I was not as much into fitness as I am today. When I started exercising on a regular basis in 2013, I altered my eating routine to 5-6 meals a day with smaller quantities. I liked waking up early and having early breakfast. In May,2018, I changed my workout timings from evening to morning and early breakfast in the form of pre-workout snack became ‘kind of a necessity’ (in my mind of course) and when I say ‘early’, it means – pre-workout snack before 5:30am, workout around 6 or 6:30am and breakfast around 8 o’clock.
I could not imagine having a lifestyle without early breakfast. I have always loved village culture in this regard. I remember, when I was a kid we used to have breakfast at 6:30 or 7 o’clock, lunch around 12, evening snack around 3 and dinner before 7pm.
Intermittent fasting became a trend in the past few years for many health benefits. Major benefits of Intermittent Fasting presumably are –
- Improved memory
- Increased productivity
- Improved willpower and better discipline
- Better mental clarity
- More focus
- More creativity
- Better mood
- Better immune system
- Increased energy levels
- Less cravings
- Weight loss (especially in terms of belly fat reduction)
- Decreased inflammatory conditions (like arthritis and other joint diseases, various types of allergies etc.)
- Help prevent diabetes
- Slows aging
- Autophagy- Around 18 hours of fasting, autophagy is triggered. Autophagy is recycling of old damaged protein and microbes, turning them into new amino acids and renewing the tissues
- Helpful in alzheimer’s disease
- Increase in the levels of HGH- human growth hormone which increases as the no. of hours are increased
I was curious about its effect regarding brain functionality and inflammation the most and thought of giving it a try. It was supposed to be a ‘one month experiment thing’.
Most popular Intermittent Fasting Routines are –
16-8 – 16 hours of fasting period with 8 hours of eating window
18-6 – 18 hours of fasting period with 6 hours of eating window
20-4 – 20 hours of fasting period with 4 hours of eating window
OMAD- 22-23 hours of fasting period and eating within 1 or 2 hours
And let me clarify one thing – when we say ‘fasting’, it doesn’t mean avoiding the main meal and eating fruits or having lemonade or tea/coffee with milk. It actually is – fasting with absolutely NO snacking, not even a sip of juice or a single biscuit.
The best way is to skip breakfast and have an early dinner because sleeping hours easily increase the fasting period. For example- having first meal at 1pm and dinner at 7pm which gives an 18-6 fasting routine.
The biggest challenge for me was – not having breakfast. For some people, it might be having an early dinner. Whichever the case is, there are two ways to deal with it. Either going “Cold Turkey” (completely skipping a meal) or delaying and reducing the quantity of a certain meal slowly.
When I started intermittent fasting, I was surprised to observe how easy it actually is for our body to adapt itself to a certain routine if we make up our mind to do that. It took my body 3-4 days to get used to ‘Not having pre-workout snacks and breakfast’ and almost 20 days for the mind to be okay with it. Soon the experiment turned into a routine. After almost 3 weeks, I stopped having lunch as well. I had One meal a day – between 5 and 7 pm for 4 months with 14 cheat days in between that period. The picture above the blog post shows the ingredients of my meal for the OMAD diet routine. I played with the recipe every other week but made sure of the macro and micronutrients in the diet.
MY OBSERVATIONS ON OMAD DIET ROUTINE-
BRAIN FUNCTIONALITY
The effect of intermittent fasting on memory, productivity, mental clarity, focus, creativity, mood, immune system, energy levels etc. are very subtle and can be observed only if we keep track of all of these aspects and can certainly be noticed at least after a month.
RELATIONSHIP WITH HUNGER AND FOOD
Hunger pangs are there only in the starting 3-4 days. I realised that we eat unnecessarily out of boredom most of the time. We can be without all of those snacks and ‘supposedly much needed’ beverages that we keep on having all day long, even the cup of tea or coffee first thing in the morning. It’s not the need of our body as we term it, it is just our habit. We reach out to snacks all day, the same way we pick up our phones and click on social media icons even unintentionally sometimes.
REAL TASTE OF FOOD
I liked the way food tasted, especially of what we eat when we break the fast. Simple porridge or boiled vegetables with just salt taste delicious.
WILL POWER AND DISCIPLINE
I read it once “the way we do one thing is the way we do most things”. Due to staying away from food and trying to resist hunger for a longer time, we develop more willpower and discipline. Like a domino’s effect, discipline in one area leads to discipline in other areas. It will not inculcate discipline in us just like magic but it will make us take note of our actions which we are doing out of habit and give us a perspective about how we can develop it in all other areas, only if we are patient enough to observe it.
CRAVINGS
Cravings do decrease with time. I am nuts about sweets and I noticed a big drop in the level of cravings that I used to have earlier. When we deprive ourselves of a particular taste for at least 24 hours, we feel less inclined to have it. After that it becomes a matter of we ‘can’ have it rather than we ‘want’ to have it.
NUTRITION
This point can be under both pros and cons of OMAD. There can be nutritional deficiency. But it can be avoided entirely if we focus on what we are eating. While doing intermittent fasting, we don’t need the same amount of calories as we do when we are eating frequently. Also intermittent fasting helps our body recycle nutrients so we don’t need as much as we usually do. Scientific studies have shown that the nutrients are better utilised by our body when we are eating within a shorter number of hours. It will make better use of whatever it has gotten.
EFFECT ON MUSCLES
There is no loss in muscles. Muscles are protected even while doing prolonged fasts (less than 48 hours). I felt a little fatigued only during the first one week and it took some time for the body to get used to it. Focusing on strength training is a great way to protect muscles. Working out in the morning in a fasted state is helpful in protein synthesis (the process of protein getting turned into muscle). It is not even necessary to eat right after the workout. Protein synthesis and fat metabolization actually increases as time goes by after the workout. So, waiting for an hour or two is beneficial. Insulin levels are at a baseline in a fasted state which means we are running off of our body fat. But if morning workout doesn’t fit in your schedule, there is no need to stress over this. Yes, we burn more fat in a fasted state, but that doesn’t mean that it is the only way to get the benefits of intermittent fasting.
WEIGHT LOSS
I did NOT lose weight while following this diet routine because I did not put a calorie restriction on myself. It was not the target this time (2013-14 was the time when I did it. Now it’s more about maintaining and improving overall health). Calorie control and focusing on macronutrients is still the major factor if you are trying to reduce weight. I have tried different eating routines. The best and the easiest among them was – eliminating simple carbs from the diet and eating while listening to the stomach rather than the taste buds. Keep ‘sustainability’ of a routine in the mind and work on the habits one step at a time.
SOCIAL LIFE
Most of the people, whom I had a conversation with regarding OMAD, were concerned about how to deal with hunger, but this is the last thing that we need to worry about. The aspect of our routine that gets affected the most and is hard to deal with is – our social life. In fact I would say that this is the only thing which is tricky with OMAD. It is surprising to see that socialising is almost synonymous to food. For the first two months, I wasn’t able to cope with it. It was strange for friends and the family even after explaining it. But there is a way out. We can be flexible with the timing on weekends or whenever there is an event. Sometimes on ‘coffee meetings’, we can opt for a no calorie beverage.
Fasting – Dos and Don’ts
- Stay hydrated. Add salt to water if you feel headaches. It will also help deal with the fatigue.
- Tea or coffee with milk or creamer and most other beverages break the fast. Black tea, black coffee, green tea (without sugar) are okay to have. We can take assistance of black coffee /tea in the starting but don’t overdo it.
- Try opening the fast with something which is easy to digest like porridge. Bananas, pears and citrus fruits, also the fermented dairy products are not good on an empty stomach.
- If you are worried about binge-eating, eat salad in large quantities. Overeating can be managed with low calorie food.
- If caloric deficiency is the concern, go for calorie dense food. But high calories doesn’t mean eating sweets. Include good fats in the diet. Any of the fats like – nuts and seeds, coconut oil, ghee, olive oil etc.
- It is very easy to gain weight even after being on omad diet if we keep consuming simple carbs and high calorie food like – cakes, cookies, fruit juices, soda, pasta, white bread, other products with refined sugar etc.
- Pre-planning and preparing meals in advance is one way not to waste time everyday thinking about it.
- Even if it is one meal, keep a two hour window for eating to avoid bloating. Eat something light first and wait for a minimum of 30-45 minutes before going for the big meal.
- Green leafy vegetables should be included in the diet everyday. If you are fasting for more than 12 hours, consume boiled vegetables and avoid eating them raw.
- Don’t bulk up on fruits much if you are trying to lose weight. Also, OMAD has a short eating window and you don’t want fruits to occupy much space in your stomach.
- Locally available vegetables and fruits are way healthier for us than the exotic ones due to the time gap that is there between their production and consumption.
- Eggs, fish, meat etc. are great sources of protein for non-vegetarians. Vegetarians worry about not getting enough protein. I, myself, being a vegetarian, had been confused about it when I started educating myself on this. But lentils, most varieties of beans, soybeans, edamame (immature soybeans) and dark green leafy vegetables are good sources of protein. You don’t need to wreck your brains over not getting enough protein.
This way of eating might not work for most people. One meal a day doesn’t mean just eliminating the two meals and having dinner the way you had been having it earlier. If you want to give it a try, first educate yourself on the requirements of both macro and micronutrients and study different styles of eating thoroughly. Above all, don’t be too strict with the timing. If eating at a particular time is making things complicated, then there is no point in struggling with it.
Following a particular eating pattern can be a sensitive topic in the family. But first we ourselves need to be okay with it and normalcy in the behaviour of the people around us will come automatically. I have observed the same thing in my home. In the beginning they found it strange. But now they have become habituated to the way I follow a diet because I have become comfortable with my choices!
Happy fasting or eating…!!!
