OMAD- one meal a day, the latest health craze that challenges you
to “eat like the ancestors”. The rules are simple: eat one single meal a day,
as big as you want. But does OMAD work? Is it safe? Is it even healthy? We could've
talked to doctors, but why do that when you've got your very own lab rat?
Challenge Start:
I really hate it when the show screws with my food. I love eating, it's basically my favorite
hobby. Want to grab some sushi? Hit me up, dawg, I'm there. Italian? Why not. Mediterranean? Two
please. So when I heard my next challenge was a food related one I was concerned-
but this one doesn't sound so bad. As I'd soon find out, I'd be very, very wrong about that.
It's called OMAD, one meal a day, and the premise is that because our ancient ancestors probably
only enjoyed one meal a day, it's healthier than our modern diets. Our ancient ancestors
also didn't put men on the moon and hadn't quite figured out that wiping after a good squat was
a good idea- but sure, let's take their advice on diets. At least it's not as stupid as paleo.
The rules are that I can't eat anything else but one meal a day, but I can eat as much as I want
in that meal. I did some research and found out that there's a ton of OMAD videos from gymbros
on youtube, but I found a few by actual doctors. Further research revealed that if I didn't want
to put on a bunch of weight, I should eat earlier in the day rather than late at night, because you
burn more of the calories from what you eat at the start of the day then when you're just laying
there comatose. That makes pretty basic sense, so I decided that lunch would be my feasting time.
I'm also not really eating “whatever I want” as I've seen advertised. First, if you're into this
for weight loss, the “eating whatever you want” is probably what got you in trouble in the first
place. Dieting isn't going to work if you've trained your body to eat cake all the time,
because cake was the problem in the first place. Sure, you might lose the weight, but then you'll
put it right back on because you never learned to use moderation when stuffing your face with cake.
That's the secret to an effective diet: it's not about cutting calories, it's about making small,
incremental lifestyle changes you can actually live with. So if you're
looking to lose weight, maybe only cut 200 calories instead of 600 or more,
until you get used to that, and then cut a little more. Better to go slow
and steady than burn out because you actively hate existence on your diet.
So I'll be consuming some pretty calorie heavy foods, but not necessarily junk. I'm talking
steak and potatoes, pasta, spanish tortilla- some of my favorite stuff. What really has me excited
is that normally I watch what I eat at every meal, but on this diet I'm actually encouraged to binge
all at once. Of course I'll be banned from putting anything else in my mouth until 1 pm the next day,
and that's going to take some serious will power because I love snacking, snacking is life.
Let's fast forward and see what effect OMAD had on my diet and lifestyle. See you in 30 days.
One Eternity Later:
I've been journaling my thoughts on OMAD throughout this experience,
and now trying to form an aggregate conclusion. First, the basics. I wasn't sure if I'd lose
weight or gain weight, but was shocked to discover I basically stayed the same,
losing only one total pound. Now, I started this already in a good place weight wise,
so I wasn't focused on tailoring the diet to be specifically about losing weight. The fact that I
came out just a tiny bit slimmer though shows that OMAD probably works for losing weight,
and you probably don't have to make big tweaks to what you enjoy eating to do so.
What did I eat? Pasta, steak, potatoes, fried chicken,
sheperd's pie- honestly my diet didn't change from what I regularly eat,
I just had much bigger portions than I normally would. Also I cooked most of what I ate myself,
so it's healthier than say, Popeye's fried chicken. We did eat out a few times,
like on date night with the girlfriend, so throw in sushi and a lot of sea food as well.
OMAD kind of screwed with my eating out to be honest. First,
the girlfriend is usually either at a shoot or on set somewhere until the evening,
so our eating out is dinner. That was really hard when you've been starving all day and
have to wait even longer to eat. We got sushi one night and I think the staff was worried I'd
eat everything in their inventory. I love sushi but it's never really been very filling for me,
so I already order a lot of it. This time though I ran up a nearly $100 bill all
on my own with all the sushi I ordered. I'm pretty sure I'm half mercury by now.
And speaking of bills, we've got a few fancy places around LA that we like to go eat at, and
boy did things get expensive. I'm glad the show was covering the bill, because I ran up a whopper
of a bill at one of our favorite seaside places. It's called Moonshadows Malibu and it's... well,
in Malibu, a really nice place with a balcony that overlooks the ocean as the waves break below you.
Really good food too- but like most fancy places they give you... moderately sized portions. And
they're not cheap either- I ordered a seafood pasta dish that was $42... and I had four of
them. I don't know if it's illegal to order that much food for just one person at a fancy place,
but I was getting looks from the staff and at one point the manager came by our table. He
didn't say anything, just came by and checked to see everything was alright. I think he was
scoping us out to see if this was doing some sort of terrible youtube prank or something.
No dude, I just really like your pasta and I'm $168 hungry.
We had a similar incident at a steak house, where this time I ran up a $210
bill on my own. When I placed my order for four steaks the waiter looked confused and
asked if we were expecting more people. I told him no, this was a work thing,
and refused to elaborate. He just looked confused over at the girlfriend who smiled politely until
he left to put my order in. If anything, the staff didn't complain about the tip and- oh my god,
I just realized I forgot to expense the tips. You can imagine they were significant.
Alright, other than freaking out fine dining establishments, what effects did OMAD have on
my life? Honestly, I wouldn't recommend this diet, like at all. Yes, it's really cathartic
to pig out and know you can eat as much as you want, but it's kind of a hell to have to
wait 24 hours to eat again. And if those plans are disrupted for hours because, I don't know,
maybe your girlfriend wants to go have dinner with her friends and one of them does literally nothing
but talk about herself the entire evening completely monopolizing the conversation-
AND she is so busy talking that she asks the waiter THREE TIMES to please come back later
because she hasn't decided what she wants to eat yet... yeah. That can wear on your nerves.
Listen, don't be that person. Don't be the guy or gal that isn't ready when the waiter comes
by to take your order. On the grand scale of evil there's number one: Nazis, two: Putin,
and three: people who make the entire table wait because they aren't ready to order when
the waiter comes. I didn't say anything at the time, though I was making mental plans
on how I could follow her to the bathroom and if there might be a window big enough
in there for me to push her corpse through so I could stuff it in the dumpster out back.
The grumpiness is real, and it wasn't just times I was literally starving to death and certain people
were too busy self-promoting to place an order. When you're waiting that long for food, you kind
of get a little cranky around the 18 hour mark. Especially when you wake up to your significant
other making homemade waffles for herself, and you still have to wait until 1 pm to eat.
I did find myself more sluggish than normal too. Immediately after the meal, forget about it. If
the house was on fire I would've thrown the dog out the window and then just laid back on the
couch to burn. I was like a fat turtle that had rolled onto its shell and couldn't flip itself
over, and all that sucrose hitting the system at once did not feel good at all. I typically ended
up napping for an hour after each meal, and even after I woke up I felt absolutely awful.
It wasn't until later in the evening that I started to feel like a human being again.
Also, eating one huge meal a day will make you absolutely blow out your toilet. I cut turds
so long that I could've probably fished one out and used it as a club. I know you
likely didn't want to know that, but this is a serious scientific investigation and it's
data science must know. If you can't handle it, you're in the wrong field.
I think it also affected my sleep schedule though, because I would get most of my
energy in the late afternoon or early evening, pushing my bedtime back by about two hours. The
girlfriend likes to go to sleep around 10 pm, and I'll usually sleep at midnight- ever since
I left the military I have trouble sleeping and naturally want to stay up all night. But
the girlfriend will usually make me lay with her until she's asleep because she wants to
feel me close until she drifts off. Then I'll get up and stay up for another hour and a half or so.
But this time I ended up going to sleep at about 2 am, thanks to having a bunch of energy later
in the day. I guess my body had to take time to process all that food and turn it into energy,
completely disrupting my physiology. I may be a unique case given my long-term sleep problems,
but maybe if you're going to do this diet try it earlier in the day and see how that works for you.
I really doubt the ancients ate like this to be honest with you. I know they were hunter-gatherers
and meals weren't exactly guaranteed, but it really didn't feel natural. I felt like a big, fat
snake- starving myself until I gorged on one huge meal. I just don't see how ancient man could've
led such an active lifestyle with only one big meal, I think something more natural would be to
get frequent smaller snacks with a larger meal- berries and fruits that they picked or whatever.
This month really got me thinking about food though. Have you ever thought about
how much food you eat in a day? It's an absurd amount, and it's not just us- all
mammals eat an absolutely criminal amount of food in a single day. Compare that to reptiles,
who eat like one fish every six years and are good to go.
I get that warm blood is basically what's made us kings of earth,
and our big brains require a ton of calories, but it just seems really inefficient from a
survival standpoint. But at the end of the day I guess we did arm-wrestle the dinosaurs into
extinction- at least that's what my North Korean history books say. So I guess it's worth it.
Check out another food challenge with I Ate Insects For a Week,
or click this other video instead!