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If you’re looking for an effective way to lose weight then you will definitely want to hear about the OMAD diet. I have tried it all from low-carb, to Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, calorie counting, the zero calorie diet, and every diet you might’ve heard under the sun.
My Personal Struggle With Weight and Body Issues
The truth is, when I was younger I had a real issue with body image and weight. This all happened around the time I was in college. Prior to that, I grew up bouncing between regular weight to chunky.
When I started high school it was really important to me to lose weight so I became a lot more active and ended up dropping around 30 pounds in 2 to 3 months.
I went from 175 to 145 as a freshman in high school and I did that doing a combination of Richard Simmons workouts and joining the basketball team.
Those two days are no joke.
In adulthood I managed to keep my weight down except for that one summer I gained about seven or 8 pounds working a job where I ate a ton of chocolate and coffee just to avoid falling asleep.
And then there was when I met my boyfriend now husband and we put on couple weight.
In my college days I was really obsessed with my weight and I used to follow a site called everydiet or where I’d try a bunch of different diet’s along with trying diet pills to keep my appetite down and help me lose weight.
I hated hated hated exercising but I would do it about 5 to 6 times a week. I actually felt guilty if I didn’t workout so I try to knock it out as early in the day as possible hating every minute of it in the process.
I went from around 185 to 151 doing a ton of different diets, mostly low carb eating. I stressed out about food, nutrition, and exercise on those 24 hours a day and I was really miserable.
During my final years in college I gained some weight so I was heavier starting my first job graduated but I dropped 30 pounds shortly after starting Weight Watchers.
You can see that even from a young ageM weight has always been something that I struggled with.
As an adult I am currently overweight and in your 30s losing weight just isn’t the same as in your 20s. It’s a lot harder and even despite loving exercise now, I just can’t get myself to do it on a regular basis.
So I learned about something called intermittent fasting and OMAD and I’m super stoked to share it with you. OMAD could actually help you lose up to 20 pounds or more in just 30 days.
Stay tuned to see what it’s all about.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
I wanna first start talking about Intermittent fasting. I start with fasting because the OMAD diet is a form of intermittent fasting and so it’s really important to understand about fasting before you break into OMAD.
Intermittent fasting is about the process of eating within a specific time window during the day.
When your body is digesting food, it is exerting a lot of energy to do so and when you eat and nosh on food all day long, your body is essentially digesting all the time.
This puts its effort on the digestion process and away from other important duties it could be performing in your body.
Fasting helps with this. You will eat during a set time and then fast during a set amount of time. This will be done day in and day out and the goal is to make this a lifestyle.
I won’t lie. In the beginning it can be a little challenging but after you get past the first three days it is super simple and you’ll be doing fasting or without knowing it before you know it.
I lose four pounds my first week intermittent fasting without changing the way I eat and with no exercise.
The Classic 16/8 Fast
The 16/8 fast is the traditional fasting window that lets people go with when they first start intermittent fasting. You fast for 16 hours per day and you eat for eight hours per day. So your eating window may be 12 PM to 8 PM and then you fast from 8 PM to 12 PM the next day.
If you’re new to fasting and with your doctors approval this is a good fasting window to start with. As you become more experienced you can extend your fast a bit.
A lot of people start with the classic fast and then they may go to a 18/6 fast or a 20/4 fast and then eventually OMAD.
Now finally, what’s this OMAD thing?
What Does OMAD Mean?
OMAD stands for one meal a day. So if you’re doing this one meal a day fast, it’s just what it sounds like you eat one large meal for the day and the rest of the time, you are fasting.
Traditionally this would be a 23/1 fast where you fast for 23 hours of the day and eat for one hour of the day.
This might sound overwhelming and you may think you can never get to a fast for you only eat one time a dayfor one hour but tons of people do this and the results tend to be faster than if you were to do a classic 16/8 bass.
What is OMAD Fasting?
So, if you are ready to break into OMAD fasting, you are totally going to love it once you get the hang of things.
It’s totally normal to feel deprived at first. Your body is used to eating all day or even eating on a schedule like breakfast, lunch, dinner so it’ll be a transition for sure but, totally worth it. Imagine being able to eat anything you want and lose weight.
This can happen with the OMAD Diet.
There is no such thing as an easy diet.
You either restrict yourself from fat, carbs, sugar, or other things you love to eat or you change your lifestyle by exercising yourself into the ground when you’re not used to it or you can eat whatever you want with exercise not required but you’re limited to just having that food in a one hour time window.
So there really is no perfect diet but I think this one is as close to perfect as you may be able to get.
Now granted, you can eat pretty much anything you want during your one hour feeding window, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to stuff a double whopper and a large onion ring order with a side of ribs and three pieces of triple chocolate cake in your mouth just because you can.
You want to be reasonable here.
Its better to eat a healthier diet because the goal, along with weight loss should firstly be health.
Think of a world where you knees don’t hurt from walking up the stairs or you aren’t huffing and puffing walking into another room. You can potentially get off all your medications, you sleep better, you feel better, you can finally expand your family, you have health.
The OMAD Diet can help with this?
It’s a way of eating, a lifestyle that can help you lose weight which can lead to a healthy life.
What is the OMAD Diet?
One.Meal.A.Day.
This could mean eating at noon, eating at 6 PM, or eating at midnight or any hours in between. You literally make the rules here and you can pick any eating window that you would like. I have seen people choose a midnight or 1 AM eating window and lose a ton of weight, believe it or not. It’s totally up to you.
The rules.
Stick with your eating window.
For more support, make sure to join an intermittent fasting or OMAD group on Facebook.
What is OMAD KETO?
OMAD keto blends the OMAS diet with a ketogenic diet.
A keto diet is about low carb eating and while is not a mandatory part of OMAD, a lot of people do this to quicken the weight loss even more. I saw a success story on YouTube today where a lady lost 100 pounds in 4 months on OMAD keto.
I won’t dive into all the ins and outs of the keto diet here, just know that it does involve a low carb way of eating so no bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, refined sugars or any other high carb foods, starchy fruits or veggies are allowed.
This is depriving enough with just limiting your feeding window to one hour day but you’re really pushing yourself when you do keto as well. If your goal is to lose weight quickly and you like the challenge feel free to give it a try.
Is the OMAD Diet Worth It?
You make the choice.
I think that it definitely can be worth it and it is a weight-loss solution. As with any diet nutrition or exercise plan make sure to consult with your doctor. I am not an expert or a nutritionist, this is just my personal opinion and I am writing this for informational purposes.
Do you have experience with intermittent fasting? Or OMAD? Share your progress, best practices, or advice down below. I’d love to hear from you.
