Most humans around the world had a tough due to the pandemic. Not many were harder hit by lockdowns than the people of Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately at the time where I lived.
We had to endure being in a painful lockdown for 154 days of that year. This eventually took its toll on lots of people from a mental health perspective. I was one of those many people.
This depression led to many bad habits such as overeating and alcohol abuse. The end effect of that was a whole bunch of “covid kilos”. I’d put on a lot of weight dealing with the whole situation and was feeling absolutely awful about myself. Both mentally and physically.
I jumped onto the scales in early November and to my amazement, I’d put on a whopping 20kgs, just in that year. I was shocked and mortified that the scales read 127kg.
For context, I’ve always been someone who has struggled with my weight. At one in my mid-twenties (I am 41 now), I ballooned to 140 kgs. The biggest I had ever been. (I got back down to 85kgs but that's another story about my never-ending yoyo).
I was in shock at how quickly all those kgs had piled on.
A lack of movement, plus psychological binge eating and excessive alcohol consumption had clearly taken its toll.
I was clearly shocked into action. A father of two young children, it was my duty to look after my health so that I could look after them.
I decided to go down a drastic interventionist style diet. I chose the OMAD. diet (one meal a day died). At this stage, I had no idea how long I was going to do it. I just knew I had to take immediate action.
What is the OMAD diet?
Ok. So you’re thinking. One meal a day?
Isn’t that just starving yourself?
Kind of. But it’s in line with the trend of intermittent fasting. In this case, just a bigger fasting period. Choosing to fast is a bit different to “starving” yourself from a psychological standpoint.
The goal of this diet is to eat your recommended calories in one meal. In my case, I took a two-hour window to eat my calories. In all honesty, it was tough eating all those calories in that time frame.
I also reduced my alcohol consumption. I knew this was an unhealthy habit that had escalated during the pandemic.
That’s pretty much the deal!
What does it feel like doing the OMAD diet?
I’m not going to lie. The first week was extremely difficult. It tested all my levels of willpower not to snack. I was determined to at least get through a week and I did.
It wasn’t just the fasting that affected me. There was an element of detox from not consuming anywhere near as much sugar as well.
The hunger pains were tough for the first few days. They began to lower after day four. But even when the pain reduced, the mind was still used to eating meals and snacking throughout the day.
So yes, it’s bloody hard!
After the first week, it became a lot easier. By the end of week two, I was starting to really get used to it and in fact enjoying it. This was around the time when I thought. I’m going to try this for 100 days.
The surprising upside to eating one meal a day.
After the initial dealings with hunger. I suddenly found this new level of mental clarity. It’s hard to explain but it was almost like a natural brain buzz.
Gone were the feelings of lethargy after a big lunch and surprisingly found a new sense of energy. I know it seems counter-intuitive but that’s exactly what happened.
I felt way more productive during the day and was able to be focused for longer periods during my workdays.
Some friendly advice if you are considering it.
Here are a few things I’d suggest if you are considering:
- Be prepared for a mental battle initially as it’s going to be super tough. I’m not going to lie it was probably the hardest thing I’ve done. Try adding some meditation to help with this, it definitely helped me.
- Apart from gentle walks, I didn't really do any vigorous exercise. So I can't provide any feedback on what it feels like to exercise such as jogging or doing resistance training.
- Coffee and water are your friends. I used to drink 3 cups of coffee throughout the day and drank a minimum of 2 litres of water. It’s worth noting to add some sodium or electrolytes to your water given you are not consuming any calories during the day.
- Skipping breakfast is easy, it’s lunch that was hard for me. Especially if we had a social occasion. At times I was eating lunch for social occasions (rarely though). The tough part was fasting for a further 5 or so hours until dinner the next day.
- Most importantly. Don’t tell people you are doing OMAD because they won’t understand and it’s not worth explaining.
- Please consult your physician to know what’s best for yourself.
What were the results after 100 days of one meal a day?
Ok, so let’s set the scene once again.
Nov 2020 I weighed in at 127kgs.
After the pain of the first week, which then settled down into a groove. I technically cheated 3 out of the 100 days where I had two meals. This was predominantly over the Christmas period which made it hard.
February 2021, 100 days after. I weighed in at 108kgs.
I lost 19 kgs in total or 6.3kgs per month. After and before:
This diet is definitely not for most people. I get that. If you’re looking for results to cut those kilos, I can vouch to say it definitely works.
My theory on the success of this diet comes down to the theory of calories in and calories out. Given that you only have a certain amount of time to eat. I was likely not eating any more than 1,500 calories per day.
There’s an ongoing argument within the health and fitness community about whether fasting works due to how it reduces the levels of insulin in the body. I have no opinion on this but have seen many critics of fasting suggesting the main reason being what I just explained about calories in calories out.
Either way, I hope that my story inspires you in some way to take action on losing some extra kilos. Good luck.
If you did enjoy this, please do follow and if you have any questions. Do ask away.