Hey everyone!
So before I start, I just wanted to say that I don’t exactly recommend anyone to do this right now, I just wanted to share how it felt for me. With more personal experimentation over time, I’ll more confidently be for or against it.
Okay, so when I mean 1 meal a day, I mean one major meal in the late afternoon/early evening with fruit and vegetables spread throughout the day.
I also followed the 5 healthy habits I laid out in this post a few weeks ago. Essentially they are:
At least 7 hours of sleep
At least 200g of whole fruit
At least 200g of whole vegetables
At least 2.5L of water
At least 30 minutes of pulse-raising activity
And one more thing, I only ran a handful of times as exercise during these 4 weeks. My pulse-raising activities were essentially brisk walks and active stretching.
But why?
My motivation to exercise was already very low and I pondered if I stopped, won’t I put on weight?
But I’ve known for a long time that exercise isn’t necessary for weight loss or maintaining weight. Instead, exercise, in general, is great for strengthening our bodies and our minds.
Weight manipulation relies on general activity levels and our eating habits.
So I decided to try this one meal-a-day thing coupled with my 5 habits to see what happens.
How it worked
Essentially, I wouldn’t eat anything other than whole fruit and vegetables until about 1700ish.
I would then eat a large meal with a dessert sometimes or a starter. Considering it was all I ate, they were pretty huge, and sometimes I would take a break after eating 75% of it before completing.
My observations after 8 weeks:
Pros:
My weight generally stayed the same even though I didn’t count calories. I just ate with intuition.
I became less hungry throughout the day.
I avoided the post-lunch daze.
I saved money from eating out at lunch.
I thought about food less.
I savored that one meal each and every time.
I saved time on cooking and cleaning.
Cons:
I would only be able to socially interact over food with others in the evening. But then again we are still a pandemic so I’m totally cool with eating on my own.
After a while, it started becoming easy to undereat. Obviously, this was from my intuition as I wasn’t counting calories. It was definitely a problem as I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I managed to balance it over time by having ‘lower’ and ‘higher’ days.
By the 6th week, my energy levels during walks were not what they used to be. I’m not sure if this was because of me eating one meal or me undereating. To properly understand that, I would have to count the calories on my large meal.
General conclusion
I felt good but it needs some tweaks for sustainability. I haven’t figured out what those are yet. I will update.
I also see some potential here to make calorie restriction for weight loss a little easier. But again, sustainability is my concern for most people.
Let me know if you’ve tried this and have thoughts on it.
Who this is not for
From doing some reading and my own observations, this won’t be great for people with a variety of medical conditions, including eating disorders and generally if you have an unhealthy relationship with food.
I would say I’m very mindful of eating as a construct so it feels safer to me personally. But then again, this was only 8 weeks so I don’t know.
This isn’t a new concept at all so it definitely requires personal experimentation for most of you.
What’s next?
Now that the gyms are opening tomorrow, a real test would be to do this while going hard in the gym and trying to make gainzz.
I don’t know how that’s going to feel.
I believe it won’t be ideal but I’ll update after a few weeks.
Have an amazing week ahead!
Arun
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Podcast episodes this week:
An interview with a friend and dentist who went viral on TikTok for oral hygiene.
A reflection on why our health habits will fail.
Check it out on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple.
About Me
My name is Arun and I'm a 4th-year medical student at King's College London. I'm also a certified personal trainer and lifestyle photographer.
Connect with me on Instagram and Twitter for more!
For thoughts about this newsletter, please drop an email at hello@arunjayaraj.com