Eating once a day is the worse way to try to shed excess pounds. In fact, by eating only once, your body goes into starvation mode and begins to store more of the calories from your meal as fat. Our bodies adapt and will change in order to keep us alive.
It is healthier to eat 4 to 6 healthy mini-meals throughout the day. Your metabolism will actually increase because your body is no longer in "survival mode." You also provide your body with nutrition and fuel to last the entire day.
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btw, i’m starting myself this week, planing on 1200-1500 calories and an hour of exercise a day on average (femle 5ft9, 160lbs). will let you know
Hi Marleen,
For me, since I don’t use this as a diet to lose weight, but just eat once a day, I’ll let you know what I eat. It’s not a rule, today I had salad at lunch with naan bread and then leftover roasted veggies for dinner. But 99% only once a day. (it was a bday lunch…have to socialize
I keep grapes in the fridge if I crave something later in the evening and it doesn’t make me feel full before bed.
I think your approach sounds healthy if you eat food thats good for you. Regular ‘food’ isn’t always good calories or good for you
Lets see:
Salmon or chicken breast (200 cals) every day. (with spices, pesto, or teriyaki sauce). Maybe a pork chop once a month.
All the veggies I can eat which is carrots, beans, snap peas, corn, broccoli, broccoli and more broccoli, asparagus, lots of tomatoes. Potatoes and sweet potatoes once a week each give or take.
1tbsp olive oil if roasting them (140 cals)
lemon juice for veggies or on salmon
cheese (not everyday, but almost) 50grams goat cheese (100 cals) or asiago 50 grams = 180 cals give or take.
Every day I choose the main veggie and toss in smaller quantities of the other ones (always including broccoli and tomatoes), but I eat a HUGE (embarrassingly) bowl of veggies until I’m FULL. I go back for seconds only of veggies on a regular dinner plate that was full the first time around
But I dont really exercise. My weight stays the same. If I was motivated to exercise, I am positive I would lose weight and probably quickly. Sorry I don’t know how many calories I actually eat in veggies, but I’m up to about 500 on salmon, oil, and cheese, so the rest is veggies!
Best of luck to you, I know you will do well.
and, ofcourse, i’m 5ft9, 160lbs and will de starting next week planning on 1200-1500 calories and an hour of exersise a day on average.
Wow, Marleen. That is my exact height and weight and I was seriuolsy thinking about this as well. Are you doing the one meal a day for 12-1500 cal? Let us know how it works out! I did it before my wedding last year and it was great.
will defenately let you know Angie, and good to know it worked for you. want to do it al in one (three course?) meal, and the rest of the day only coffee with milk, sunflowerseeds/almonds only if i need it.
(sorry for the dubble post)
I have been eating once a day for 10 years. However, it is not a weight loss program. As a poor full time grad student, l had to sign up for 2 fellowships and was busy supporting two prolific profs, I also had part time job that combined with studies kept me going for 18 hours a day. Something just had to give and for me that food. By the time I graduated, my body got used to it that I have maintained since. Now I have two coffees in the day.
nikki so whats the end result of ur one meal a day diet? how much do you weigh now?
Hey all! I am very interested in starting this!
It seems sooo easy! I mean I know it will take some getting used to, thats not what I mean, I mean SIMPLE. I have spent the past year w/ a border line eating disorder, not so much in the eating but more in the obsesion about what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat, when to stop eating, good vs. bad carbs, diet soda: sent from heaven or satan’s favorite drink? chew gum, twitch your foot when your sitting, eat 17 times a day, fiber, percenteges, ingredients, no dessert, no dairy, blah blah blahhhhhhh!!!! I am a college student and I pay for 2 meals a day in the caf. w/ my eating plan, but I only NEED one, I’m not active enough to stuff my face with food all day! In high school I ate all 3 or 4 tiny meals w/o trying, but now I have too much free time and gained 10 lbs. therefore too much insecurity to just do that! I am so happy to see that “starvation mode” isn’t 100% accurate and you all are living proof of that! 
and the gastric bypass thing makes soo much sense! thanks for the inspiration guys! keep it up! I’ll def. be checking back in!
Has anyone followed this for a number of years and had great success??
I lost 80 pounds like this. Coffee with cream all day, dinner at 5, tea, fruit if I need it. WORKS!
Gena, How long did it take to lose the 80 pounds?
I only eat one big meal a day, and I’ll occasionally have fruit snacks. It’s not a diet to lose weight though, I just find that it keeps me healthy and it’s an easy way to budget food costs. I’m 6′ tall, and weigh 165 lbs, so I’m fit. My weight is very stable, I go from 165 to 167 and back and forth, and that’s about it. I’m not a doctor, but if I had to make an observation based on my experience, I would say that the main thing isn’t how many meals you eat a day, but how many calories you take in. That seems to be the bottom line, and for me, when I eat more meals a day, I tend to up my intake of calories, so that’s why I avoid doing that. All those other things about eating only one meal slowing down your metabolism, sure, I think that affects things, but I feel like the caloric intake is the bottom line.
In December 1999, I was 6 feet tall and weighed 284 lbs. I went on a diet/exercise program, and by September 2000, I was down to 175 lbs. Currently, I am between 160 lbs. and 170 lbs. most of the time, and I find that eating once a day, at night, limited to about 1800-2000 calories works fine. Sometimes, I will have a small lunch. I have kept the weight off for over 10 years. Whether it works for anyone else, I do not know, but it has worked for me.
There are a lot of people telling us that our body will go into ‘starvation’ and we will gain weight…. but has that actually happened to anyone? Or is it just a theory for those who are too weak willed to try this diet?
Never happened to me lol.
I did this to loose weight after baby number one weaned. I gained 100lbs during that pregnancy (5mos bedrest) lost it all but about 20 in 6 months. Kept it off for a year before getting pregnant again. Baby number two I gained 50lbs and plan to do the same when he weans. So no, for me I don’t personally believe it does kick the body into starvation mode as long as your one meal is enough calories and balanced good food. Otherwise why didn’t I gained the weight back in that year? I don’t think my results will be any different this time.
Well I started eating once a day officially in July. I was 288 and now im 251-252. To be honest I did cheat a couple times. I snacked and I wasn’t losing anything. But then I stopped snacking. I workout everyday if I can.
My friend lost 60lbs in 6 weeks doing this.
However I plan to lose 40-50lbs before December 24th:[ Which is my birthday…
I use to be on a once a day eating habit when I was on my teens. At those times, I weigh 120 to 125, I never go over. When I reached 19, I decided to eat more meals in a day, and the results of this, I ended up weighing more than what i’m accustom to. Now, I’m on 2 lose weight programs called the insanity, and zumba. My goal is to go back to 125 to 130 pounds and stay that way forever. When you do eat 5 small meals a day, you can shouldn’t gain anymore weight as long the meals are very healthy and you stay of the sugars, salt, fats ect…. and don’t forget to do your exercise, because the body needs that to stay strong and help you stay lean and sexy.
i am on day 2 of just one meal a day i had a large bowl of heinz winter vegetable soup for dinner last night and it fille me up. i am havig green tea and water any time i feel hungry i plan to do this 5 days have a a day break then start for another 5..i am 5 foot and weigh 68 kilos which is way too much for my height.am hoping to lose at least 10 kilos in 6 weeks….i am taking vitamins etc and walking for half an hour a day
There is absolutely NO proof eating 3 or 6 10 times per day is better for us than eating once per day!! In fact, biologically we are identical to our pre historic or even historic ancestors and they could not possibly have been designed to eat 3 or 6 times per day as they didn’t have the food.
I eat a really decent lunch and thats it apart from tea and water, and I feel so much better!!
I became interested in eating once a day after reading an article about General Petreus. He was the commander in chief of our forces in Afghanastan. He was a lean mean fighting machine who would go out and join in the firefights with his troops. He eats one meal a day! Not for weight loss, but just because he feels sliggish if he eats more.
Think about our evolution. The idea of eating three meals a day is relatively recent. North Koreans have been eating once a day for decades, and while they are very thin, they do seem to be healthy.
I have been on it for a while and am liking it.
I have been eating once a day since 1962, 19 years of age.
About 10 years ago I met and spoke at length with a top vascular surgeon who does the same thing. He stated that eating just before bed bed means that your digestion takes place at rest. When you eat you put your body under stress due to the fact that 1/2 your blood suppy is now delivering calories not oxygen to your body. Less stress, longer, healthier life + less medical costs. I am 69, take no prescription medications, ware no glasses, work full time, (physical work), and believe my good health is due to the one meal a day before I sleep. Because of the length of time I have done this I don’t miss additional meals, and NEVER snack. I eat salmon, lots of broccoli, spinich. pasta, olive oil, fruits and my favorite, peanut butter. During the day I drink ice water and coffee. I neither salt or add sugar to anything. I am 5’7″ and weigh 134 about the same as in High school.
There is a big difference between health and weight loss. While eating various small meals throughout the day and consistent exercise will give most people a leaner body, it says nothing about their actual health. BMI in general can provide a good means of health, but even that does not take body fat vs lean body mass into consideration, which is why very muscular people technically are overweight/obese. Caloric restriction and intermittent fasting both involve a decrease in caloric intake, which is favorable, and have a large number of health benefits including increased resistance to oxidative damage and is the only reproducible and scientifically available way to significantly increase life span by up to 40% in organisms ranging from yeast to Rhesus monkeys (basically our closest living species relative).
A lot of people already take a multivitamin as it is. Coupled with intermittent fasting or caloric restriction it can cause decreases in LDL, increases in HDL, decreases in triglyceride levels, lower body fat, and ultimately increased longevity. Longevity would seem to a very good indicator of health.
A great example of how a reduction in calories is the most important factor in weight loss can be found in this article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html
I wouldn’t recommend eating once a day to many people, mostly because it requires a lot of discipline. Also, it requires a deep understanding that you are technically decreasing your metabolic rate, which is where the increase in longevity comes from. Should someone ever want to do it in the short term, they will loose weight but have to be sure to understand that if they return to a regular 3 or “fad” 6+ meals a day they must make sure to control their caloric intake just as carefully or they will go back to the same weight. I’m a medical school student and I have been eating ABOUT once a day for over a year and a half. I mean about because sometimes I go out to dinner or have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, but 90% of the time I just eat a big, hearty lunch. I’m at a healthy weight range, I look and feel great and my doctor agrees.
Hey, I’m 18yrs old and I was 237lbs Nov 3rd, 2011. I ate whatever I wanted but walked a mile everyday sometimes 2-3 times a day for a week and was 230lbs. I stopped once I got my PC, lol its one of those things where you get excited about a givt and get into it and forget about your exercising/dieting. Anyways, I’m getting too big for my size 38 shorts now, its depressing, this time last year I wore size 32 and I was only 150lbs. When I went on a diet last year I was 210lbs and ate once a day plus walked home from school (about 1mile), in a month or two I lost like 30-40lbs, it flew off. I need to start back to my old diet.
If you eat once a day, its not bad for you, just make sure if you eat, that you eat something healthy and low on calories, I stuck to my less then 1000cal a day diet and lost so much weight, I’m going to try and do it again. I lost 7lbs in 1 week and I ate about 2000 calories a day, imagine if you eat 1000 or even 500 calories a day and do a little exorcise like walking, you may loose 10lbs a week, 20-30lbs a month. It may not be healthy medicaly but as long as I live to be about 50yrs old then I’ll be happy, I want to enjoy my life now while I’m young (and that means not being fat).
hello donnie nov.28 is when you posted this has it been working out for you so far i have been eating once a day simply because i dont have enough time in the day to eat. i dont count the calories i eat which seems like a good idea but i just wanted to see how it has been working for you and how much you had lost since you posted this?
I have been eating one meal a day for a week. I have ballooned up to 190 and my normal weight range is 140-150. I did this by not working out and taking on poor eating habits. When i was in highschool I ate one meal a day freshman soph and junior year just becuase i didnt have time to eat breakfast in the a.m and school lunches discusted me. I was at my skinniest 120. Ill never forget it. That is my new goal and I know I can get there because about 2 months ago I started eating once a day and lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. I dont count calories or restrict myself of any certain foods altough i stay away from hard junk. I stopped but now have started again and will keep posting my progress. I work out about 45-60 mins of cardio a day and plan on doing strength training when i loose the first 40 pounds.
Hi everyone.
I am starting today, I will keep you posted and let you know how I did the first week:) I was reading on the warrior and cavemen diet too and it seems like this is the way to live longer and be healthier.
Take care
let me know how u get on im gonna start today
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