I am wondering about the amount of food that you can eat in OMAD. There was one discussion where it said there is no limit to the quantity of food that you eat but you have to eat just once a day. That’s fine perhaps. But my question is this. If I can eat a plate of food for OMAD then can I eat that plate of food in installments? Will eating twice a day (half of a plate per sitting) ruin the principle of OMAD? Is it really about the frequency of eating and not in the quantity of food?
Eating the same amount of food – once versus several times
- Thread starter Corzhens
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Your question amazes me. The idea here is one meal a day. The quantity is controlled by your appetite and what your stomach can take.
Eating twice will ruin the One Meal A Day (OMAD) idea. Just eat once not a one day meal taken twice.
OMAD is strictly one meal a day. I mean, you can eat the same amount of food if you choose to do so for a diet but that's no longer OMAD, and you also have to watch your calorie intake and your macro and micronutrients composition daily.
I don't think there's much wrong in it as long as you eat both meals very close together and limit the amount to only a total of one plate. I'm no expert though so I might be wrong, but if you're just starting out and trying to get used to the routine then I think that may not be a bad place to start. The ultimate goal should probably still be to reach just eating within a one hour window because that will give your body as much time as possible in a 24 hour cycle to digest the food and burn off whatever excess is in your body.
Do you mean to say that it is all right to eat twice but within a given period? I have read in one discussion about the window hours of 4 hours which means that I can eat so much and regardless of the frequency as long as it is within that window period. Am I right on my assumption?
Studies of dieters given the same amount of food , with one group eating it all in one meal, and the other group eating the same amount of calories of food, but eating it in several meals, discovered that the group that ate everything in one meal lost more weight, and felt better than the people that had their food divided into several meals.
The reason is because if you are only eating one meal, and fasting for 20+ hours, then your insulin level will drop, and when insulin goes down, then HGH (human growth hormone) goes up, and you will burn fat and lose weight more efficiently.
Some people do an IF plan called 16-8, which is where you would fast for 16 hours per day, and have an 8 hour eating window. Of course, you do not eat constantly during that time, but you could have a main meal and a small healthy snack meal during that time. This is sometimes a good way to work into eating only one meal a day, and this is how I did it; I just kind of “sneaked my way” into OMAD from IF.
The logic behind eating one meal a day is to give your body a chance to use the new energy you’ve introduced to it, and then channel fat reserves once it’s been used up.
The number one hormone which is responsible for developing fat on the body is insulin. Every time you eat, and especially if you eat lots of carbohydrates, you’re triggering an insulin response in your body, telling it to start storing fat. By eating one meal a day you’re limiting the insulin response in your body, and therefore limiting the amount of fat you’re storing.
If we’re constantly eating and triggering an insulin response, we’re basically always telling our body to keep putting away fat.
Eating one meal a day is best, two or three times isn’t necessarily bad depending on what you’re eating, but snacking in between is the absolute worst.
The number one hormone which is responsible for developing fat on the body is insulin. Every time you eat, and especially if you eat lots of carbohydrates, you’re triggering an insulin response in your body, telling it to start storing fat. By eating one meal a day you’re limiting the insulin response in your body, and therefore limiting the amount of fat you’re storing.
If we’re constantly eating and triggering an insulin response, we’re basically always telling our body to keep putting away fat.
Eating one meal a day is best, two or three times isn’t necessarily bad depending on what you’re eating, but snacking in between is the absolute worst.
I see what you are asking. I eat the OMAD way but I eat my meal in two installments within at most a 2 hour window. When you eat food within a short time frame,you end up eating very little food. I hardly doubt that you can eat all your calories in one or two hours or even in four hours. Apart from the insulin adavantage this is also the main one. Once your insulin levels are down say bye bye to hunger. What you are proposing is not OMAD but another protocol. Intermittent fasting has many protocols. Eating can start from 14 hours. Normally you miss breakfast and continue with lunch and dinner. This way of eating is not as effective for weight-loss.
I've also think about that. Maybethe quantity of food is base on what or how much you can take. I also ask that before from my friends. And it's quite a brainstorming. Well, eat just once a day with an amount of food that you can take. Because really there's no rule that you have to eat a certain amount right? The important thing is you eat once a day.
As some have mentioned, the OMAD diet is about limiting the number of insulin spikes you have in one day. When you limit insulin, your body can burn fat. Give your body all the chances it can get to do this and you will lose weight faster. You are also protecting yourself from type 2 diabetes.
However, if you split your meal into two and still eat it within a one hour time frame (say with a 20 minute break in the middle) Im sure it will be fine.
Watch Jason Fung videos to find out more about the science of this.
However, if you split your meal into two and still eat it within a one hour time frame (say with a 20 minute break in the middle) Im sure it will be fine.
Watch Jason Fung videos to find out more about the science of this.
I think it is all about the times or frequency of your food intake. Because even though you eat a lot, if you give your body time to digest it, it will eventually not gonna be fats. But if you eat all the time even though it is little amount, your body will not have a good amount of time to digest it.
It hard to just eat one meal per day and what you said could help you adjust your body slowly until you can eat one meal per day. If you'll think about the frequency, I think you should focus yourself on your diet because it could lose your attention from your diet. You could lose control since you want to divide the meal within one day. You may not be able to control your desire to eat resulting to the failure of your diet. But its up to you, choose the way that best help you.
I totally agree about watching the Jason Fung videos, @nzmegs !
I watched some of his videos on youtube, and then I bought the ebook, The Obesity Code”. Just the ebook was almost $10, which is more than I usually pay for an ebook; but this book has SO much information in it, it is totally worth the price, and I highly recommend it for anyone who has not heard of Dr. Fung.
He does such an excellent job of explaining everything !
I watched some of his videos on youtube, and then I bought the ebook, The Obesity Code”. Just the ebook was almost $10, which is more than I usually pay for an ebook; but this book has SO much information in it, it is totally worth the price, and I highly recommend it for anyone who has not heard of Dr. Fung.
He does such an excellent job of explaining everything !