Managing your weight or building your muscles needs a special focus on a diet. With new fad diets evolving and changing mindsets of fitness enthusiasts, there’s also the upgrade of existing diet forms.
If you’ve heard of the keto diet in the past, you must have heard about OMAD as well. Wait, haven’t heard it yet? Wondering what OMAD Keto is all about? Here you go!
One meal a day (OMAD) implies fasting for 23 continuous hours and consuming the largest meal of the day in the leftover 1 hour. Combining it with Keto narrows down the type of food to be consumed during the 1-hour window. This is considered a rigorous way of burning fat and losing weight, although it’s an aggressive type of intermittent fasting.
Is it safe? Is it for everyone? Any type of diet that you introduce to your body needs proper evaluation.
If you’re like me specifically about taking a balanced approach, this article is for you where I’d break down the concept, pros, and cons associated with OMAD Keto.
Let’s get started!
What Is OMAD?
OMAD implies one meal a day where the person fasts 23 hours and consumes the necessary calories that the body needs in the remaining 1-hour window. The purpose of OMAD is to lose excess fat at a faster pace and is ideal for obese people.
Note: OMAD changes how the body breaks protein and fat and converts it into energy.
In a research-based analysis presented by WebMD, it’s observed that eating the biggest meal in the morning has boosted the productivity and alertness of individuals.
What Is OMAD Keto?
Incorporating the ketogenic diet with the unique type of intermittent fasting, OMAD implies an OMAD Keto diet. The purpose of this type of diet is to build a metabolic system where the body burns fat instead of glucose to produce desired energy levels.
Caution: This is an extreme, aggressive type of intermittent fasting and isn’t ideal for everyone.
An ideal OMAD ketogenic diet includes foods rich in fats, low in carbs, and medium levels in protein.
OMAD & OMAD Keto Combined
Before you head on to take up a new diet form, it’s essential to know what happens inside your body.
A research article published in Nutrients Journal highlights that meal frequency and the time of consumption have large influences on the health condition of an individual.
Aspects like circadian rhythmicity, stress resistance, gut function, and autophagy are altered according to the diet approach.
So, can you combine OMAD and Keto?
As Keto is known to aid in weight loss, it can certainly be combined with OMAD to burn fat and improve overall health.
The benefit of combining lies in controlling your cravings and getting your body adapted to breaking fat for energy.
Related Read: Can You Do Omad Without Keto?
How To OMAD Keto?
If you’re already on an intermittent fasting plan, this approach of prolonged fasting improves self-control. Perhaps, you can OMAD Keto, but it needs awareness of certain guidelines.
- The first step is to gain an understanding of your health condition by consulting a healthcare professional.
- Subsequently, you can make use of a calorie calculator online or also discuss with your dietitian in knowing your caloric needs.
- The next step is to plan micros (carbs, fats, and proteins) and then develop a meal plan that’s highly balanced and nutritious.
- While on an OMAD ketogenic diet, it’s recommended to set an eating window and then balance your hydration level as well.
- After trying this type of diet for a fortnight, you can reflect on physiological changes in your body to determine if it’s for you.
To get started, here are a few meal recommendations:
- Keto-friendly salmon
- Bone broth for breakfast
- Ribeye steak with eggs
- Burger with scrambled eggs
- Berries with heavy whipping cream
- Low-carb pasta loaded with greens and mushrooms
As you understand how to formulate the meal plan for a week, you can simply change the combination and continue the process.
Benefits of OMAD
Intermittent fasting has enabled fitness enthusiasts to improve cardiometabolism, moderate energy levels, and also other weight-related concerns.
Having identified OMAD to be a type of intermittent fasting, it does offer several benefits. Here’s a brief list:
- Continuous regulation of body fat enables a better physical shape
- Better gut microbiome
- Rapid loss of weight and regulation of blood sugar
- A significant drop in inflammation
Nonetheless, it resets your body and moderates your activity pattern. A person who has followed the OMAD Keto diet for 365 continuous days experienced high levels of weight loss. In fact, it eliminated the need to use a CPAP machine. Amazing, isn’t it?
Drawbacks of OMAD Keto
OMAD Keto does impose a lot of risks, and it isn’t a diet that you can instantly start implementing in your body.
In my experience researching and discussing with dietitians the drawbacks of OMAD Keto, I’ve been able to chalk up a few major concerns:
- OMAD Keto can usually leave you fatigued and hungry if the plan isn’t right or you’re missing something.
- Unlike other diet forms, it’s harder to sustain because it imposes only 1-hour window to consume anything. As a result, the body constantly produces high levels of ghrelin, a hunger-provoking hormone.
- People with a history of cardiovascular problems or diabetes can experience an elevation in blood pressure.
- Most importantly, anyone with an eating disorder shouldn’t imagine starting this diet unless a medical professional approves it for you.
When you weigh concerns and benefits, you can see that it demands self-discipline and self-control regularly.
FAQs
Can I Eat Whatever I Want On OMAD?
While you can, it isn’t advisable as it leaves calories unbalanced and can cause other issues like weight gain, lack of blood sugar regulation, and eating disorders. Hence, sticking to a meal plan is highly recommended.
Does OMAD Work Without Exercise?
OMAD does work without exercise, but combining both can improve the pace of weight loss. Having said that, you should regulate the intensity of your workout to avoid issues like fatigue, low blood pressure, and cardiovascular problems.
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