My previous videos might have convinced you that One-meal-a-day or OMAD is the path to health and fitness. However, you may be intimidated by the idea of eating only one meal a day for the rest of your life. Don’t be. Once you reach 21 consecutive days of OMAD, it will appear quite natural to you. In this video, I will show you how to adapt to the OMAD lifestyle, Step by Step.
Hi, this is Juan Sarmiento. As my 64 birthday approaches, I will be celebrating a far more important milestone in my life: 11 years of OMAD. When I first started my OMAD regimen, little was known about the benefits of intermittent fasting. Then, the term OMAD was not even used. As a scientist, I began to learn about the science behind intermittent fasting and OMAD in particular. Now I know, that I had serendipitously found the secret to health, fitness, and vitality for my retirement years. So let me tell you about how you too, can adapt to OMAD and reach your own goals. But first, be sure to give this video a like and subscribe to this youtube channel. Also, don’t forget to activate the bell, so you get a notification of my future videos when released.
Adaptation to OMAD
If you have been or are now overweight, you probably have gone through calorie restriction diets, at least once. You think that to lose weight, you need to control your caloric intake and increase the duration of your workouts. Forget about counting calories forever, and do not increase or alter your exercise routine, at least for a while. Once you make the transition to OMAD, you will feel the urge to increase your activities. Then, you will enjoy your exercise, perhaps for the first time ever, as your energy increases. Your first goal is to reach 21 consecutive days of OMAD. To achieve this, it may be easier to maintain your caloric intake and regular diet. Before changing your diet, try to fit an entire day of food intake into one hour, or simply, eat to satiety. This way you will avoid any food intake during the 23-hour fasting window.
This is what I did right from the start. It was hard at first, but I got some comfort from knowing that I could eat whatever I wanted during my eating window. I looked forward to and enjoyed my one meal. I am not detail-oriented, so keeping my regular diet without tracking my nutrients or calories made OMAD possible. If you have difficulty doing this, or you fear failure, there are easier ways to reach the 21-day goal. These might take longer, but there is no hurry, what you are seeking is a new life.
Whenever I reveal to a new acquaintance that I eat only one meal a day, every day of my life, they often say: “Oh, I could never do that”. I then reply: “Oh, yes you could, anyone can”. The trick is to find the way that will work for you. Within weeks, or even days, you will feel great, like never before. Your body and your mind will feel lighter as your energy levels increase.
I Love My Bread
If you are addicted to carbohydrates of high glycemic index, like bread, like baked goodies, or candies, you can simply eat them during your eating window. These addictions will slowly disappear as your basal insulin levels decrease (please check my previous video about food addiction). Yes, it will require determination on your part, but you will be surprised as to how permanent these changes are, once you go through the struggle of the initial days.
Cut Breakfast
You can also go through a period of adaptation first. Begin by cutting your breakfast and having your dinner earlier. Doing this could easily reduce your feeding window to 8 hours or less. This will certainly be easier, but you will not enjoy all the benefits of OMAD: such as faster weight loss, increase energy and performance or the health benefits of autophagy. Your goal is still reaching those 21 consecutive days of OMAD, but after a few days or weeks in the 16:8 regimen, you will have no difficulty in getting to OMAD.
The 3-Meal Habit
If you find it difficult to let go of your 3 meals a day for social or scheduling reasons, you could try the ketogenic diet first. The goal here would be to become fat-adapted. With it, your body learns to use fat, instead of carbohydrates in your diet as a source of energy. You could still eat 3 meals a day, and be more easily satiated with each meal. However, you have to carefully watch what you eat, and even monitor your blood or urine ketone levels. Each meal must be tracked for macronutrients and that is complicated and time consuming. For this, you could use the free software at MyFitnessPal.com. You still have to change your eating and cooking habits. Once keto-adapted, your transition to OMAD will be easy.
Cutting Carbs
Once you have reached 21 days of OMAD, your metabolic switch will be complete. This means that you will no longer depend on food intake for energy. Your body will be mobilizing your body fat and transforming it into ketones. Now, you are ready for the next step: cutting your carbohydrates to no more than 100 gm a day. This would be a way to accelerate your weight loss. Incredibly, you will actually have more energy to complete your exercise routine and even increase its duration or complexity.
In my case, I went from walking for 45 minutes to walking for 90 minutes, to pushups and weight lifting for at least 1 hour. Best of all, I began to enjoy the workouts like never before in my life. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes, OMAD together with a low carb diet (≥ 50 gm/day) might reverse it. Please consult your doctor, but bring along a copy of this article: Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease. published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Time for HIIT or resistance training
The next step in your goal to change your life is to begin a routine of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), calisthenics, or weight lifting. HIIT means that your workout includes an all-out effort, followed by a short period of rest, and then repeat several times. High-intensity exercises may include jumping jacks, squats, pushups, etc. for up to 20 min or more. It takes 60 min of heavy exercise to deplete your liver glycogen and induce autophagy. But, it takes less time if you workout late in your fasting window.
Fasting and exercise act together to consume the liver and muscle glycogen and thus trigger autophagy and fat mobilization. The pushup pyramid explained in my previous video, is the form of HIIT I recommend. Autophagy in turn helps preserve muscle mass and prevents age-related muscle dysfunction.
Supplements
Cutting your food intake may be intimidating if you think that you are missing out on critical vitamins or minerals. I for one take a multivitamin supplement adequate for my age group. My intense workouts lead me to copious sweating. This is why I take potassium and magnesium supplements. I also sprinkle Himalayan salt liberally in my foods.
At my age, and even in younger individuals, joints need to be protected. Calisthenics is excellent to keep your joints in good shape. I do take Glucosamine-Chondróitin, even if its benefits are controversial. It provides me with the ingredients I might require to build healthy cartilage. I also take additional vitamins D3 and C, and fish oil as a source of Omega-3. Please be sure to investigate each one of these supplements before deciding to take them routinely.
Protein
Already in a previous video, I explained the need for additional protein if you do an intense exercise routine. A good rule of thumb is 1 gm/Kg of bodyweight, which in my case would be 75 g a day. I do complement my protein intake with whey protein to complete about 100 g a day. This protein supplementation has the added feature of completing my feeling of satiety at the end of my meal.
Taking too much protein might put too much demand on your kidney, so be sure to consult your doctor about this. Consuming too much protein would increase your blood glucose levels via gluconeogenesis. This is the opposite of what we want to do for weight loss. In another video, I described how OMAD at the right time of the day, may stimulate growth hormone, which modulates gluconeogenesis by limiting it to the use of fatty acids and not amino acids.
Is it healthy?
I am often asked if intermittent fasting is safe and healthy. I usually reply with another question: Is eating 3 meals a day healthy? After 11 years in OMAD, I have experienced one single health event of concern: Gall bladder stones, for which I had surgery. This is a common occurrence among people with rapid and significant weight loss.
Be sure to ask your doctor about this. Otherwise, I have been and I am now in the best health and fitness of my life and enjoying it immensely at age 64. Whether you are in retirement age or in your 20s, I believe that a better life is waiting for you. Take charge of your future with determination because, without a doubt with OMAD, life is looking up!
