I have a really long work day and I am wanting to try OMAD but tweak it a bit. I already fast 16:8 and have my coffee plain in the morning. I eat lunch around 12 and then dinner before 6 usually. Now I am wanting to mix it up—coffee in the morning, maybe a snack instead of lunch like a greek yogurt or protein drink, then a meal before 6 that consists of veggies, protein, and a grain. Anyone have experience with this? I know it breaks a fast to have a snack but I am wanting to start slow to have longer time success.
That would still be 16:8 as you wouldn’t be getting any fasting benefits beyond the 16 hours. In terms of caloric deficit, that should work fine if your goal is to lose weight (assuming your one meal around 6pm won’t put you at a caloric surplus), but definitely not OMAD.
Also, depends and varies by person, but there’s the possibility that after your snack at noon you’ll just want to keep eating because you won’t be full and 6 hrs to wait for a substantial meal is pretty long. Your body might be expecting more calories than the snack provides and thus give you all the signals to keep eating. Again, this is not everyone’s experience, just something to consider as it might actually happen.
One of the IF authors, Gin Stephens I recall, penned this as OMAD+. Basically as you described, most of nutrition in a OMAD style meal but with a snack or small meal in addition to that a few hours earlier.
It was my preferred method for a while, mostly for digestive reasons for the amount protein I wanted to consume for other goals. I had good success with it, though eventually returned to a more proper second meal as my priorities have shifted.