I just saw an article on Yahoo about the OMAD Diet and it sparked a few thoughts I felt like sharing.
Here's a summary of what the OMAD Diet entails:
Eat one meal per day
Eat around the same time daily (within a one-hour window)
Eat off one single plate (no going back for seconds)
Your meal should be no more than 3 inches high
The author of the article was horrified by this diet! She said it would cause the body to go into 'starvation mode' and hormone levels could be thrown out of wack!
The whole 'starvation mode' scare is a huge pet peeve of mine! Yes, starvation mode is a real thing, but you would need to not eat for closer to three days before it begins to be an issue! It could also be an issue on extremely low calorie diets over a long period of time. Fasting up to 48 hours actually increases the metabolism!
I think people just don't like feeling hungry and really want to eat, so it's convenient to buy in to the 'starvation mode' scare. Believe me, I don't like feeling hungry either!
Before I knew better, I used to eat constantly throughout the day. I used to think anytime I felt hungry, my body might start breaking down muscle tissue for energy.
It seriously freaked me out. I would even set an alarm for the middle of the night so I could get up to have a protein shake and then go back to sleep. Eating that often is actually very conducive to building muscle, but it can also make you fat!
Fortunately, I have since learned about the many benefits of fasting and how it is not at all counter-productive to being muscular and strong. For more on the benefits of fasting, see my Basics of Intermittent Fasting page.
Now to be fair, some people really do have blood sugar control issues. And hormone levels, especially for women, can be messed up by fasting. So, fasting may not be for everyone. But that is not true for most people. Most people just don't like feeling hungry, myself included.
You might be thinking it sounds like I'm not really against the OMAD Diet! Well, yes and no!
Here is my problem with the OMAD Diet. I don't think one meal per day is conducive to building muscle! If you've read much of my stuff, you've probably noticed how often I harp on the Importance of Muscle Mass!
I recommend from 0.7 to 1.0 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily for building muscle. For most people, that's somewhere around 150 to 200+ grams per day. But the human body cannot synthesize that much protein all at once. It needs to get the protein in smaller batches over quite a few hours.
That is why my preference is the 16/8 Intermittent Fasting schedule, where you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8 hour window. You get the benefits of fasting while also giving your body adequate time to synthesize protein, aka build muscle mass!
Of course, this all assumes you are strength training! You are strength training, right? For me, strength training is the foundation for transforming from fat to fit. So for that simple reason, I don't recommend the OMAD Diet.
But If you just want to transform from fat to skinny, the OMAD Diet might work fine for you. Personally, I'd rather shoot for lean and muscular! And I don't think the OMAD Diet is a good way to get there!
If you're looking to transform from fat to fit like I did years ago, check these out:
As always, thank you for reading! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below! Have a great day!
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