Best time of the day to eat one meal?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi everyone, I am going to be starting the omad diet soon as was researching about my eating window. I was wondering what is the best time of the day to eat my omad? Breakfast? lunch? or dinner? I see many others don't seem to have the same preference but I was wondering if there was advantages to one or the other? I appreciate your help!
 

Jimmy Swartz

Administrator
Staff member
Hi everyone, I am going to be starting the omad diet soon as was researching about my eating window. I was wondering what is the best time of the day to eat my omad? Breakfast? lunch? or dinner? I see many others don't seem to have the same preference but I was wondering if there was advantages to one or the other? I appreciate your help!

Hi Betty! Thanks for the question. Your eating window will totally be a personal preference. You will want to choose an eating window that fits your lifestyle and schedule. Here is an article of mine where I talk about how to choose your eating window https://omaddiet.com/omad-eating-window/ I hope this helps.
 
Best is not to eat 3 hours before bed, but since I get back home most days at seven, and go to bed at ten, I have to finish eating around eight. Ideally though I would eat early afternoon, I think.
 
I also don't like eating too close to going to bed. I find that by the time I can cook during the week, it puts my meal ready to eat from 6-7 PM. That gives me 4-5 hours of just water before bed. I sleep much better than I did when I would eat minutes before going to bed and even sometimes during the night.
 
I used to eat my meal in the early afternoon, but now I eat in the evening. I really didn't see an advantage to either meal times. It just had to do with my schedule. I don't like to eat really late though. It makes me feel stuffed when I'm trying to sleep and it causes me not to sleep really well.
 
I’ve eaten my meal during the evening between 6 and 9. Normally I fall asleep shortly after. Problem for me is I’m not drinking enough water after I eat and I’m often waking up very thirsty due to the sodium in my meal. I like this time of eating but I think I may eat low calorie this evening around 7and try a late afteroon meal tomorrow as I’m traveling for work and may let tomorrow’s lunch serve as my omad or do a day of fasting. Tomorrow I have a 6 hour Drive so I don’t know I’ll just listen to my body
 
Great article Jimmy! I am retired, but also self empolyed and working from home ... not so good, I totally agree with the opinion that it gets easier if you get out of your home ... I usually have my meal at three in the afternoon, it keeps me happy all afternoon although I do have problems with cravings if I stay up too long. But it is noteable that they are cravings, not hunger.
As a person I am more like a boa constrictor than like a ruminant, I can eat a lot in an hour and then nothing for ages... it does not seem to affect my mood or my energy. My BED is an addiction it is not really something that my body needs. I do o alot of swimming and either it is early morning (7.00) or I have to wait until 15.00 when the right indoor pool opens for public swimming... I have tried to have my meal before driving to town, does not work at all, I will have another one later in the evening if I try. So now it might be delayed to 7-8, that works. I think that my guidance need to be not beforre 15.00 and not later than 21.00
 

Jimmy Swartz

Administrator
Staff member
Great article Jimmy! I am retired, but also self empolyed and working from home ... not so good, I totally agree with the opinion that it gets easier if you get out of your home ... I usually have my meal at three in the afternoon, it keeps me happy all afternoon although I do have problems with cravings if I stay up too long. But it is noteable that they are cravings, not hunger.
As a person I am more like a boa constrictor than like a ruminant, I can eat a lot in an hour and then nothing for ages... it does not seem to affect my mood or my energy. My BED is an addiction it is not really something that my body needs. I do o alot of swimming and either it is early morning (7.00) or I have to wait until 15.00 when the right indoor pool opens for public swimming... I have tried to have my meal before driving to town, does not work at all, I will have another one later in the evening if I try. So now it might be delayed to 7-8, that works. I think that my guidance need to be not beforre 15.00 and not later than 21.00

Hi Swomad. Thanks for the compliment on the article! Getting out of the home is definitely something I always recommend. That's what helped me the most in the beginning of omad. That's great that you do a lot of swimming! Finding the perfect eating window can be a challenge to most of us as our schedules change frequently. It's important to find a 4 hour time window everyday that you think will keep you consistent.
 
I think everyone will end up liking different times in the day for their meal time depending on their personal habits and routines but I myself found that the best time for me is eating at 2PM because it's just close enough to dinner that I don't feel like I'm sacrificing too much by not eating during night time. I had to figure that out by first trying to eat closer to 4PM then I gradually had to move that time slot earlier so I would suggest a bit of experimentation although I also think having a consistent routine helps out a lot too so changing this too frequently might make things a bit more complicated or difficult in my opinion, although for those that don't have much of a choice it's still better than the alternative I guess.
 
Hi everyone, I am going to be starting the omad diet soon as was researching about my eating window. I was wondering what is the best time of the day to eat my omad? Breakfast? lunch? or dinner? I see many others don't seem to have the same preference but I was wondering if there was advantages to one or the other? I appreciate your help!
I have mine as soon as I arrive home from work at about 545 pm, skipping the first two meals makes for an efficient work day and frees me up for my hour of power walking on my breaks and lunch.
 
Last edited:
Everything depends on how and when you're actually comfortable with eating your one day meal. The time that works for Mr. A might not necessarily be comfortable for Mr. B.

So, what I'm trying to say in essence is that you should chose the time that works well for you. If it's morning time or afternoon or evening period, you are the best person to decide that.

Good luck.
 
To me, there is no best time for you to do Omad. It is all dependent on the way that you live your life. When I joined Omad, I noticed that I am always hungry at noon, so I planned eating every noon and skipping the morning and night meals. This has significantly helped me to avoid that temptation of having to cheat while on the diet. So, analyze the period of the day when you always feel hungry and fix an hour for eating along the line.
 
I had experimented with eating lunch or dinner as my preferred time but I realize that eating lunch works better for me,maybe because it is the go-between time for both breakfast and dinner,so I'm now eating at lunch time between 2-4 pm and I'm sure of it sustaining me still the next 2-4pm again. So the best bet is choosing one that works better for you and your body and stick to it,still the body is used to it.
 
I had experimented with eating lunch or dinner as my preferred time but I realize that eating lunch works better for me,maybe because it is the go-between time for both breakfast and dinner,so I'm now eating at lunch time between 2-4 pm and I'm sure of it sustaining me still the next 2-4pm again. So the best bet is choosing one that works better for you and your body and stick to it,still the body is used to it.

I read somewhere online where someone mentioned about having his one OMAD meal in the morning and I kept a wondering if it's not too early to eat at that time because there are still so many hours left till the next day for him to eat again.

I think evening time would be a lot better as one stays up few hours before sleeping off, at least all those hours your body is resting.
 
I think that there are two factors which go into choosing your eating/fasting window, and they are what sort of lifestyle you live, and what your diet consists of.

Obviously if you’re sitting in an office chair for eight hours, you’re not going to be using as much energy as someone working in a coal mine. If your work involves a lot of manual labor, you might want to eat in the morning so that you’re running on something throughout the day. If physical energy isn’t such a necessity, then maybe you’d prefer to just have dinner at the end of the day.

What you eat also matters a lot because it might affect how you feel. If your meal consists of a lot of carbohydrates, then you’re going to get a large insulin response and a rise in blood sugar. When your blood sugar drops back down, it’ll be below average and you’ll likely feel weaker and hungry again. A drop in blood sugar might not feel so bad if you’re going to bed right afterwards, but it would certainly get in the way in the middle of the day.
 
I read somewhere online where someone mentioned about having his one OMAD meal in the morning and I kept a wondering if it's not too early to eat at that time because there are still so many hours left till the next day for him to eat again.

I think evening time would be a lot better as one stays up few hours before sleeping off, at least all those hours your body is resting.
Well,we can fault anytime since our bodies are completely different and what might work for A might be a total disaster for B,so it better one go for what the body can adjust easily to but the most important thing is sticking to eating at that eating period which is once daily.if breakfast is the better time for one then so be it,no need forcing the body to work with what might hurt it.
 
Well,we can fault anytime since our bodies are completely different and what might work for A might be a total disaster for B,so it better one go for what the body can adjust easily to but the most important thing is sticking to eating at that eating period which is once daily.if breakfast is the better time for one then so be it,no need forcing the body to work with what might hurt it.

You are absolutely correct and I do agree with you on this. We all aren't coded in the same way and as such our body reacts in different ways when it comes to what we eat, when we eat and how we eat them. And when it comes when is comfortable for one to take his or one day OMAD meal would not necessarily be a convenient time for every other person.

Also, it's very understandable that one's life schedules and job would have a massive effects on one's preferred time to taking one's one day meal.
 
I usually have my meal between 10am-11pm. It works the best for me since I got used on skipping breakfast even before starting OMAD. I've done some experimenting on what time that works the best for me and I found out that this is the most effective for my diet. Then after eating my meal, I wil just drink water onwards. I can say that it is effective since I really lose some weight.
 
You are absolutely correct and I do agree with you on this. We all aren't coded in the same way and as such our body reacts in different ways when it comes to what we eat, when we eat and how we eat them. And when it comes when is comfortable for one to take his or one day OMAD meal would not necessarily be a convenient time for every other person.

Also, it's very understandable that one's life schedules and job would have a massive effects on one's preferred time to taking one's one day meal.
Sure,the watchword there is taking out time that is convenient for one.I have come to realize that the body cooperate with whatever it is introduced to when it is comfortable with it,so it pertinent that we listen to our body reactions to things and work with it for a better result, same with OMAD if we go by what the body needs especially the time the body needs to work with ,then being on OMAD diet wouldn't be discomforting at all.it will be a diet that we could easily make it a lifestyle.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top