Lately on youtube one of my subscribers gave me an awesome comment.
That inspired me to put together a video in which I share some of my knowledge and the personal experience I have with something I did with myself around year and a half ago.
While editing the video the idea of writing this article came into my head.
I wanted provide some more additional, but still accurate and related to the subject information while using an alternative format.
The experiment was based on eating 5 meals per week for few consecutive months.
Yup! This is exactly what I said. You heard correctly.
Five per week.
You can watch the video on Youtube, but to make the long story short I would like to put it like this:
Right after I started feeling pretty comfortable and confident living this OMAD life or in other words when I felt like I am home during the longer fasted periods, which means I had no blood sugar fluctuations, crashes, mood swings or what so ever, I took a decision to continue with my self experimentations.
I had burning desire to find out what is going to happen if I push the boundaries of this lifestyle and weekly skip two whole days of eating.
In the course of the week this equals 2 X 48 hour fasts on top of my one meal per day thing.
The exact time when I did it was in the middle of 2015. My 48hour fasts were scheduled on Tuesday and Saturday.
Just in case you wonder, I do not have any other explication for the reason why I used the exact days.
It reminded me some kind calorie cycling.
Why I picked this exact experiment?
To a certain extend I am in love with the idea of self experimentation.
Back than I felt like it was the perfect time for this one.
I am in love with the idea of trying new and different stuff which might help me improve my levels of performance and overall quality of life.
It is something that appears to be highly attractive to me.
Some times there are risks, but also lots of excitement.
I guess that is the whole beauty of it.
Believe it or not every time when doing a new one, I am always extremely excited to find out what is going to happen.
The idea it can change everything and open my eyes for something bigger always gives me shivers I can barely explain.
I feel like this since I adapted to KETO for the first time.
I was amazed of all the benefits and boosts it allowed me to reap.
They turned me in a completely new version of myself.
But honestly it left me speechless when I applied the OMAD to it. It gave me very clear idea of how deep the rabbit whole goes.
Since this is my journey and timing plays key role specially when it comes to keeping the excitement going, I thought 5 per was the next step towards optimization, so I wanted to jump on it as soon as possible.
So what happened?
Because of the fact my body was able to maintain stable blood glucose during 48 hours, for quite a while I was really happy and genuinely amazed.
Even on the second day I had absolutely no cravings, hunger pains, food desires or what so ever.
Honestly overall I felt pretty good. No problems specially for the first month and a half.
But than I noticed that slowly, but surely I started to need more sleep.
Often multiple times during the day, I felt like having a strong need for a nap.
I thought it will fade away but it didn’t. It actually got worse. I ended up in a situation where, I needed naps every now and than.
For me this was the first indication which showed me very clearly, 5 per week was not the right for me thing.
As you probably know I am the exact type of person who does everything possible in order to get high quality sleep in less time.
Usually the exact quantity varies through out the week, but for the most part I am a mono phasic sleeper.
Through out the whole month I might do 2 to 3 NASA power naps, but for the most part In 24 hour period I have only one core sleep and it lasts between 5 and 6 hours.
Without single drop of doubt, I can tell you this actually is one of the many favorite of mine benefits I am able to enjoy, as a result of applying the OMAD eating pattern to the diet I follow.
Yes! I am extremely thankful for it!
For myself I do consider the wasteful over sleeping not only pointless, unecesary and even annoying.
So I feel like 5 per week was a step back for me.
Fitness.
In the beginning it was good.
After the first month I started loosing the pump. I became smooth and puffy.
Another number of results I am definitely not looking for.
I know I do not have something like the best physique. We all have weaker and stronger areas.
As probably everybody else I got some lagging body parts, but my back, legs, chest and my vascularity game where always on point.
After the first month of staying on 5 meals per week I noticed that my veins started to disappear.
Something more than unusual for me.
I was loosing my overall definition and the pretty lean year around conditioning I am effortlessly able to maintain.
My muscles were not peaking when posing or after a set.
I also found that even from a position of an highly adapted to the state of nutritional ketosis individual, I needed protein on every training day.
I am pretty sure all of you are familiar with the amazing ability of the fats to spare amino acids and muscle tissue, but if there is not enough or in fact there is virtually no protein coming on training days my body is not able to recover.
Later I figured out this produces negative impact on the levels of my performance.
Because in the end of the day, I burn my own fats, so there is fuel, but I do not supply the building blocks.
After the first 2 months this became noticeable problem, but I decided to stick with 5 per week a little longer.
I came to the conclusion that I either have to cut my training days or to consume protein rich and highly nutritious meal on every one of them.
In other words this means my body simply told that If I want to continue with the training part I have to maintain the eating one.
If you watch my youtube videos or read my articles than you are probably already familiar with the fact, fitness has big place in my heart and going to the gym is one of the few essential and extremely important rituals which ignite the excitement and set my whole day for success.
Cutting my training out of my day is definitely not my thing.
After I reached somewhere around the 4th month I got back to the OMAD.
Is it dangerous?
As long as you are able to rely on your own fat stores as primary energy source.
No. I do not think so.
But there was also no benefits, besides the experience of developing a bit stronger relationship with your body and the sense that it definitely made the whole journey even more complete.
Matter of fact it was a lot safer than other things such as the experiment I did with some of the so called safe starches.
Yes! This one provided some really good boosts for both mental and physical performance, but it also took me around 6 months of dealing with extremely unpleasant side effects, until I figured out what truly is safe and what my body is able to tolerate.
Should you try it?
It depends…
If you like to do experiments with yourself and you want to do this one, than . . .
Yeah. Try it.
Do I recommend it?
Here I would like to explain that I would only recommend this as some kind of verification tool that will help you get a better idea exactly how well adapted to the OMAD you are.
I did it for around for almost 4 months, because I like doing experiments and pushing boundaries and envelopes.
You do not have to do same thing as me. It simply not necessary.
I am happy I’ve done it.
It clearly showed me, I am able to stay without food for longer periods of time.
I am really thankful for that.
Definitely helped me develop better understanding of my body.
Besides this it did not provide me any additional benefits or boosts.
Is it possible to maintain it in long term?
Probably. Yes.
With this lifestyle everything is personal. It really depends on you, your goals and other aspects of your life.
Conclusion.
If you are highly adapted to OMAD individual and you also have the machinery to tap to your own fat stores and mobilize them as primary energy source, 5 meals per week will most likely not provide any additional benefits.
By any means I do not believe this the next level of OMAD.
I do not believe it is optimal for people who are involved in a lot of resistant training, or others who break down muscle tissue daily.
I also do not believe is optimal for people who try to sleep less.
I combine both .
Fitness is huge passion of mine and I sleep between 5 and 6 hours per night. Eating 5 meals per week interferes with both, so this is my main reason why I do not do it anymore.
The only benefit I see from it is the one it showed me exactly how powerful the KETO OMAD combination might be.
I do not regret I did it, because to a certain extend it tested my self reliance and made the relationship I have with my body even stronger.
Now I know I can do this.
Now I know I have been there.
Besides this it is nothing special.
I hope that makes sense.
Yours Truly:
Peteonthebeat
