Referred to as a type of caloric restriction diet. The idea is to reduce calories but keep the same nutritional content that your body needs.
One Meal A Day Diet (OMAD): What’s That?
OMAD weight loss plan is based on the idea restricting meals throughout the day to achieve weight loss. The diet utilizes a type of intermittent fasting called 23:1. This means that a person spends 23 hours of the day fasting, leaving just 1 hour per day to consume calories. Restricting calories as much as possible without missing out on important nutrients required by the body.
By restricting the meal timing, the body naturally follows a pattern where fat is being burned constantly.
In normal routine when you consume your 3 meals regularly, your body creates energy out of the food you have recently eaten. But when you restrict the regularity of your meals to just one, your body is forced to use energy from other places, that is when the body burns fat.
How Does it work
- The theory behind the one-meal-a-day diet is that you only eat one meal per day.
- Dinner is the preferable choice of meal, followed by fasting all day long.
- The meal can contain up to the number of calories you need per day depending on your activity levels, and have a healthy balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fat.
- Don’t count calories and focus on macro-nutrients. Try to eat enough to feel full and focus on including foods from all of the food groups.
- In some cases, you’re allowed to eat one or two small snacks during the day in addition to your one meal, such as a piece of fruit or a high-protein food, like a hard-boiled egg, after a workout. You’re also allowed liquid no-calorie beverages, such as water, coffee, and tea.
Benefits
Some studies that have been done on fasting have shown some promising benefits. For example, restricting calories by 20 to 25 percent daily has been linked to heart health and more stable blood sugar by decreasing glucose levels and increasing how well insulin works. A 2017 study on diabetes found that intermittent fasting for six weeks significantly improved fasting blood sugar levels, as well as body weight in type 2 diabetics.
A two-year follow-up study comparing intermittent fasting to daily calorie restriction reported that intermittent fasting can be a helpful treatment approach for those with prediabetes or insulin resistance.
Restricted eating has also been shown to help with memory in older individuals and may even help increase life span by reducing the processes that can cause disease.
People following the one-meal-a-day lifestyle claim that it can help increase energy, avoid the “afternoon slump,” and keep you full longer.
Risk Involved with One Meal A Day diet (OMAD):
As an extreme diet plan, however, there may be risks.
For example, daily, a person may:
- Feel very hungry
- Experience fatigue, due to an uneven supply of energy
- Feel shaky, weak, and irritable as their blood sugar levels fall
- Have difficulty concentrating
- For some people, eating only one meal per day may increase the risk of binge eating during the single mealtime. In some cases, following a Restrictive diet can even increase the risk of developing a long-term eating disorder.
Other problems that may arise include the following:
- The person may find it hard to eat at the single mealtime because they feel full quickly.
- Over time, their desire to eat may increase during the fasting period, rather than decrease, compared with other forms of fasting.
- Body fat may increase, rather than decrease.
- Nutrient deficiencies may occur if a person follows this diet plan long-term.
- The body may start to lose muscle mass as a person enter a state of semi-starvation.
Think twice and consult a specialist before taking up any weight-loss diet.