Most people eat three meals a day as a staple. However, intermittent fasting has changed the rules of diet. Many people now eat less, and some go as far as eating once daily. The One Meal a Day (OMAD) diet is a restrictive method of intermittent fasting.
However, is it good for your body? Are the disadvantages way more than the benefits? The OMAD diet is a popular favorite for those struggling to lose weight. This is because the body resorts to burning fat rather than food for fuel. However, the side effects of doing this outweigh its benefits.
First, eating once a day has a harmful effect on one’s cardiovascular health, according to a 2007 article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Although there would be a physical difference as there would be a significant loss of fat, it is not a healthy diet.
Eating once daily also raises your Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) levels. An increase in LDL raises the risk of serious conditions such as stroke and high blood pressure. The cholesterol may build up fat in one’s arteries, causing severe consequences.
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While LDL is commonly known as “bad cholesterol,” HDL is relatively good. HDL helps to absorb cholesterol and process it out of the body. However, it should not be in excess. If it is too high, a sudden heart attack is highly possible.
Several types of heart diseases are also commonly associated with high HDL levels. Furthermore, a 2021 article in Clinical Nutrition combined the results of 21 randomized controlled trials on the effect of meal frequency on cardiometabolic risk factors such as cholesterol and blood glucose. According to these results, a higher meal frequency is associated with lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels.
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According to a 2020 study in Neuroendocrinology Letters, eating multiple times might be good for some cholesterol levels. In their research, they kept the total calories the same and had some people eat fewer times than four per day. For the others, they had them eating four or more meals.
The result of this experiment showed that those who ate smaller, more frequent meals had lower fasting triglycerides and higher HDL cholesterol concentrations. On the other hand, those who had fewer meals had higher levels. However, there weren’t any differences in LDL and total cholesterol levels.
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Therefore, eating three or four times a day is not a bad idea as long as you keep the calorie intake at a fixed rate. Furthermore, a 2022 article in Frontiers in Physiology states that eating only once daily might not be so bad if one is healthy. As many people are not quite sure of their status, embarking on this diet plan is risky.
Therefore, if you were planning on using the One Meal a Day (OMAD) method, you might want to rethink your approach to dietary intake. Several less risky ways exist to control your diet without fearing serious health implications.
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