What if I ate only one meal a day for an extended period?

Factual Questions
1

I know that crash diets or intermittent fasting is bad for you, in that (IIRC) it puts strain on your heart and doesn’t work well anyway, as your body assumes you’re undergoing famine conditions and starts packing away every extra calorie it can (in the form of fat).

But what if I decided that for a year or more I would eat only one meal a day? Say I resolved I would eat whatever I want, but only in the form of a reasonably-sized meal that occurs once per day. Would that be effective? Would there be undesirable side effects either during the diet period itself or afterward?

2

Once you get used to it nothing much would happen. That is unless you have some sort of metobolic illness like Diabetes which you need to regulate food intake.

I have been eating one meal a day since I was 16 years old.

OK I eat a bit more… :slight_smile:

I usually eat coffee and something small for breakfast, like a banana. Then at lunch I eat my HUGE meal. Sometimes as much as 1,000 or more calories. Then I eat a small dinner. I eat 1,800 per day and that’s worked for me for years and years.

I got into this habit 'cause I worked for hotels, and they would give you one free meal a day. So I made sure I got the most for my buck.

And I got a real nice body. 44C 32w 15arms, six pack abs and I’m healthy. So once you get used to eating one meal per day you’ll be fine.

As you can see, I’d eat something small for the two other meals, like two small meals, in my case breakfast and dinner for around 200 or 300 calories. Then have your one really big meal

Of course as I said, if you have a problem like diabetes where you need to maintain control over your blood sugar or similar type issues you can’t do this.

3

I hate to pick nits (OK, no I don’t), but Markxxx, you have described a system in which you eat one large meal and two small meals per day. The OP is asking about eating only one meal per day.

4

I have no idea how effective that one meal a day would be - I’m guessing that a lot would depend on the calorific and nutritional value, and whether it’s morning, midday or evening. Is it inappropriate to ask why you would consider doing it, Koxinga?

5

I did that for a couple of years, through sheer laziness. However, my weight did drop to 105 before my habits improved. (I am 5’4" and consider 130 a good weight for me.)

6

It’s all I do anyway. I’m still here.

7

Well, you need some food when you wake up, but if the only meal is brekkers, you may have a problem going to sleep at night.

But you can do something like Markxxx, and have only one “meal” but not count fruit. Fruit is very good for you, and so a banana for breakfast, a apple for dinner, with a full meal at lunch could work. Carry a some fruit around- a orange, a apple, etc, and eat them whenever hunger pangs hit.

I used to get one free “super buffet” a week, so I’d pick a weekend, eat a banana for breakfast, go in and have late brunch around 1PM, pacing the meal over a couple of hours reading the Sunday papers and so forth, then not eat anything again until bedtime, where I often had about a 2oz piece of cheese.

Markxxx; 44C?

8

It’s not a bad idea and would work like the Atkins diet really works- IMHO. Basicly you wouldn’t have any snacks, and snacks are the real diet killers.

9

My dad only eats one meal a day, around 9 pm. Not sure how long he’s been doing this. He’s weighed 175# since he was 18, tho. It doesn’t affect his weight.

However, I think he’s able to do it because he drinks 6-7 beers during the day. That stuff isn’t calorie-free.

10

I’m lazy about exercise, I don’t want to give up eating any particular food, and I want to fit into my pants again.

11

I think it really depends on your body. I know the conventional wisdom is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and several small meals are better for you than a couple of large ones. There’s even data that people who eat breakfast are slimmer than those who don’t. But I think it’s a hasty generalization to say that it’s the only healthy way to eat.

Yes, this is anecdotal, but here you go. My father’s been fat since I was a kid. He was skinny growing up, but my mother’s cooking cured that, they say! And not just a little chubby…FAT. Couldn’t get my hands to touch behind his back when we hugged, not even as adults. Fat. Last summer, I noticed my hands touched when we hugged. Wha? Wait a sec, Dad looks tiny! What’s up?

He’d dropped well over 80 pounds in about 6 months, by eating only one meal a day. He’d get up, get some work done, go to a restaurant around 2 in the afternoon and eat a lunch sized portion. Then he’d go home and get on with his day. That’s it. No breakfast, no snacks, no dinner. And, the weirdest thing was, he said, he wasn’t hungry. Now this is a man who did every diet from Weight Watchers to Atkins to Grapefruit to Pritikin, and never lost more than 15 pounds, and never kept it off for more than a couple of weeks.

I’d spent years struggling with the Breakfast Rule. I never feel hungry when I wake up. I’d force myself to eat, knowing that it’s The Rule and that eating breakfast makes you slimmer…and then I’d be ravenous all day. On days I just couldn’t make myself eat breakfast, I wasn’t terribly hungry all day. Hmmm…

So I tried it. One meal a day, don’t spend too much time worrying about what it is. Include some veggies and some fiber, but don’t worry about the fat and carbs. Whatever, it’s bound to be less calories than I used to eat all day…Lost 50 pounds in 3 months :eek: And, yes, I wasn’t hungry until it was time to eat! It’s been off for 8 months now, even though I’ve gone back to two meals and snacks (mostly because I eat when family members eat, for convenience. And because I like food.) I still delay “breakfast” until almost noon, though, and if I see the scale creep up a pound or two, I just delay it until 2 and eat a smaller dinner and the weight goes right away again.

So, I guess my view of the Breakfast Rule (and eating many small meals) is this: if it works for you, great. If it doesn’t, try something else! Nutrition and metabolism is spectacularly complex, and it just doesn’t seem to be the same for everyone.

I now wonder about those “breakfast eaters are slimmer” studies. Could professional scientists really have fallen for the correlation = causation trap? Could it be that slimmer people *need *to eat breakfast, and so they do, and heavier people don’t, so they don’t? I don’t know. But I do know that I’m no longer regulating what I eat because a magazine told me how I should do it. I’d rather listen to my own body.

12

I eat 3 snacks a day and it works for me beautifully (70 lbs lost, 5 years maintaining). But, for me, a snack is a snack, not a meal. Fruit, string cheese, non fat latte, baby carrots with hummus dip, 1/4 cup almonds…

13

Certainly I’m not a nutritionist, and I don’t disagree that there’s anecdotal evidence offered, but one meal a day seems a pretty disciplined regimen for someone proclaiming to be ‘lazy’ (no disrespect!)
Just out of interest, if you were to be having your one meal, what’s an example of exactly what it be? And assuming you’re not limiting your fluid intake for the day, what do you reckon that would be too?

14

Surely if I’m sufficiently absorbed in my work that I can’t be bothered to exercise, it’s not that much of a stretch to see that I may not be bothered to eat.

Whatever I want, which is the point. Maybe on a given day I might have spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, a side of steamed vegetables, and a beer, followed by coffee and apple pie.

Coffee, water, Coke Zero.

15

Well then surely if you may not be bothered to eat, what’s the problem with food now?

16

Look, I’m considering a new diet that I know I’m capable of undertaking but want to make sure it’s not dangerous and has a reasonable chance of working. If you don’t like the idea but have nothing to contribute, do feel free to buzz off.

17

As long as you’re eating enough calories and protein to sustain you (which is far less than you probably think), and as long as you don’t have a blood sugar disorder like hypoglycemia or diabetes, and as long as you’re generally healthy, it…
…would be wise to ask your doctor
…before I get mod-slapped. :wink:

(Worked for me, s’all I’m sayin’. And for very similar reasons. It’s easy, I’m lazy, and I can eat whatever I want to as long as I’m not eating like that all day long!)

18

Plenty of Theravada Buddhists don’t eat after noon, which I suppose means they eat two meals and breakfast is probably pretty early because they’re probably gettin’-up-early types, but it doesn’t seem to bother them any.

19

Appreciate your sharing your experience!

20

Geez! I figured they were reasonable questions, considering you’re the one asking about the probability of it working. I’m not sure how you can decide it’s not dangerous by asking a forum largely consisting of posters without any qualifications to be able to make a call like that, and with limited information from you about how you’d go about doing it.