It may seem hard to eat only once every 24 hours, but many individuals do it. OMAD (short for “one meal a day”) is a type of intermittent fasting that is said to aid weight loss. Of course, not everyone wants to lose weight; others simply want to be healthier or spend less money on food. We’ve discovered a few things that happen to a lot of people after dramatically changing their diets, regardless of which group you belong to.
We’ll go over how your body reacts to the sudden lack of meals.
You Could Put On Weight.
When food is scarce, your body goes into “starvation mode,” storing all the food you eat so you can have it when you need it most. It essentially slows down your metabolism. Furthermore, it raises the production of cortisol (the stress hormone), which leads you to gain weight.
It’s Possible That Your Blood Sugar Levels Will Become Unstable
Long periods of time without eating might cause blood sugar levels to fluctuate. Fasting, especially if you have type 2 diabetes, is the most common cause of hypoglycemia (very low blood sugar). Muscle tension may develop later, resulting in headaches.
You could be deficient in nutrients.
One meal a day may not be sufficient in terms of vitamins. As a result, you’re more likely to suffer from the effects of a vitamin shortage. Hair loss, for example, is frequently linked to a lack of nutrients. White spots on the nails (leukonychia) are typically caused by a zinc and calcium deficit.
It’s possible that your social life will deteriorate.
Because you are limited to one meal, social activities such as business lunches, family reunions, and birthdays will go unrecognized. As a result, your family and friends will preach about eating healthy and will undoubtedly question your judgment. You will also be irritable as a result of your hunger.
It’s possible that you’ll experience headaches.
Diet headaches are very common among those who are trying to reduce weight as rapidly as possible. They can happen for a variety of reasons, including an adjustment phase, a reduction in blood sugar, magnesium deficiency, and more.
You Might Be Cold All the Time.
Blood flow is diverted to fat accumulation when you just eat one meal per day. It stores energy in this form and provides strength and agility in an emergency. A low calorie intake makes you feel cold and hungry all of the time.
How it works is as follows:
Intermittent fasting can take numerous forms, and OMAD can be done in a variety of ways. Having only one meal and fasting for the rest of the day, or having one meal and consuming very small amounts of food during fasting intervals, are two examples.
This diet causes a calorie deficit, which can help you lose weight. Fasting has the ability to lower heart disease risk factors, lower blood sugar, and reduce inflammation, among other things.
However, when compared to other intermittent fasting approaches, such as the 16/8 method, which incorporates 8-hour eating windows and 16-hour fasting windows, eating only one meal each day is one of the most extreme. Several popular diets recommend only eating one meal every day. The Warrior Diet, for example, requires a person to consume only one meal each day, cycling between extended periods of fasting and brief intervals of calorie ingestion.
The majority of people who follow the OMAD diet only eat dinner, while others only eat breakfast or lunch. In addition to the one meal, some versions of this eating pattern allow for a snack or two. Some OMAD followers, on the other hand, don’t eat anything with calories throughout their fasting period and only eat calories at their chosen meal, which usually lasts an hour or so.
Loss of weight
You must establish an energy deficit in order to lose weight. This can be accomplished by either increasing your calorie burn or decreasing your calorie intake. Calorie restriction, regardless of how it is achieved, will result in fat reduction.
People who follow the OMAD approach are more likely to lose weight because they consume fewer calories overall than they would in a conventional eating pattern. In a study of healthy adults, for example, reducing calorie intake to a four-hour period in the evening resulted in considerably more body fat loss than eating three different meals during the day.
Intermittent fasting, especially extended fasting periods like OMAD, has also been demonstrated to help people lose weight in studies. It doesn’t appear to be any more effective than typical calorie restriction approaches, such as limiting calories at each meal.
An analysis of 50,660 people found that those who ate 1 or 2 meals per day had a lower body mass index (BMI) year after year than those who ate 3 meals per day. In comparison to shorter fasting periods, an overnight fast of 18 or more hours was associated with lower body weight, according to the study.
What are your thoughts on this strategy? How often do you eat throughout the day?
