How I Ate a Ton of Food and Still Lost Weight
Submitted by Guest Blogger, Jamie Cassata
Important note: G&G doesn't offer medical advice. We recommend speaking with your physician before starting any diet or exercise program.
Is your eating out of control? Well, mine certainly was.
I’ve been working out and lifting for years, but eating is something I never had a handle on. I’m a big eater. If I’m not restraining myself, I’ll eat everything in the house and then head out to McDonald’s for the “good stuff.” Frankly I have no clue how I didn’t balloon up to the size of the Goodyear blimp.
How Fasting Got Me Down to My High School Weight
One day at the bookstore I discovered a book on fasting. At first my brain resisted this concept like some wanted felon resisting arrest. I mean, the idea of restricting my eating to set times was just wrong on so many levels.
But I was persuaded to try it out, restricting my “eating window” to only eight hours. I ate almost anything I wanted within those eight hours and fasted the rest of the time. I tended to start eating about 1pm and stop at 9pm. But it was flexible.
And as it turned out, in the first week I lost about five pounds. Water weight, mostly. But the real advantage was learning how to rein in the eating and develop some self-discipline about it.
Over the next few months I bumped up the fasting. From 16 hours a day I moved to 18 hours … then to 20 … and finally to 23. I even did a few 36- and 48-hour fasts along the way. But I settled in at 23 hours of fasting a day.
What is OMAD?
In other words, one meal a day. OMAD. With OMAD, I started eating all my calories within a one-hour window—usually between about 10am and 11am—and I fasted the other 23 hours.
All told, from the time I first started fasting, I lost 27 pounds and about five inches off my waist in four months. I was back to my high school weight.
Why OMAD?
I started OMAD with the belief that lipolysis (fat burning) depends on your insulin levels going down. Insulin is a hormone that helps the body utilize glucose or store it for later. When insulin increases, fat burning decreases. But when insulin decreases, fat burning increases. Fasting tends to lower your insulin levels and should result in fat burning. And the longer you fast, the more fat you burn.
Fasting also tends to counter the extreme metabolic adaptation that can occur when you’re restricting your calories but eating frequently throughout the day.
But there’s some controversy about these claims. I encourage you to research the issue for yourself. I’m no scientist or doctor, and I have no vested interest in anyone else fasting or doing OMAD. All I know is OMAD worked for me. And it might work for you, too. Of course, check with your doctor first. OMAD isn’t right for everyone.
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