How healthy can a person be who only eats 1 meal a day? Assume the meal is nutritionally complete and otherwise healthy. Any negative consequences to this regimen?
Sounds like one where you’d be hungry most of the time. Wouldn’t be sustainable for me.
I usually only eat once a day. I think I’m pretty healthy.
The problem with it is that going for so long without eating puts your body into a panic/survival mode and it starts to store fat and nutrients. If you were dead set on eating that one meal a day, if you could space out everything throughout the day it’d be much better for you, but I guess that ruins the whole convenience aspect (if that’ what you’re going for).
In short, intaking all your calories for the day at once causes a big insulin spike which can cause your body to store excess fat. Here’s a related link where this general question was discussed: Would it make any difference what time of day I consumed my calories? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
Why would you want to eat only once a day? Eating is fun but more importantly, your body needs fuel to function.
a 2500 calories meal should knock you out for quite a while, wouldn’t it? You would really have to choose a good time for it.
Here’s my wacky reasoning: if it was possible to maintain this sort of diet long term and still be healthy, the armed forces would be doing it already. They’re not. An MRE is about 1200 calories, and soldiers are meant to eat 3 of them a day. Think how much money could be saved on packaging, shipping and storing if they could get it down to one 3600 calorie meal! Soldiers would have less weight to carry if they could have only one spoon and one packet of salt and one napkin and one bottle of tobasco per day (and, in reality, if on the march, they do tend to open their MRE’s ahead of time and ditch the nonessential stuff to lighten the load, according to my ex.) Less time would be wasted on meal breaks.
If they, with all their money and research and men in white coats, can’t figure out how to keep an active person sane and healthy on one meal a day, I’m guessing most of us can’t, either.
I don’t know about the soldiers, but I couldn’t possibly consume 3600 calories in one sitting. Actually, I eat about twelve 300 calorie meals a day anyway so I suppose my body just isn’t conditioned to consume much more than that.
I’m sure a person could survive on one meal a day for a very long time, but it wouldn’t be nearly as healthy as spacing the meals out. It’s likely that the person’s body would adapt over time and metabolism would slow down.
That usually takes more than 24 hours.
I was poor for a long time, and I ate only once a day for years and years. My situation has improved greatly, but I still only eat once a day. I haven’t noticed any ill effects from it. Is my metabolism permanently screwed up? I’m a bit afraid that if I ate more food, I would only get fat.
Eating isn’t fun for everybody. I don’t enjoy eating.
Well the insulin spike thing is still true! :smack:
With all due respect to the individual people involved in the military, yeah, I’m gonna have to agree that coming to any conclusion about whether or not something is a good idea based upon whether or not the military does it is wacky reasoning. 
Regardless of the long-term health, it would probably also affect your short-term wellbeing and effectiveness each day. That might be the bigger issue. After all, in the big picture one big meal a day vs. 3 medium meals a day vs. one fairly large meals a day and 2 snacks are not that terribly different. Calories per day would be the same, calories per week would be the same, per month … But for me personally each day would be less comfortable and less energetic. I expect I would experience the discomfort of overeating and some period of hunger each day, and both would distract me from whatever I was trying to do.
No matter how tired I am, if I am hungry I cannot sleep. If I’m too tired to go to work but have to go, I’ll go all day without eating to stay awake. Then I go home, eat, sleep and the next day I’m fine.
Like yesterday, after the Tony Awards.
I frequently eat only once a day: usually on weekends or other days off. Otherwise I eat twice a day and no where near the amount of food recommended by the Canadian Food Guide.
Recommended Servings:
Vegetables and Fruit 8-10
Grain Products 8
Milk and Alternatives 2
Meat and Alternatives 3
I do about half of this and am completely healthy: 45 years old, 5’8", 155 lbs.
So didya win one? huh, huh?
My doctor told me specifically that it would be healthier for me - and easier to lose weight - if I spread out my caloric input over 5 or 6 small deals per day instead of 2 or 3 larger meals.
I think it did have to do with insulin spikes and to avoid feeling too hungry, which can lead to overeating.
I don’t therefore have evidence that 1 meal/day is unhealthy, but I’ve been told that eating smaller portions more often is more healthy.
My uncle eats every other day. He started this diet because of the findings on calorie restrictions in mice. The research at the time was something like this: mice that were fed the same amount of calories in a week, but half as often, lived 150% longer than mice fed every day.
He has had no ill effects associated with this change. He runs marathons and his doctor says he is in excellent shape and condition.
What is it about eating that you don’t like?