In a previous post, I discussed the incredible benefits of the OMAD plan for improving quality of life and performance. While you enjoyed the content, some shared that they’re having struggles adopting it.
Being one of the first to advocate OMAD as a complete self-transformation tool, I decided to address these struggles, as they seem rooted in confusion. Summarizing your comments, I’ll cover things like:
- Brain fog,
- Low energy,
- Shakiness during fasts
- Fasting-mimicking diets
- Whether OMAD is restrictive
- And fasting in the Occult.
OMAD and Side Effects
Since they have the same root cause, I’ll cover the first three issues together:
- Brain fog,
- Low energy, and
- Shakiness when fasting.
The reason you get these when attempting the OMAD plan is that you are not adapted. Simple as that. Similar to bodybuilding, Magick, starting a business, and everything worthwhile, the OMAD plan requires a substantial preliminary investment. It includes:
- Giving your body enough time to adapt gradually.
- Not pushing through willpower as that equals failure.
Strictly individualized, the process depends on how much you’re addicted to frequent eating and carbs. For most people, that’s a lot. For me, it took a total of one year:
- The first half was two meals per day in 8/16.
- The second was compressing the feeding window and merging the meals into a ‘big dinner,’ like Serge Nubret, who inspired me to do OMAD.
The Basics of OMAD
As reiterated in my book OMAD GAINS, eating OMAD mainly boils down to three things, neglecting either of which means suffering.
- Stable blood sugar,
- No hunger or cravings whatsoever,
- Burning stored energy as a primary fuel source.
So, let’s dive into each.
Quality over Quantity
Based on research and personal experience, a zero-carb, total-elimination diet is the most effective way to get all three.
Now, the comments mentioned high protein and high fat, but that actually means nothing, as food quality creates all the difference, either making or breaking your success.
A diet can be high-fat and protein but cause cravings and issues due to food intolerances you don’t even know about. This is why the mentioned regimen is so effective, even if you cannot afford grass-finished.
The complete amino and fatty acid profiles promote:
- High energy,
- Stable Mood,
- Mental clarity,
- Long-lasting satiety.
- Optimal hormonal balance.
Furthermore, quality fats and proteins crank up the production of critical satiety signals:
- Peptide YY or PYY.
- Cholecystokinin, or CCK.
When injected with these, people and mice stop eating as they signal their brains to do so. Even better, you don’t need to inject them, as eating quality fats and proteins produces identical results.
Macronutrients and Common Sense
According to many, this is the most sense-making diet for humans. We have essential amino and fatty acids. In contrast, there are no ‘essential sugars’. And when it comes to mental states and performance, human brains are actually nearly 70% fat. So, you can decide for yourself.
Stored Energy
Speaking of this, the carbohydrates our bodies can store are very limited. Probably a little over 400 grams if you are really jacked and tall or pro bodybuilder.
Conversely, the average human carries about forty thousand calories as stored fat. An amount lasting for about a month of plain fasting.
The bad news is that thanks to modern living, people trained their bodies to be great at burning recently ingested sugar(s) while terrible at accessing their bodies’ reserves. Besides causing permanent hunger, this keeps you in the feedback loop from hell we call a blood sugar roller coaster.
Fat Burning
To the rescue comes the steaks and eggs diet. Even when good quality, vegetable oils are quite different. On the contrary, animal fats are the closest to your body’s reserves.
Becoming efficient at burning animal fat trains you to access the stored energy. The more that happens, the more you transition to OMAD. It just becomes natural.
This is due to a state called Ketosis, which is kind of the backbone of eating OMAD, as it provides the earlier-mentioned essentials. So, let’s get into that.
Ketones
There are three types of ketone bodies.
- Acetone – in breath
- Acetoacetate – in urine
- Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) – in blood
The first two get excreted, whereas the third is burned for fuel. The key detail is that the more efficient your body gets at this, the less hunger you experience and the more stable your blood sugar is.
Usually, the levels slightly drop, then remain steady throughout the fast. This is because the body simply no longer relies on sugar.
During the past 10 years, mine remained at 4.1 – 4.3. Let me know about you.
The shakiness, nausea, anxiety, and poor energy step back to mental clarity, peak performance, and dramatic physique improvements for those into bodybuilding.
Fasting Mimicking Diets
Much of OMAD’s power comes from controlling insulin. While OMAD GAINS covers that extensively, broken insulin is the root cause of the current obesity pandemic.
Insulin and glucagon are a lot like Chesed and Geburah, or even Yin and Yang, according to Duke-National University’s Ben Bikman.
The bottom line is that one builds, expands, and develops, whereas the other destroys, burns, and eliminates.
Fasting triggers Glucagon, the metabolic Geburah, whereas eating or calories, insulin, the metabolic Chesed. A ‘fasting-mimicking‘ diet is supposed to keep insulin maximally low, as plain fasting is presumably the lowest. Now, let’s get back to macronutrients.
The reality is that different macronutrients spike blood sugar and, thus, insulin differently.
- Fats are the lowest,
- Carbs are the highest,
- And protein is in the middle.
This is why there’s an argument that Bullet Proof coffee is the ‘ultimate fasting-mimicking’ tool. On the contrary, demonizing protein is quite dangerous, especially for athletes.
There’s also the argument that when combined, different nutrients reduce the meal’s glycemic index and, therefore, the blood sugar and insulin response.
Given all this, meats and eggs remain unbeatable for ‘fasting-mimicking’ with whole foods and thriving physically and mentally. Plus, if you really dedicate the time to adapt, you’ll never need butter in your coffee.
Water and Minerals
As far as other ways to combat the mentioned side effects, do your homework on:
- Proper hydration,
- Electrolyte balance,
- Water excretion when adapting,
- etc.
While critical, these deserve separate discussion and are also covered extensively in my first book.
OMAD and Restrictions
The comments mention restrictions. And honestly, I don’t know what you guys are doing. Anyone who ever adopted the OMAD plan agrees this is the most liberating eating pattern, as they finally get to feast epically daily.
According to Mark Sisson, the challenge of OMAD is not eating less but getting enough food. How cool is that? Actually, plenty, and here’s why.
Reaching absolute satiety with the right foods stimulates the release of CCK and PYY. So you can fast even longer.
Qabalistically, I view this as a pact with the nephesh or animal soul, which, for those not knowing, includes:
- The Inner child.
- The Freudian ID,
- The Jungian shadow,
- Your basic instincts and desires.
During the day, there’s no hunger, so the Nephesh is out of the way, and delaying gratification comes naturally.
You crush your tasks, hit the weights, etc. At night, the Nephesh gets its part of the deal.
What some don’t understand is that delaying doesn’t mean denying gratification. Think of moderation and Seneca.
The even cooler is that if you are really adapted, you can actually skip the day altogether.
If you listen to your body, you’ll likely find eating OMAD as dinner more natural. Besides letting you focus on what’s meaningful, this aligns with your true nature.
Our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. They hunted through the day and feasted at night, which wasn’t necessarily every day.
According to some, this feeding pattern is deeply engraved in the collective, as it basically preserved our race in ancient times. Hence, why you always have more appetite at night. Now, let’s talk about calories.
Calories
Whenever I tracked my calories in the past, I failed miserably, never having abs or real muscle, and struggled to get rid of my tits. Completely adapting to OMAD felt like removing a:
- mental leash,
- an obnoxious restriction, causing me real yet unnecessary stress.
It was as if my Nephesh said: “Since I get what I want consistently, I’ll let you stay lean and mean year-round.”
Incredibly liberating, this made me enjoy the iron lifestyle to the fullest. And for the record, I actually diet cycle keeping high metabolic flexibility which is another discussion. Let me know your thoughts.
Fasting and The Occult
Mentioning ancient times, fasting was utilized by various systems and occultists. Yet, as far as I know, that wasn’t eating only carbs, which, as you learned, is the complete opposite of true fasting. Examples include:
- The Abramelin Operation,
- Count Cagliostro, the Inventor of the Egyptian Rite.
- Etc.
While the first includes pretty intense fasting, the second utilizes fasting and other sensory deprivation methods like true biohacker. In the words of Gurdjieff:
“By itself fast has no meaning. Fasting is used as a means of altering our metabolism and, consequently altering the tempo of life and movement in us. Fasting is not for the sake of somebody, not in honor of any saint. Fasting is without exception for oneself. (…)” Nowadays, fasts are usually undertaken in various religions (…), without meaning, without consciousness; (…) Such fasting is of no use, and to fast in this way, one must be a fool.”
— G.I. Gurdjieff
As far as ‘mystics’ who ate only carbs, the reality is that these people were extremely naive and ignorant of many things, which is actually hinted at in Living Thelema.
You cannot blame them, as the church ruled, and science wasn’t developed. Throughout history, humans, especially mystics and religious people, believed a lot of stupid things.
- The Earth being flat,
- The Sun dying every night, which is actually the backbone of the old magickal formula.
According to Crowley, the new Aeon kicked in 1904. In the 1920s, insulin was discovered, yet lobbyists paid Harvard researchers to hide it.
Now, we live in the information age, so it’s about investing our attention wisely, availing of and finding mystery in the latest scientific discoveries.Think of Chesed and Geburah and Insulin and Glucagon.
As Haiku poet and Zen master Matsuo Basho advocates.
Seek not the paths of the ancients; Seek that which the ancients sought. — -— Matsuo Basho
So pay attention to the right information, and use the tools available to carve your own future. But that’s just my opinion. Let me know if you agree. And thank you for your time.