Losing weight or more properly losing fat eating one meal a day is a strategy I’ve recently adopted.
Update: Since I first started this site I’ve had a few tries to lose weight eating one meal a day. And they all failed until I tried again in 2011. By January 2012 I had lost 30lbs on the diet and I’m currently on my way to getting a flat stomach for the first time in twenty years.
Here’s are some recent pictures:
Back to the diet:
It sounds pretty extreme and I suppose in some ways it is.
The idea came to me after I finally came to the conclusion that I could do without breakfast.
Missing out breakfast was something I’ve done on and off over the years. It was never a deliberate decision it was just something that happened.
Within the last month I’ve extended the idea to missing out on lunch and just eating one main meal in the evening.
It’s something of an experiment but it’s showing great promise.
I find that the earlier in the day I start eating, the more I eat, so delaying my eating until the early evening seemed to make sense.
I should stress that this is not a long term lifestyle change I’m looking to make. This is a short term strategy aimed at creating a calorie deficit to help me lose weight.
Over a seven day period I’ll spend the first three days eating one main meal a day. Over the next two I’ll eat two main meals at or slightly below a maintenance intake.
For the final two days I’ll take a relaxed attitude to eating and whilst I’ll aim to consume somewhere around maintenance I won’t get flustered if I don’t. In fact I think there are some benefits to eating big sometimes – if only psychological.
I should clarify that I’m not doing any strenuous exercise other than brisk walking once or twice a day for 30 to 40 minutes.
I should also clarify that I eat fruit or vegetables if I get very hungry, but at best these intakes can be described as snacks (not meals) somewhere between 100 and 150 calories.
Other than water, my beverage of choice is tea, with whole milk and sugar.
Having made this disclosure about the extras you can perhaps see that I’m not leading a lifestyle of total abstinence. There’s a fairly regular intake of calories throughout the day but there’s only one (or two) main meals.
I aim to use this approach to get me to my goal weight of 173lbs or until I see six pack abs or a flat stomach.
Thereafter I’ll use it to maintain and keep the weight off. Thinking ahead to the future I’d like to be in a position where I’m always within four weeks of a six pack (if that makes any sense?). I want to lead a normal lifestyle and eat pretty much what I want to eat and I believe it’s possible – after all, for well over a decade I’ve managed to maintain at 30lbs over weight, so I see no reason why I can’t maintain at my goal weight.
Having said all of this, my problem over the last two days has been my sabotaging my efforts in the evening. I find myself snacking while watching TV. It seems a shame to go a whole day sticking to the plan only to abandon it right at the end.
I’m certain I’m still eating at a calorie deficit but without doubt I’m slowing my progress. The reason for eating one meal per day for only 3 days a week is so I can find the self discipline to do it.
I’ve done it before and I can do it again.
Fit Dad
