason obv) and not worry much about what I’m eating because it’s unlikely to make me go over. This combined with exercise is successful for me personally.
I have also done multiple day water only fasts, or water/coffee fasts. After the first couple days it’s easy! Haha1 -
neanderthin wrote: »
That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now... She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.
Same here. The 1200-1300 calorie target is easy to hit in a single meal. For me, a large traditional weekend breakfast is 1000+ calories and leaves little room for another meal.
Can someone meet their nutrition needs/requirements on 12-1300 calories without supplementation? just asking out of curiosity.
Keep in mind that a smaller body requires proportionally fewer nutrients as well as fewer calories, roughly speaking.1 -
neanderthin wrote: »
Can someone meet their nutrition needs/requirements on 12-1300 calories without supplementation? just asking out of curiosity.
I can get get it all in for 1200-1300 with a lot of produce, a serving or two of high-fiber grains or pasta, and lean proteins. It doesn’t leave much room for treats.
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The first thing that comes to my mind, large calories aka large meals all at once trigger GERD and acid reflux.
Something to think about if you’ve suffered either in the past. Suffer being the key word here.
Ain’t ever going back.1 -
neanderthin wrote: »
That said, my wife has subsisted on a pseudo-OMAD plan for several years now... She also eats only 1200-1300 calories per day, so it's easier for her than for me.
Same here. The 1200-1300 calorie target is easy to hit in a single meal. For me, a large traditional weekend breakfast is 1000+ calories and leaves little room for another meal.
Can someone meet their nutrition needs/requirements on 12-1300 calories without supplementation? just asking out of curiosity.
Keep in mind that a smaller body requires proportionally fewer nutrients as well as fewer calories, roughly speaking.
Of course.
I think there's around 30 essential vitamins and minerals. Here's a link where to find these sources.
https://webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/vitamins-and-minerals-good-food-sources0
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