This article was originally published on March 3, 2020.
Could you limit yourself to eating one meal a day over an extended period of time? It might sound crazy, but that’s the idea behind a diet that’s growing in popularity. It’s known as OMAD, or “one meal a day,” diet and it’s an extreme form of intermittent fasting that proponents say delivers weight loss, improved learning and memory, and other health benefits.
OMAD makes other intermittent fasting approaches look pretty wimpy in comparison. Essentially, OMAD is a 23-to-1 fasting-to-eating schedule. So, someone undertaking the diet eats one large meal during a one-hour feeding window. Then they fast for 23 hours without consuming any additional calories — not even from beverages.
While the fast may be brutal, many people still find a lot to like about the one-meal-a-day diet. You can eat or drink pretty much whatever you want (even pizza, burgers and beer), and as much as you want, as long you do so during your scheduled mealtime. On top of that, people say OMAD is convenient — you only have to worry about planning for one meal a day. Another commonly cited perk is having fewer dirty dishes to deal with (yes, seriously).
