Been doing OMAD on and off since summer. When I stick to a schedule it works and I will lose. Haven’t been able to stay on track for over 25 day streak. When I fall I gain everything I lost… This past Thursday I fell off track and went wild until last night. Weighed in with an 8 pound gain. I am also doing a healthy wager and don’t want to be a failure in that challenge. Looking for advice on how to make this a lifestyle and stick to it long term. I have around 70 pounds to lose to reach my GW.
I see this type of post all the time, but it’s pretty normal actually. When you’ve been working with IF or CICO for a while, naturally you’re intaking less food, and generally less salt. When we have cheat days, they’re typically filled with salty fatty foods, which in turn cause a lot of water retention, which then causes a massive weight gain. It’s most likely impossible for your body to ACTUALLY generate 8lbs of fat over the course of several days. Just get back to your routine and it’ll be fine in a week or so.
I’d suggest sticking to something more sustainable, like better eating habits, quality of food and more exercise. You’ll be surprised how much you can lose just from that. Once you’ve got that down, throwing in some fasting definitely will help, like 16:8. I found omad to be unsuitable. Don’t use it as your primary way for fat loss but as tool. Good luck!!
In order to gain 8lbs of fat in 5 days you need to eat 28,000 extra calories over your total daily energy expenditure, which for the average adult is somewhere around 2,000 daily. So in theory you’d have to eat 38,000 calories during this period. I am going to take a wild guess and say that the holiday season has been good to you, but not nearly 30k excess good and it is likely the bulk of that is excess water weight. Increased carbohydrates and salt (aka a typical holiday meal) can cause excess water retention and likely explains the huge jump. If you have lost weight in the past, that means you know exactly what you need to do to start losing again. Don’t get discouraged!
I notice my weight can sometimes spike sharply overnight after going off track for a couple days as well. I find this usually corrects after a few days of getting back on track. Try plotting your daily weight on a graph and you may seem some short term spikes and dips as well. It’s the long term trendline that’s important. So long as that’s still pointing downward I wouldn’t be too concerned.
Any particular reason you “went wild” for 5 days straight? I mean, that’s a lot, but understandable if it’s a 5 day vacation. When I go on vacation, my diet and fasting are also on vacation. But if it wasn’t a planned “break”, I suggest not trying to go on a forever streak, it only leads to relapses like this.
Give yourself a break when you need it, but only for a day or one meal. Trying to be perfect is mainly what causes the “screw it” mindset that gets one out of control for days.
OMAD has been sustainable for me for several months, but no way in hell I’d be able to stick to it for over 3 weeks straight without indulging at least once. But I plan for it. Indulge once, get back on OMAD and healthy whole food diet right after. No harm done (or well, no harm that can’t be undone - anything I gain from my indulgence is lost within 2-3 days max; it’s mostly just water retention anyway).
If you can keep it up for 25 days straight, that’s awesome. But if you feel like you’re just pushing it against your will, then definitely not awesome. Find a balance that works for you. Maybe every three weeks you can give yourself a 1 day break or something like that.