Maybe it’s how I do IF, but I’m not sure I understand the functional difference. OMAD makes sense: eat a single meal per day with all the calories and nutrients you’d need. With 20:4, are you eating one meal plus snacks? What does it look like in practice for y’all that do it?
Good question. I’ve been wondering this myself. For whatever reason, 20:4 seems more achievable for me because I can have two normal sized meals during the 4 hr window and not feel like I need to go nuts. OMAD makes me want to absolutely gorge myself for my one meal because I’m afraid of being hungry later. I know this is stupid and all in my head, but that’s how I feel about it.
Here’s what I’ve learned and what works for me right now: While I prefer OMAD over 20:4, I tend to overeat with the former. With the latter, I start with an appetizer – cheese, nuts, veggies, cream cheese, etc. This works especially well for starting during work hours. I wait about an hour and have soup (usually just hot water with salt), wait and eat a small salad or another appetizer, then wait and eat my entree and sometimes a dessert. That all fits well into a 4 hour window. So I treat it like a single multi-course meal over a 4 hour period.
4 hours is a long time. It’s not just one meal. You have to spread your calories out more.
For me, it’s not worth it. If I’m getting up to 20 hrs, I’m holding out and having one big dinner.
But obviously if you’re going out for a family meal or a date, then having 4 hrs leeway makes much more sense.
I lift weights everyday so I needed to get more protein in. So I did 20:4 so I can eat one big meal which takes about 30 mins, and then 3 hours later, I eat more lean protein (boiled eggs or grilled chicken breast or canned tuna in brine or sardines or whey protein or lean ground beef)
I sometimes find that with omad I don’t digest as well. Rarely if ever the case with 2 eats. Even with omad now…I will eat something small right when cooking starts…some walnuts or something. It seems to help…really makes it a 23/1
When I first started fasting over two months ago I was eating extremely poorly and pretty much started with OMAD. It was my way of allowing myself to eat whatever I wanted. I started to realize I needed to break my daily fast with something better on my gut and I wasn’t drinking enough water. This kind of forced me into a 2hr+ feeding window. As I saw results it was fairly easy to start reducing the bad food more and increasing healthier choices. The funny thing is now it’s hard to eat much in one meal. My food choices are still a work in progress but with the uptick in water and food that triggers fullness (versus all carbs), it’s hard for me to do OMAD. Not because I can’t easily fast for 23 hours but once I break my fast I still don’t want a full meal and that sometimes extends to an hour or two. Because I’m only eating when I feel hunger I don’t want to force myself to eat one large meal just to hit OMAD. This change just started in the last ten days so I’m just kind of going with the flow.Pretty surreal to be 9 weeks, and truly feel like it hasn’t been much work. That being said my weight loss has been slower than some. I’m down 16 pounds which is still unbelievable to me some days:)
I break my fast at 4(ish 😂) depending on mood, with my vitamins and a snack of usually a handof mixed nuts and or cheese. Then a sensible dinner or sometimes even pizza or pasta in moderation. I’m stuck at 40 lbs down after 6 months… no real progress after month 4, but it may be due to my adult beverage habit 🤷♂️