Celebrities have popularized all sorts of offbeat diet trends over the years. One of the latest trends among celebrities is the One Meal a Day (or OMAD) diet.
OMAD fans include Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. Many advocates of OMAD claim that it helps them better control their weight and stay fit.
Essentially, OMAD is a more extreme version of other types of fasting diets, such as B. intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating.
The main difference is that people who follow OMAD eat all of their daily calories in one large meal, rather than only fasting on specific days or only eating your meals during a specific time window.
But while supporters of OMAD say following the diet improves many aspects of healthwe actually know very little about the effects of eating just one meal a day on the body, let alone whether it’s safe.
fasting and health
The evidence for the use of OMAD is limited. Very few studies have actually looked at OMAD itself — and most of them have been done in animals.
Therefore, most claims that OMAD works are anecdotal. Or they are based on the assumption that if other forms of fasting can benefit health, then so can OMAD.
Research into fasting diets is still nascent. Some evidence suggests that a form of intermittent fasting known as the “5:2 diet” (where a person eats normally five days a week, then 800 calories or less two days a week) may help people manage their weight better. However, it is no better than other diet approaches.
Research has also found that timed eating (where you eat all of your day’s calories within a specific time window) can help people better control their weight. And it has others health benefits like lowering blood pressure.
A review study also found that many different types of fasting (including intermittent fasting and fasting every other day) can produce improvement several aspects of metabolism.
These include improving blood sugar and cholesterol levels, reducing inflammation levels and improving people’s health regulate their appetite. This, in turn, can help reduce a person’s risk of type 2 obesity diabetesand cardiovascular diseases.
Just one meal
A study has so far addressed the effects of OMAD in humans. In this study, participants were given the same number of calories to eat each day for the duration of the study. For half of the study, participants ate those calories in a single meal before switching and splitting their daily calories into three meals a day.
Each eating pattern was only followed for a period of 11 days – not very long at all. One meal was taken between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Only 11 participants completed the study.
When participants ate just one meal a day, they saw greater reductions in their body weight and fat mass. However, participants also had greater reductions in muscle mass and bone density when they only ate one meal a day. This could lead to reduced muscle function and an increased risk of fractures if the diet is to be continued for a long period of time.
Animal studies looking at the effects of OMAD have shown conflicting results, with research showing mice eating one big meal a day Strictly speaking gained more weight compared to those who ate multiple meals.
While these results may suggest that OMAD may have benefits in some aspects of health, there’s still a lot we don’t know about it.
It will be important for future studies to examine the effect of OMAD in a larger number of participants and other groups of people (since this study only included lean, young adults). It will also be important for studies to examine the effects of OMAD over a longer period of time and to carry out these studies in a real setting.
It will also be interesting to know if meal timing can further improve results and if the nutritional profile of the meal makes a difference.
Other cons
If someone only eats one meal a day, it will be quite difficult for them to meet all of their nutritional needs, especially for energy, protein, fiber and the key vitamins and minerals. If you’re not getting enough of these important nutrients, you might be lead to loss from muscle massdanger of constipation and poor gut health.
Someone following Omad needs to make sure they’re getting a good portion of protein and plenty of vegetables, nuts, seeds, and some fruit and whole grains during their only daily meal to meet these nutritional requirements.
They also need a good helping of dairy to ensure they’re meeting their calcium and iodine needs – or a supplement or alternative if they’re plant-based.
This is not a diet that we would recommend for children, pregnant women, pregnant or breastfeeding individuals, and definitely not for anyone at risk of an eating disorder.
It’s also important to note that while this diet might work for celebrities, they also have access to nutritionists, quality diets, and supplements if needed. For most of us, this type of diet might not be sustainable – and potentially harmful in the long run.
Amanda Averylecturer in nutrition, University of Nottingham
This article is republished by The conversation under a Creative Commons license. read this original article.
