Each and every day there is a new diet trend, it is actually very difficult to keep up, in this article, I am going to look at The OMAD Diet, its benefits, and my opinion on it.
What is OMAD Diet?
The Omad Diet is actually a One Meal a Day Diet (OMAD), it is a very simple diet plan. You eat one meal per day, consisting of whatever you want, typically at your regular dinnertime.
However, the OMAD is really just an extreme variant of intermittent fasting. The difference between OMAD and traditional fasting is instead of fasting for the typical window, like 16 hours, you fast for about 23 hours (including the time you spend sleeping).
How it works
The OMAD Diet works like this, you eat all of your daily calories in just one meal each day — typically fasting for the remaining 23-ish hours. One meal a day fasting lets you reap the health benefits of fasting, while hugely simplifying your schedule.
Between 4-7 PM is an ideal time to break your fast, giving you fuel when you need it, a time to eat with friends or family, and enough time to digest before heading to bed.
Rules of the OMAD Diet
OMAD Dieters must follow the following rules in order for it to become effective.
- You should only be eating one meal per day
- You can only eat within one hour of your four-hour eating window
- You must eat off an 11-inch diameter plate
- Your meal shouldn’t be more than three inches high on your plate (so…a mountain of french fries is definitely off-limits)
Benefits of OMAD Diet
There are many benefits of the OMAD Diet some of them includes
- Increased focus and productivity. Who hasn’t hit that groggy 2:30 p.m. slump at the office? OMAD is said to eliminate the sluggishness people feel while digesting their lunch — because there is no lunch.
- Weight loss. It’s extremely hard to be at a caloric surplus when you’re eating one time per day. Even if your one meal is not “healthy” by normal standards, you’re not taking in as many calories as you would if were eating all day long.
- Diet freedom. Forget logging calories or eating out of Tupperware. You free up a lot of mental energy when you don’t have to plan four to six meals per day
Risks of the OMAD Diet
As I said above the one meal a day diet is simply intermittent fasting, here are some of the risks of following the OMAD Diet.
- feeling extremely hungry or binge eating
- shakiness or physical weakness
- fatigue, or low energy
- brain fog, or trouble focusing
Can the OMAD diet help me lose weight?
Yes, fasting can help you to lose weight, but for me, it is not sustainable for long-term weight loss success, if what do you want to achieve is fast weight loss, you can give it a try.
Should I try the OMAD diet?
This is not a diet that can be sustained for a long period of time, therefore, personally, I do not recommend this weight loss diet approach.