Intermittent fasting and OMAD: benefit, side effects and FAQ

Intermittent fasting (IF) and one meal a day (OMAD) is widely used to lose weight without getting into the complexity of counting and tracking calories. They are also used for many health benefits, which have been proven in many recent studies.

So, here is a full guide on fasting along with the most asked questions:

Overview

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of fasting and eating.
It doesn’t specify which foods you should eat but rather when you should eat them.
In this respect, it’s not a diet in the conventional sense but more accurately described as an eating pattern.
OMAD stands for One Meal A Day, which is a method of intermitting fasting.

Intermittent Fasting Methods

There are several different ways of doing intermittent fasting, all of which involve splitting the day or week into eating and fasting periods.

Here are the most popular methods:

The 16/8 method (the most common): Also called the Leangains protocol, it involves skipping breakfast and restricting your daily eating period to 8 hours, such as 1–9 p.m. Then you fast for 16 hours in between.
OMAD: This involves just eating one meal a day and fasting for 24 hours to have the next meal. For example, not eating from dinner one day until dinner the next day.
The 5:2 diet: With this method, you consume only 500–600 calories on two non-consecutive days of the week but eat normally the other 5 days.

There are other methods of fasting, but these are the most widely used and all of them will cause weight loss as long as you don’t compensate by eating much more during the eating periods.

Benefits

1-Rapid weight loss

You can lose a lot of weight with intermittent fasting by making you eat fewer meals during the day, which will lead to a huge reduction in calorie intake without even trying to track.

Additionally, intermittent fasting changes hormone levels to facilitate weight loss. By lowering insulin and increasing growth hormone levels, it increases the release of the fat-burning hormone norepinephrine (noradrenaline).

Because of these changes in hormones, short-term fasting may increase your metabolic rate by 3.6–14%.

A 2014 review study found that this eating pattern can cause 3–8% weight loss over 3–24 weeks, which is a significant amount, compared to most weight loss studies (Click to view).

According to the same study, people also lost 4–7% of their waist circumference, indicating a significant loss of harmful belly fat that builds up around their organs and causes disease.

Pro tip: keep in mind that the main reason for its success is that intermittent fasting helps you eat fewer calories overall. If you binge and eat massive amounts during your eating periods, you may not lose any weight at all.

2-Cellular and hormonal changes

When you fast, several things happen in your body on the cellular and hormonal level, such as:

Increase in Human Growth Hormone (HGH): The levels of growth hormone skyrocket, increasing as much as 5-fold. This has benefits for fat loss and muscle gain, to name a few
Lower Insulin levels: Insulin sensitivity improves, and levels of insulin drop dramatically. Lower insulin levels make stored body fat more accessible.
Cellular repair: When fasted, your cells initiate cellular repair processes. This includes autophagy, where cells digest and remove old and dysfunctional proteins that build up inside cells.
Gene expression: There are changes in the function of genes related to longevity and protection against disease.

These changes in hormone levels, cell function, and gene expression are responsible for the health benefits of intermittent fasting.

3-Better health

Many studies have been done on intermittent fasting, in both animals and humans.

These studies have shown that it can have powerful benefits for weight control and the health of your body and brain. It may even help you live longer.

Here are the main health benefits of intermittent fasting:

Insulin resistance: Intermittent fasting can reduce insulin resistance, lowering blood sugar by 3–6% and fasting insulin levels by 20–31%, which should protect against type 2 diabetes.
Inflammation: Some studies show reductions in markers of inflammation, a key driver of many chronic diseases.
Heart health: Intermittent fasting may reduce “bad” LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides, inflammatory markers, blood sugar and insulin resistance — all risk factors for heart disease
Cancer: Animal studies suggest that intermittent fasting may prevent cancer.
Brain health: Intermittent fasting increases the brain hormone BDNF and may aid the growth of new nerve cells. It may also protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
Anti-aging: Intermittent fasting can extend lifespan in rats. Studies showed that fasted rats lived 36–83% longer.

Keep in mind that research is still in its early stages. Many of the studies were small, short-term or conducted in animals. Many questions have yet to be answered in higher quality human studies

4-Make your life easier

One of the main obstacles of eating healthily and trying to lose weight is all the work required to plan for and cook healthy meals.

Intermittent fasting can make things easier, as you don’t need to plan, cook or clean up after as many meals as before. You will only have one or two meals a day and that’s it.

For this reason, intermittent fasting is very popular among busy people who can’t eat every 3-4 hours as any regular diet.

Side effects

1-Hunger

is the main side effect of intermittent fasting as you can’t eat almost anything for long hours depending on the method you will try.

It could be an issue for many people, and you must consider it before getting intermittent fasting.

On the other hand, there are some individuals who don’t feel hungry most of the day anyway. So, this style of eating will be perfect for them.

2-mental fatigue and general weakness

You may feel weak and your brain may not perform as well as you’re used to due to the fact that you are eating less or going without food for too long.

Fortunately, this may only be temporary as it can take some time for your body to adapt to the new meal schedule.

All being said, intermittent fasting has an outstanding safety profile. There is nothing dangerous about not eating for a while if you’re healthy and well-nourished overall.

FAQ

Here are answers to the most common questions about intermittent fasting:

Who should be careful or avoid It?

Intermittent fasting is certainly not for everyone.

If you’re underweight or have a history of eating disorders, you should not fast without consulting with a health professional first.

Can I Drink Liquids During the Fast?

Yes. Water, coffee, tea, and other non-caloric beverages are fine. Do not add sugar to your coffee. Small amounts of milk or cream may be okay.

Coffee can be particularly beneficial during a fast, as it can blunt hunger.

Isn’t It Unhealthy to Skip Breakfast?

No. The problem is that most stereotypical breakfast skippers have unhealthy lifestyles. If you make sure to eat healthy food for the rest of the day, then the practice is perfectly healthy.

Can I Take Supplements While Fasting?

Yes. But protein shakes or any meal replacement drink is not allowed as they contain a fair amount of calories and macros.

Also, keep in mind that some supplements like fat-soluble vitamins may work better when taken with meals.

Can I Workout Fasting?

Yes, fasted workouts are fine as long as you are keeping it low intensity.

As for weight training and high-intensity activities, it should be after a meal or at least take amino acids or BCAA drink to avoid muscle loss.

Will Fasting Cause Muscle Loss?

All weight loss methods can cause muscle loss, which is why it’s important to lift weights and keep your protein intake high.

One study showed that intermittent fasting causes less muscle loss than regular calorie restriction (Click to view).

Will Fasting Slow Down My Metabolism?

No. Studies show that short-term fasts actually boost metabolism. However, longer fasts of 3 or more days can suppress metabolism.

Should Kids Fast?

Allowing your child to fast is probably a bad idea as they need many nutrients to grow further.

Should I Try It?

At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to nutrition. The best diet for you is the one you can stick to in the long run.

Intermittent fasting is great for some people, not others. The only way to find out which group you belong to is to try it out.

If you feel good when fasting and find it to be a sustainable way of eating, it can be a very powerful tool to lose weight and improve your health.