I’m signifcantly updating my post from July with things i’ve learned since then and more information on the How-To of doing what i’m doing.
In July i had lost 36 pounds. It wasn’t a fluke. Here’s a picture of me yesterday wearing an XL t-shirt, down from a 3XL t-shirt 8 months ago. Keep reading!
Back in March i began a concerted effort to drop some weight. Now, like everyone else, i’ve done this before only to regain the weight right back plus more, so i had been looking for something different, as in not a diet, but rather an approach to eating which i could sustain.
I started in March weighing 280 lbs. and as of today (November 8, 2017), i’m at 226. That’s a number i haven’t seen on a scale in many, many years.
Here’s what i want this post to accomplish:
- Explain the lifestyle change i’m taking and how to do it, both the good and the bad parts
- Give examples of things which have changed since my last weight loss post
- Talk about my discoveries along the path so far
- Give you my experiences about things i thought would be harder than they are
- Leave you with some new resources in case any of you want to give this a try
I know that as soon as you read the next section, you may well think “I could never do that!” Please, Please, Please do not think that way. I am no super strong-willed person, i’m a regular guy, and everything in this post is exceedingly doable, and honestly, it is easier than you think. Really.
So here we go! This is not something which you buy, enroll in, pay for, or attend any meetings about. In fact, following this way of eating awards you two of the most valuable things in life: you will have more free time every day to do things you don’t have time for right now, and you will save, not spend money. How can you not want to give this a try?
OMAD
OMAD stands for One Meal A Day, though technically it’s not exactly that. It’s based on a concept known as intermittent fasting. Now, take a breath and come out from under the table while i explain what this really is. The word “fasting” tends to cause extreme reactions in many people with thoughts of deprivation, starvation, torture, monks and saints, etc, etc. This is not that.
What people are discovering and studies are just beginning to show, is that positive changes occur in your body chemistry and your metabolism when you can go for a period of time without eating. Chief among the changes are a lessening of insulin resistance (which is the cause of type 2 diabetes). OMAD is not a cure for type 2 diabetes, so i’m not riding on the wacko train. However, it does improve your diabetes significantly and my doctor will vouch for that.
If you’re saying “I don’t have diabetes”, that’s fine. OMAD will help you lose weight, and be healthier. If you do have diabetes, OMAD will help with your battle to control your blood sugars.
You WILL mess up along the way. A sugar craving may hit you at an emotionally bad time, you may decide you need to celebrate something. My birthday was a few weeks ago (i turned 62). My wife made me an ice cream pie made with chocolate ice cream, chocolate pudding, Oreo cookies and real honest to goodness home-made Whipped Cream. I ate a piece every day for 5 days. I gained a few pounds. The world did not end. it wasn’t an accident. I made a choice to enjoy that special treat even though i knew i’d gain a few pounds. Now, a few weeks later, those pounds have dropped right back off. OMAD is not prison. It put’s your mind in charge instead of your stomach.
Here’s how it works:
The magic happens when you go for at least 18 hours without eating anything or drinking anything with calories. Personally, i’ve decided to go for 20 hours and only eat during a 4 hour window each day. It’s this simple: you just set a single block of time during which you eat every day. I’ve set my eating time to be between 6 and 10 p.m. Others have chosen a different time frame, but the actual time does not matter at all. Some people set their window for the morning or the afternoon. During that window, i will eat my one meal for the day and perhaps have a snack like some nuts or popcorn. The rest of the day i don’t eat or drink anything with calories. This means you can drink all you want of non-caloric things like black coffee, unsweet tea (with an artificial sweetener if you want), water, diet sodas etc. Personally, i gave up all forms of artificial sweeteners years ago. They tend to trigger or exacerbate my problems with headaches. I drink water and unsweet tea. I’ve never been a coffee drinker, but i won’t hold that against the rest of you.
The problem of hunger:
I have lost track of how many times, after finding out what i’ve done to lose weight, a person replied: “I could never do that!”
I am reminded of something Henry Ford said:
Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right.
Another quote i read this week:
Change will only happen when the pain of not changing becomes greater than the pain of changing.
There is no actual pain associated with OMAD, but there is change, and for some of us, that thought is painful.
We have to address the very large elephant in the middle of the room.
The reason i chose this eating method 8 months ago is because after 61 years, i’d finally come to the conclusion (i tend to be slow on acknowledging the obvious) that diets don’t work for me because i have no control whatever over how much i eat. I simply can not eat just one cookie or 5 potato chips. I have always been hungry and if i am eating because of my hunger, then i want to eat until i’m not hungry. That’s the way you end up weighing 280 pounds. The mental change required is to decide that just because you are hungry, you do not need to eat. I just acknowledge “yep, i’m hungry”, drink some water and go back to what i was doing. It’s actually easy. It’s just a new way of thinking. I’ve put my mind in charge of when i eat instead of my stomach. I’ll go so far as to say that this mental attitude change is freeing. It’s liberating. It makes me no longer a slave to food, and that is very significant.
Since i have never been able to control how much i eat, instead i now am controlling when i eat. I only eat between 6 and 10 p.m. You’re thinking: “Doesn’t that mean you get hungry when you are not in your eating window?” Absolutely. I have learned that while i am unable to eat just one cookie, i can absolutely eat no cookies. Any time i get hungry outside my eating window, i just tell myself “hang in there, you can eat your fill in a few more hours.” In other words, i can say no and that works, but i can’t say “just eat a celery stick” because when i do that, i’m still hungry. If i eat enough to not be hungry, then i end up at 280 pounds. So i accept the hunger and stick with the plan and the pounds just keep dropping off.
It’s been 8 months and the hunger is less than before, but it’s still there and i’m ok with that. In fact, it actually feels really, really good to realize that i can now control a part of my life which has been uncontrollable for 62 years.
BTW, the hunger does not grow or get worse. It’s important that you understand this. You likely think that you are just going to get hungrier and hungrier. That’s not how hunger works. You are giving hunger power when you become afraid of it. Hunger pops up, i acknowledge that i’m hungry, drink some water and go back to what i was doing. Hunger does not get worse and worse. You are hungry or you are not hungry. It’s binary.
Here are the pluses:
- I have achieved control over an area of my life i could not control
- I am having a victory every day instead of a defeat
- My weight continues to drop. It is not dropping as quickly now as it did the first month of OMAD, but it is still slowly and consistently coming off.
- My blood pressure has come down and i expect to be able to decrease my blood pressure meds as my weight decreases
- My HbA1c (a measure of blood sugar) has gone from 6.7 to 5.6 which is miraculous
- When i started OMAD, i was taking 150 units of insulin a day. I have been completely off insulin for a few weeks now.
- I have more energy
- Because i don’t have to stop and eat for breakfast and lunch, i have more time to do other things
- And best of all: my mind is clearer. Blood sugar spikes and dips play havoc with your ability to think clearly.
Some details:
- Do not weigh yourself every day. Once or maybe twice a week is all you need.
- Weight loss is not linear. One week you may lose 4 pounds and another week you might gain a half a pound. This is a long-term process.
- I got stuck at 49 pounds of weight loss for about a month. Your body metabolism and chemistry is changing during this process, and plateaus are going to occur while your body adjusts.
- Once you’ve done OMAD for a month, you can allow yourself a splurge day every 2 or 3 weeks. A day when you might eat 2 meals and have a sweet dessert
- I’ve found that i make more progress when i eliminate (mostly) bread and things with sugar.
- I have discovered that nuts and cheese help tremendously. They provide satiety. They are filling, and that is normally my evening snack.
Questions i’ve been asked:
What about when you go out to lunch with friends or church has a pot luck dinner after the morning service?
I’ve discovered that it isn’t hard at all to just sit and be a part of the group and the conversation and not eat. In fact, i think i participate better when my mind isn’t thinking about eating and going back for seconds or what i want for dessert.
Don’t you feel deprived or like you are in prison?
This is the best part! The opposite is true. I feel like i have freedom from food and i feel in control instead of being driven by my hunger. It’s actually a wonderful feeling.
Here are several informational resources to help you:
I’m going to recommend that you go to this YouTube channel and watch these videos This is just a guy who has lost a LOT of weight, telling how he did it and giving you the basics. This is not a company, it’s not a book, it isn’t anything but a guy helping you do what he has done. I’ve subscribed to his YouTube channel, which is totally free. This is a playlist of 8 videos. Each one is between 2 minutes and 14 minutes long. You are going to notice that this guy is not going to dazzle you with his videos. He’s just a plain, down to earth guy.
This is a book i’ve recently read which is written by a medical doctor and it contains a great deal of information about why and how intermittent fasting works when other ‘diet’ plans do not. The Kindle version is $10.
Dr. Jason Fung book on Intermittent Fasting
Dr. Fung also has a YouTube channel with some great information.
Dr. Jason Fung’s YouTube Channel
Please ask any questions you have in the comment area below. My current goal is to get down to 200 pounds. I’m more than 2/3 of the way there. What do i do when i reach my goal? I’m sticking with eating one meal a day. It’s too good a life style for me to quit it. However, i’ll add some bread or sweets back into my eating once i get there. Or who knows, maybe i’ll shoot for a lower number.
My oldest son and his fiancé are both doing OMAD after seeing my success, and they are both losing significant weight. Ladies, please be aware that you will lose weight slower than men do. I’m sorry, but that’s just the reality. However, OMAD works for men and for women.