The OMAD diet can for any time of the day. I know some people prefer to eat one meal a day at breakfast because it is believed that is when fat burning is at it’s highest but probably not the best timing socially to eat most of your calories.
Realistically, it’s more suitable to eat it at the end of the day and will be more socially acceptable and tolerable for you to adhere to long term. People will think you are crazy and will say that your metabolism will get damaged.
This isn’t true as there are studies providing evidence that fasting can help boost your metabolism. On the other hand, there are also those who say that it can slow down your metabolism causing your weight loss to come to a screeching halt!
The thinking behind this is that your body adjusts over time and gets more efficient and fewer calories are needed. Some claim this is good but a lot of others say this is not how our metabolism should work.
I use OMAD fasting but as a tool, 3-4 times, a week and I’m seeing great results. It’s helped me really track calories more onmyfitnesspal. This is crucial is knowing portion sizes whether cutting or bulking.
I still track calories but don’t think it’s necessary to do that forever once you know what your calorie count should be along with portion sizes.
| One study shows that we burnt the most calories upon after 10 hours of being awake. In fact, up to 10% more calories were burned. On the other hand, we should consider eating with our circadian rhythm which says we should eat most of our calories earlier in the day and less at night. |
What time of the day should you eat on OMAD for Weight loss?
As mentioned above it’s whatever time is going to help you adhere to this way of eating. I like to plan my eating window around when I know I will be eating with family and friends. This means I will eat during the evening.
While I like to use OMAD for weight loss as a tool, I don’t do it every day. This all depends on how much body fat you have to lose. The leaner you get the harder it is to fast because you will not have as much fat stored up to use as energy.
When I get to where I need to be weight wise I like to do 2 meals a day in a tight eating window. Something like a 20:4, fasted for 20 hours and eating for 4 hours.
How does the Circadian Rythm affect weight loss and meal times
Our Basal Metabolic Rates works off a cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm cycles. while we burn the most calories at rest in the afternoon, we will hold on to and conserve the most calories for energy 2 hours before we wake up. This goes to show why we shouldn’t eat too much food close to bedtime.
With this evidence pointing towards our bodies use most of our energy within 10 hours after we wake up. This would likely seem to be the best time to eat your meals.
It’s best to try to stay on a consistent routine such as meal times and even dimming the lights at night can help make sure that your metabolism will Peak add a consistent time every day.
What is the Circadian Rythm Clock and how does it affect what time you should eat?
The Circadian rhythm is What’s known as the internal body clock. this is a 24-hour biological system that occurs with individual cells of the body. This also affects things such as driving our daily things such as in our physiology. And even controlling How our hormone levels respond.
The Circadian rhythm is What’s known as the internal body clock. this is a 24-hour biological system that occurs with individual cells of the body. This also affects things such as driving our daily things such as in our physiology. And even controlling How our hormone levels respond.
On the other hand, it’s not clear as to how the body clock responds to things such as when you should eat. Studies have been done by researchers at the MRC Laboratory of molecular biology at the University of Manchester.
What they have found is that insulin as a primary driver that send signals and house assist the communication of the timing of meals today’s cellular clocks in our bodies. the result of this is a stronger circadian rhythm.
The recommended ways to eat for an optimal circadian rhythm.
| Eat with the sun | Eat more early and less later |
| Eating your dinner for breakfast or Lunch | 75% of nutrition before 3 pm |
I’ve never eaten this way and is counter-intuitive from what we have been taught to eat. I use OMAD as a tool and I don’t think it should be done every day but cycled throughout the week.
I can just see a lot of problems with people who have families or who are social having issues with this type of meal timing for the OMAD Diet.
You essentially would eat just a big breakfast. I may try this out on myself and let you guys know because I am interested.
Can I lose weight with meal timing and the OMAD diet?
I know this is the juicy stuff and why you all skimmed through this post to read about. Of course, OMAD Diet can help you lose weight, it’s a hardcore version of intermittent fasting.
Not only are there weight loss benefits but many more health-related benefits found in studies, anti-aging essentially being one of them. I like OMAD because I’m not a fan of meal prepping for multiple small meals throughout the day.
The convenience factor is nice but also you are eliminating the number of calories you are consuming for the day. That is as long as you are not gorging junk food when you are breaking your fast.
Some claim that a calorie is not a calorie while doing OMAD. No science for this other than self-evidence based. People report on eating whatever they want and still losing weight.
I’m assuming they are still staying under their calorie recommendations for the day. Which you should always be doing if your goal is weight loss, subtract 250-500 calories from your maintenance and that’s the number you need to lose weight.
One of the best benefits of OMAD is you will eat fewer calories naturally. The question is for how long should you be doing OMAD consistently.
What do studies have to say about Fasting and weight loss?
For starters, time-restricted eating (fasting) has been shown to be a good option when reducing obesity and other issues such as metabolic dysfunction.
I found a study that was done on an alternate day fasting routine. It’s where one day you can eat as normal throughout the day and the nest 24 hours you would fast.
This study was done in 2007 by Varady & Hellerstein where they looked at the results of an alternate day fasting routine in rodents.
What was discovered was that this type of fasting had the same effects as a caloric restriction when it came to lowering body weight and obesity as well as fasting glucose and insulin.
Prolonged fasting has shown to reduce markers such as cholesterol and triglyceride numbers as well as inflammatory gene markers. A lot would argue that inflammation is one of the biggest drivers in disease.
Let’s take a look at 4 studies that were performed on the metabolic effects of alternate-day fasting. The study consumed 8-30 adults within the normal weight ranges and 10 overweight adults.
There was no physical activity recorded about the physical activity that was performed. This is a big piece that is left out because of fasted exercise helps intensify weight loss.
Significant weight loss was reported with two of the three studies although the relation to the one-day weight loss study is Questionable. On the alternate-day fasting that was performed within 22 days, the subjects had an average of 2.5% weight loss.
In three of these studies, it was discovered that there was a decrease in at least one of the glucose markers. on the other hand, the study that showed that obese and overweight participants of the study did not and in fact imported a significant effect are their postprandial glucose.
As well as insulin levels the following day. With these studies, one of the two assess information found significant improvements and their Inflammatory markers.
Final thoughts
I like doing the OMAD Diet but I believe it’s a tool and not something you should do every day. It’s really helped me get my portion size under control. You can lose weight no matter what time you choose to do the OMAD diet with but it looks like morning time is optimal because of our circadian rhythm.