One Meal a Day is exactly what it means, an eating window of One Meal for the day. This may be an eating window of 1-2 hours and a fasting window of 22-23 hours. For me, I started OMAD a few months ago and do it about 2 to 3 days a week where I only eat “one meal a day” and I have definitely noticed the difference. I want to put it out there. I’m eating one meal a day not everyday but have been doing it almost every second day for a few months. I want to share with you my thoughts and also ideas of incorporating this into your lifestyle.
The way I see one meal a day is its an extension of the normal intermittent fasting. Instead of having a 16 hour fast and 8 hour eating window, OMAD means you have a 22 or 23 hour fast and 2 to 1 hour eating window. The reason why I keep the eating window longer for the one meal to say 1-2 hours rather than say less than 1 hour is due to the way I’ve organised how I eat . Let me explain!

Breaking The Fast

From what I’ve researched, after fasting for a period of time the biggest mistake is to binge eat straight afterwards. Especially, if you mix food items like carbs and other food. What I usually do is say when I decide my eating window is say roughly between 4:30pm to 6:30pm, I’ll make myself a Green Smoothie using Avocadoes, nut milks and a whole range of superfood powder. This is to break my fast. Almost forgot, I drink a glass of water before my smoothie. Once I have my smoothie, I start preparing my dinner. This usually takes about 20-30minutes. I treat the smoothie as my entrée and to nourish m body. The smoothie is defacto my breakfast/light light rolled into one. The “rest” during my smoothie helps the body absorb the nutrients and also prevents me overeating during the meal.

So What Do I Eat for the Second Part of My Meal?

This depends on what I like that day and also what’s available in my fridge. The core theme is more vegetables and less carbs (not no carbs) and some protein. I’ll give a couple of examples below.
Rice paper wraps with vegetables and one type of protein. This can be organic eggs or poached organic chicken. The base ingredients include rice paper wraps, eggs or chicken, avocadoes, capsicum, onion, carrots, lettuces, tomatoes and whatever vegetables in the fridge. I make a peanut sauce (peanut butter, soy sauce and fish sauce). I find this satisfying and keeps me full. It will take some time to eat this as I make the rolls while I eat. its also a perfect family activity. Here’s one of my favourite YouTubers making the Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls.

Another options is to roast a couple of trays of vegetables and make a warm salad with your choice of protein. Sometime I would roast cauliflowers, broccoli, Brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes and have some tomatoes and avocados on the side. A simple olive oil, mustard and lemon juice dressing will usually do the trick and a pinch of salt and pepper. This is perfect with oven baked wild caught salmon (coated with butter and some herbs) or poached chicken or boiled eggs. Steak is also another good option with the vegetables. I also enjoy the roast sweet potatoes with my dish.
After the main part of the meal, I often indulge myself with some fruit, nuts and other snacks. This is the part where I have some warm herbal tea. I find some fruit is nice after the meal to cleanse my palette. I don’t enjoy eating large portions of fruit. Some berries or apple sprinkle with cinnamon powder would usually do.

What Do I Do During the Day to Control My Cravings?

I do not experience cravings in the mornings. I do have a coffee (Black coffee with no sugar or milk) during the day around 11pm and a few herbal teas during the day. The trick is to not think about food and keep focus on your work. Keep your work environment away from food. I find when its busy the day goes by and the next thing you know its about 2 or 3pm. Its pretty easy once you get started.
I don’t enjoy doing it every day but every couple of days is ideal. I tend to do it on Monday and Wednesdays and sometimes Fridays depending on how I feel. I set a goal of doing OMAD twice a week. Sometimes I have my smoothie a bit earlier or sometimes I salad instead. The key is to think about doing it and commit to it. Having something at 3:30 vs 4:30pm makes very little difference.

Has It Made a Difference?

Yes, I’ve been doing Intermittent Fasting usually 18/6 or some days 20/4. While IF resulted in some weight loss, I found the OMAD 2-3 a week with a healthy meal made my weight drop another 6-8 kgs during those few months of doing this. I can eat as much as I want during the eating window but no over eating. The key is to eat something to break your fast and rest for short period of time before eating the main meal. There was a few times I over ate and was eating carbs and fatty stuff when I started eating. After reading up on this, its one of the worse ways of breaking the fast. It will absorb back into your body and the “fasting” you did will not benefit you as much as it should have if you ate something healthy for your first meal.

How Has This Improve My Discipline?

Knowing I’m eating one meal that day has help my discipline. By making an effort holding off eating during the day, I will put more effort planning what to eat at night. Making a better quality meal both nutrient wise and taste wise. Nowadays, I think twice before having some unhealthy snacks after my meal.

Will I Continue this Moving Forward?

Definitely will. The trick is to ease into it. For example start with once a week. Start with a mini meal say at 2:30pm and then a proper meal at around 6pm. Then move the late lunch later and later until you roll both meals into a 2 hour eating window. What I also found was even though I was eating more in that one meal in reality I was eating less compare to what I would normally eat in a day.

Listen to Your Body

So why do people have 3 meals a day? its it natural? A lot of this 3 meals a day concept came about in the 20th Century and was part of cereals companies to market food for the US Consumer. Eating when you are hungry or when your body needs it is the best way to do it. When you wake up in the morning are you really hungry?? Also the type of food also determines how hungry you feel during the day. I find having white bread earlier on in the day makes me hungrier than say if I was fasting in the morning. I will keep learning about the benefits of OMAD and will share my learnings in the future.