Should You Only Be Eating Once Per Day?

One of the hardest parts of the optimization game to get dialed in is your diet.

Not because it’s necessarily complicated.

Once you break it down, it’s actually quite simple:

✅ Keep protein high

✅ Fast periodically throughout the week

✅ Use a caloric deficit to drive fat loss and a surplus to build muscle

✅ Eat mostly whole, natural foods

✅ Limit your carbohydrate intake and use it strategically around workouts

✅ Avoid pro-inflammatory foods that wreak havoc on your gut

In fact, I’d say 80% of eating well comes down to a few fundamentals.

But with that said, I do understand why this can be so tricky for so many people.

Just because it’s not complicated doesn’t mean that there aren’t a whole lot of people out there in internet land MAKING it complicated.

I also fully acknowledge that, when it comes to developing a diet model that’s TRULY optimized, the devil is indeed in the details.

It may only be an extra 20%, but that 20% can make a BIG difference.

So let’s into the weeds here, shall we?

One type of question I get asked A LOT is my thoughts on various dieting trends.

And if you’ve been paying attention over the last few years, you probably know that one of the hottest trends going is OMAD - “One Meal A Day” (I’ll let you put your thinking cap on and piece together what that entails 😉)

Now, at first glance, this looks like a strategy that’s fully compatible with the kind of diet model I recommend.

After all, eating once a day will obviously involve a lot of fasting (which I’m a massive proponent of).

And if fasting a few days per week is good, then doing it EVERY DAY must be better…

Right?

Well, like I said, the devil’s in the details.

And there are a few details here that make this strategy a bad bet for the vast majority of people.

First things first, getting everything in one meal per day is tough.

Remember, if you’re eating correctly, you’re going to be keeping protein high.

And I don’t think I need to tell you that 200 grams worth of steak and chicken in one meal is a doozie (especially if you’re using tirzepatide 🤢)

Even with liquid whey protein shakes, that would be a challenge.

Generally speaking, most people I coach find it easier to break their food down into two meals a day (at least on days when they’re fasting).

You can do it in one…but many just find it a lot more comfortable to split it up.

But the real detail that has me concerned here is one meal a day EVERY DAY.

As you may know, I recommend:

⚖️ Alternating days of fasting with full days of eating

🏋️‍♂️ Planning those days of eating so they link up with training days

I DO NOT recommend you eat OMAD on days when you’re training and lifting weights.

Not only is training fasted not a good move, but you’re gonna want to have a post workout meal of protein and carbs, which makes eating only once impossible.

You’re also going to be absolutely stuffing yourself and taxing your digestive system if you try to take everything down at once.

And on top of all of that, you’re probably having your one glorious meal close to the end of the day, which means you risk having your sleep cycle interrupted because you’re still digesting food.

So, there you have it.

If you do want to use OMAD, pair it with days when you’re fasting.

The only exception to this I can think of is someone who’s a very obese metabolic emergency (to put it bluntly).

If that’s the case, then daily fasting plus eating once a day might make some sense for a period of time to help get the weight off quickly and get yourself out of the danger zone.

But other than that, I suggest leaving OMAD to the influencer bros who wanna brag about how hardcore they are 😉

Best,

Hunter Williams

P.S. Need help getting your diet set up?

Got a unique situation that requires my input?

Book a consulting call with me or sign up for coaching and I’d be happy to help you get a plan together 👊

You can also join the Fully Optimized Health community.

Every week I’m in there with Jay Campbell doing AMAs and answering questions (the group is also stacked with more diet info than you could possibly imagine).

And if it’s fat loss you’re after, 30 Days 2 Shredz is the definitive resource for losing as much fat as humanly possible in 30 days with zero muscle loss 💪