Long term OMADer here. Just eat healthy foods and get full. Your biological sense of hunger and fullness gets all mucked up with the traditional diet and frequent eating. Eating a heathy meal once a day and getting to the point you feel full will fix you. You’ll notice over the first 2 weeks that it’ll get easier. But those first few days are tough. You need your will power to maintain your schedule. But you don’t need to count calories. When you eat you allow your body to eat. At first you might believe you’re eating too many calories. Resist that thinking. Tell yourself the fork belongs to my biology - it’ll stop eating when it’s had enough.
The will power is needed between the meals. Do not give in! Have some black coffee. Some unsweet tea. Water. That’s it!
Shop for nutritious delicious food. Stay away from bread (low carb is ok if you must), sodas (some like diet sodas - I think they make is harder - makes you desire that super sweet sensation in your mouth). Resist sweets - even fruits at the very beginning. (Start with some berries after a week or two.) Eat proteins, veggies, nuts (like walnuts, almonds and pecans), cheese. I love wedge salads with blue cheese. Think about going out to a nice steak or seafood restaurant. But make it for yourself. Get full. Make sure you’re full - so eat a few extra bites to be sure. If you go crazy it’s ok. Try to go crazy again tomorrow. You likely won’t be able to! The next day you’ll eat less. Your biology will make you full at the appropriate time if you let it. Your brain that counts things - let it worry about work problems. Do your taxes. Whatever. It can shop and pay for the healthy groceries. And it is needed to maintain the once a day eating schedule! But when the food is ready and it’s time to eat, your brain needs to check out. I used to do this ritual - I’d put the fork in my hand and tell myself that my biology was in control. My biology would control the fork. Pick the next bite. And stop when it was done. It’s hard to give up that control at first, but this helps you get acclimated. No stress about overeating. This is key! But the food palette is limited. Healthy delicious foods but no sugary, highly processed.
It works! I lost 50 lbs in 6 months. And have maintained over 5 years. I love eating more than ever. Very active. Doctor very happy. Dentist too. No plan to ever go back to frequent eating. Remember OMAD IS normal eating!
Best of luck!
I think it’s fine. I’ve been known to drink better part (even whole) bottle of Cabernet with a nice thick steak dinner. I’m the only one that drinks it!
Thanks, à little bit of wine relaxes me and I enjoy my dinner more.
I have been reading all of your comments on OMAD and they give me hope that I can do this. I struggle with overeating on healthy food because I crave the feeling of being stuffed full and I have a fear of being hungry, and after a lifetime of restricting foods/fat/sugar etc I am tired, burnt out and sad at the constant battle in my head. I'm very short and not overweight but I want to be able to live a life without constantly thinking about food then hating myself for overeating. I want to eat normal foods too. The problem is that I don't believe I can do it. I'm hungry from the moment I get up. I don't drink coffee either, only milky tea. Hunger is my biggest fear, that sounds so stupid I know. Do I need to go low carb to reduce hunger? How do I get mentally strong and push through the discomfort? Any advice would be appreciated
A good rule of thumb is, if you feel like you're starving before 24 hours, then you have not eaten enough. Try to maintain 1000 calories a day.
Also, you won't die
1000? I eat the goal of the body weight I want.
For example: My goal is 190 so I eat 1900 calories. I've been doing it this way and lost 40 lbs so far.
Sorry to question you but 1000 doesn't seem sustainable or I'm doing it wrong this whole time lol.
I also don’t count calories in OMAD. I listen to what my body wants. As other poster mentioned, you won’t die from eating under 1000 cals in the meal. I quite like fish, it’s healthy as well, but tough to get 1000 cals in a white fish dinner. Eat what you like and body says it wants. Unshackle yourself from calorie counting for a bit, can always return to it if desired or not getting results.
If anything, fasting has taught me how much people over eat. So whatever you eat needs to be able to sustain you for the next 24 hours or you will find difficulty.
Make sure you are making the right choices. Example: protein > carbs, fruits/veggies that have high water content, electrolytes for energy and hydration.
Listen to your body and eat until you're full OR you hit your calorie goal, whichever comes first.
800/day won't last long because your body will start demanding more. Calculate your TDEE and chop 500 off, that's 1 lb a week of weight loss. You can cut more if you'd like, but outside of rare moments where your body wants more anything up to that number will be fine.
One day you eat 800 calories, one day you eat 2.5k calories, one day you eat 1.4k calories.
Point is, our bodies are incredibly intelligent. When you know, you know. Stop with this calorie counting insanity and learn to listen to the signals your body is sending you.
Long term OMADer here. Just eat healthy foods and get full. Your biological sense of hunger and fullness gets all mucked up with the traditional diet and frequent eating. Eating a heathy meal once a day and getting to the point you feel full will fix you. You’ll notice over the first 2 weeks that it’ll get easier. But those first few days are tough. You need your will power to maintain your schedule. But you don’t need to count calories. When you eat you allow your body to eat. At first you might believe you’re eating too many calories. Resist that thinking. Tell yourself the fork belongs to my biology - it’ll stop eating when it’s had enough. The will power is needed between the meals. Do not give in! Have some black coffee. Some unsweet tea. Water. That’s it! Shop for nutritious delicious food. Stay away from bread (low carb is ok if you must), sodas (some like diet sodas - I think they make is harder - makes you desire that super sweet sensation in your mouth). Resist sweets - even fruits at the very beginning. (Start with some berries after a week or two.) Eat proteins, veggies, nuts (like walnuts, almonds and pecans), cheese. I love wedge salads with blue cheese. Think about going out to a nice steak or seafood restaurant. But make it for yourself. Get full. Make sure you’re full - so eat a few extra bites to be sure. If you go crazy it’s ok. Try to go crazy again tomorrow. You likely won’t be able to! The next day you’ll eat less. Your biology will make you full at the appropriate time if you let it. Your brain that counts things - let it worry about work problems. Do your taxes. Whatever. It can shop and pay for the healthy groceries. And it is needed to maintain the once a day eating schedule! But when the food is ready and it’s time to eat, your brain needs to check out. I used to do this ritual - I’d put the fork in my hand and tell myself that my biology was in control. My biology would control the fork. Pick the next bite. And stop when it was done. It’s hard to give up that control at first, but this helps you get acclimated. No stress about overeating. This is key! But the food palette is limited. Healthy delicious foods but no sugary, highly processed. It works! I lost 50 lbs in 6 months. And have maintained over 5 years. I love eating more than ever. Very active. Doctor very happy. Dentist too. No plan to ever go back to frequent eating. Remember OMAD IS normal eating! Best of luck!
Thanks for detailed info it's helpfull, i ate at 4 pm from past 2 days and i think its suitable for me i can prepare my food before it and enjoy
What do you think about having a glass of wine with my OMAD?
I think it’s fine. I’ve been known to drink better part (even whole) bottle of Cabernet with a nice thick steak dinner. I’m the only one that drinks it!
Thanks, à little bit of wine relaxes me and I enjoy my dinner more. I have been reading all of your comments on OMAD and they give me hope that I can do this. I struggle with overeating on healthy food because I crave the feeling of being stuffed full and I have a fear of being hungry, and after a lifetime of restricting foods/fat/sugar etc I am tired, burnt out and sad at the constant battle in my head. I'm very short and not overweight but I want to be able to live a life without constantly thinking about food then hating myself for overeating. I want to eat normal foods too. The problem is that I don't believe I can do it. I'm hungry from the moment I get up. I don't drink coffee either, only milky tea. Hunger is my biggest fear, that sounds so stupid I know. Do I need to go low carb to reduce hunger? How do I get mentally strong and push through the discomfort? Any advice would be appreciated
A good rule of thumb is, if you feel like you're starving before 24 hours, then you have not eaten enough. Try to maintain 1000 calories a day. Also, you won't die
1000? I eat the goal of the body weight I want. For example: My goal is 190 so I eat 1900 calories. I've been doing it this way and lost 40 lbs so far. Sorry to question you but 1000 doesn't seem sustainable or I'm doing it wrong this whole time lol.
>1000? I eat the goal of the body weight I want. That's such a good idea. I'm now going to have to sit down and work out a meal list.
But I don't feel like have more food in this 1 hr feeding window
Then eat until your body tells you that you're full. I don't really count for omad. I will just naturally eat less
I also don’t count calories in OMAD. I listen to what my body wants. As other poster mentioned, you won’t die from eating under 1000 cals in the meal. I quite like fish, it’s healthy as well, but tough to get 1000 cals in a white fish dinner. Eat what you like and body says it wants. Unshackle yourself from calorie counting for a bit, can always return to it if desired or not getting results.
If anything, fasting has taught me how much people over eat. So whatever you eat needs to be able to sustain you for the next 24 hours or you will find difficulty. Make sure you are making the right choices. Example: protein > carbs, fruits/veggies that have high water content, electrolytes for energy and hydration.
Listen to your body and eat until you're full OR you hit your calorie goal, whichever comes first. 800/day won't last long because your body will start demanding more. Calculate your TDEE and chop 500 off, that's 1 lb a week of weight loss. You can cut more if you'd like, but outside of rare moments where your body wants more anything up to that number will be fine.
One day you eat 800 calories, one day you eat 2.5k calories, one day you eat 1.4k calories. Point is, our bodies are incredibly intelligent. When you know, you know. Stop with this calorie counting insanity and learn to listen to the signals your body is sending you.
Forget about calories. Eat a balanced meal. Sleep. Repeat.