The error in a constant low calorie diet.

[Panpiper]

This does not touch directly on the subject of OMAD or Keto. One can easily be OMAD or Keto without trying to reduce calories. Indeed many are on OMAD and/or Keto precisely so as to avoid restricting calories. However, some of us have elected to also restrict calories while being OMAD and/or Keto, such as myself. I've been both OMAD and KETO for a few months now and have also for the most part kept my meals at a thousand calories or less. Keto kept the hunger to a minimum and OMAD made it really easy.

However I have noticed something interesting. In hindsight I suppose it might have been obvious, though it is apparently not obvious to most. I lost twelve pounds in the first week on Keto from loss of water retention. Within the first month, I had dropped that to twenty pounds. Here's the crux... Since then I have not lost any weight! What has happened is that my body's base metabolism has slowed down to to new level of caloric intake.

This is precisely the same phenomena that causes people on traditional diets to promptly gain back any weight they lost from dieting, the moment they go off the diet. That is fine as long as you stay on the diet, but the reality is that for most people, a diet is a hardship that cannot be endured indefinitely.

I do expect myself to stay OMAD forever, it is far too convenient a lifestyle. I intend to stay fully Keto at least until I have lost all excess weight. (I am not on Keto with the primary intention of losing weight but rather to correct several health problems.) At some point I will want to deviate slightly from full ketogenic to see if I can maintain the same health simply with low carb. Keto for me is less than twenty grams of carbs a day. Low carb would be keeping somewhere under one hundred grams of carbs. (One hundred would be on the high end.) The main idea is to stay under one's natural glucose tolerance.

For now however what I am planning on doing is to go back to eating around 1600 calories a day. This is roughly the maintenance level of calories I used to eat. This will at least in theory reset by metabolism to its normal level and should not cause any serious weight gain. I will of course say both OMAD and Keto. After a couple of weeks when my metabolism has reset, I intend to start weekly total water fasts of two to three days, each and every week.

Studies indicate rather clearly that people eating a non-caloric restrictive diet who also do significant fasting do not appear to reduce their base metabolism as a result. They actually wind up losing substantially more weight than a similar group that ate the same total calories over time but did not fast. Moreover the caloric restrictive group promptly regained the weight they lost when they went off the diet. The fasting group however did not.

Related info:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/keto/carbohydrates
https://www.motleyhealth.com/diet-and-nutrition/peter-attias-mission-to-rid-the-world-of-obesity

 

[OMADMartialArtist]

I would make one suggestion for you, its somewhat inline with your current train of thought anyway. I was reading yesterday about studies showing that people don't gain weight based on calories near so much as the ratio of carbs and fats. Keto or similarly low carb eaters could actually eat multiples their daily calorie intake and still gain only negligible weight at least for the short term, whereas the high carb groups would gain the logical number of pounds. what i would recommend is based on that idea to intentionally go a couple hundred calories over your previous maintenance level for 2 or 3 days maybe(the additional calories primarily from fat/some extra protein perhaps) and then go back to just a bit lower than your original maintenance, but not so drastically as you have been eating. basically put your metabolism in major overdrive and then take some smooth sailing for a while on that extra steam. To be fair, you may gain a bit of weight from the excess, but it should leave rapidly and take even more with it. One more thing i just thought about. you mentioned water fasts of 2 to 3 days. full disclosure i'm gonna throw you an opinion not a hard fact. i would keep water fasts 48 hours and under, for a few reasons. you get to the point of peek effect in autophagy and have reaped significant fat loss benefits at that point, beyond that, although you will continue losing weight, autophagy is already about topped out according to what little research has been done. The opinion part, it just doesn't seem that healthy to go on longer than that simply for the sake of your nutritional needs.

 

[Panpiper]

What I have understood about autophagy is that you don't reach peak autophagy until some point in the second day of a fast. However the point is not to reach that point and then stop. Autophagy isn't a goal post that once reached, is done. The idea is to get 'into' autophagy and then stay there while it does the work of cleaning you out. That is not done instantaneously. One is best once one has reached that point of maximal autophagy to stay in one's fast for an appreciable time. That's where the third day of fasting comes in. That third day is the day of maximal benefit. The previous two days are the process of getting to that maximal effect.

Fasting experts (like Dr. Jason Fung) recommend a five to seven day full water fast three to four times a year, and shorter fasts on the order of three days at least once a month.

 

[OMADMartialArtist]

That makes a lot of sense actually. nonetheless i'm keeping my fasts shorter for nutrition sake but by all means if its working for you carry on. i may read up more on Doctor Fung's work. I am familiar with him but i haven't read much of his writing yet. i intend to read The Fasting Cure if i ever get around to acquiring it. Edit: fung didn't write that book, however i read articles that referenced the same research in both Fungs work and that book

 

[Alania]

Well I personally see OMAD as a diet suitable for losing weight, rather than gaining muscle mass. You do festing, burn calories and then you can switch diet. That's how I see it.

 

[Astro]

Well I personally see OMAD as a diet suitable for losing weight, rather than gaining muscle mass. You do festing, burn calories and then you can switch diet. That's how I see it.

Fasting increases testosterone and human growth hormone, and so does fasted exercise, both of which are conducive to gaining muscle.

It seems like a waste not to take advantage of this when doing OMAD.

I’m adding muscle while losing fat.

Just add some fasted exercise to your OMAD.

Personally, my feeding window is in the evening (ideally) after I come home from the gym.

That way I can initiate muscle growth by lifting weights at the gym, and then immediately take in some protein, so that my body has the nutrition it needs to rebuild the muscles I just tore down.

 

[Happyflowerlady]

Just last night, my husband was telling me that the back of my legs are showing more muscle tone and looking better, and that pleased me to no end !
When I do my swimming exercise, I have a set of swim fins, and one day I use the fins and do more legs exercises and then swim the last half hour, and the next day, I use the pool weights (floats) and work on my arm muscles, and swim the last half hour.
That way, each day, i am deliberately doing exercises to build muscle, and also swimming, which is an overall conditioner for my body. I do the exercise first thing that we do in the mornings, so it is at the end of my fast, and then I have my OMAD meal when I come home.
I like to eat it fairly early because everything should be digested before bedtime, and my body can have the best chance at autophagy and rebuilding and repairing itself.