Now that you are habituated to OMAD and do your workouts just before breaking your fast, you should be already losing weight at a good pace. Some suggest to do more of the same, that is, enlarge the fasting period from 23 to 47. Others suggest increasing the duration of the workouts. I suggest that the changes we make must be nutritional to increase the speed of body weight loss without going to further extremes. First, it is time to establish your priorities:
Priority 1: Losing Weight
Perhaps for you, losing weight is the most important thing. Do not make the mistake of counting calories. OMAD will only work if you eat to satiety. If you don’t eat enough nutrients in your OMAD, you may find yourself with your head in the refrigerator before your fasting period of 23 hrs expires. I have insisted that you keep your regular diet because cutting down to OMAD is already hard enough. We want to make a permanent lifestyle change in order to maintain our body weight. If you get tired or irritable over a diet or plan, you may give it up and gain back your weight. However, you may feel well adapted and satisfied that you are losing weight effortlessly, just a bit slow. Perhaps you are ready to make more changes that could result in a faster weight loss.
Lower sugar and carbohydrates
In the previous post in this series, we talked about the Insulin to Glucagon ratio. This ratio is much lower in fasted individuals, but it is also lower in individuals eating a low carbohydrate diet. In my case, I never cut my favorite carbohydrate-rich dishes, including pasta, rice, bread, and corn-based recipes. Yet I lost 28% of my body, admittedly slowly, between Nov. 2009 and Nov. 2014. A young person of 19 years of age might not want to wait until age 24. Instead, they may be willing to sacrifice a high carb diet for a more attractive look and a fit body. If you are adapted to OMAD and you workout deep into your fasting period, it’s time to change your diet. Sugar and Carbs may be reduced progressively, perhaps using the 21-day rule here too. It is a matter of breaking your sugar addiction, so common in the standard American diet (SAD).
Priority 2: Reverse Diabetes
Type II Diabetes may be reversed with OMAD alone. If you have Diabetes and take glucose-lowering drugs, you may feel that you do not have the energy for much exercising. Therefore, part II of this plan has not been much help. Nevertheless, the combination of OMAD and a low carb diet may be very helpful in reducing your A1c and Insulin Resistance (see Dr. Berg video below).
Since Diabetes is a pathological condition, I will limit myself to recommend Dr. Jason Fung’s book, the Diabetes Code, and his YouTube channel. Diabetes really requires medical supervision, but you should be aware of the benefits of Intermittent Fasting and make your doctor aware of the mechanisms involved.
Priority 3: Increase your Fitness
When I first started OMAD, I noticed that I was more energetic and I started by prolonging my walks from 2.5 to 4 miles a day. However, I soon recognized that the number of calories burned did not justify the amount of time I was spending on those long walks. This is when I decided to begin a calisthenics and weight lifting routine. Progressively, my fitness goals became loftier. This is when I decided to supplement my nutrition with whey protein. Only lately have I applied lower carbs, higher fat and higher protein content in my diet. These changes may help to increase your endurance and intensity of workouts and increase your muscle mass.
Macronutrients
Whatever your priority might be, you are going to have to keep track of your macronutrients. When I did, it dawned on me that I was eating way too many carbohydrates. Practically all my adult life, I heard that we are supposed to prevent heart disease with a low-fat diet. I did so from my 20’s into my 50’s. Now we know better. If you have been in OMAD for a while now, you no longer have the cravings and binges commonly known as “emotional eating”. In fact, you have progressively broken the addiction to sugar and carbs, without giving up on sugars and carbs. Emotional eating is nothing more than satisfying a craving brought about by addition to sugar. Like any addiction, feeding it only increases the cravings. The only way to break it is to fast after your meal, even if it is a high carb meal.
High Carb Diets
In my case, even after habituated to OMAD, I would eat pizza once a week, potato casserole twice a week, bread with every meal and some kind of dessert at the end of my main meal. So how could I be so sure that I was no longer addicted to sugar? because I could fast for 23 hrs. Today, I have cut to <30g of sugar and no more than 100g of carbs a day. I used to eat 250g of carbs when I was still losing pound after pound of fat from my body. Yet, I have done this adjustment effortlessly. In fact, I love my single meal. It all tastes exquisite to me. I eat Keto cookies, and sugarless cheesecake and lemon pie. I eat beef, cheese, and nuts including cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, pistachios and even peanut butter and my favorite salad. One of my favorite things now is coconut butter. It all tastes delicious to me.
Reducing carbohydrate intake should help to accelerate weight loss and help reverse Diabetes. A good amount of fat a day should help you have the needed energy available to perform in high endurance and intensity workouts, and the high protein level should assist in building muscle fibers so needed to build muscle mass. I should point out that individuals eating a SAD diet protein increases the Insulin to Glucagon ratio. Meanwhile, in fasting individuals, protein actually cuts the Insulin to Glucagon ratio in half. As if it wasn’t low enough already. Protein acts as a safety net in fasting individuals because, in the case of hypoglycemia, gluconeogenesis from protein will provide de necessary glucose to keep us healthy.
