Few people have yet to experience the glory that is eating one meal a day.
- No, eating one meal per day won’t make you fat.
- It won’t make you lose all your muscle.
- And it won’t screw your metabolism into the ground.
But it does allow you to feast like a fucking king every single night while eating your favorite foods.
And no, this isn’t a scam and there isn’t even any secret “guru” magic behind it.
It’s really just common sense.
But fitness and common sense is a lost art these days.
If you follow it, eating once per day JUST WORKS.
And if you’ve struggled with more traditional diets that make you eat 3-6 meals per day, then this may be the most stupidly simple way for you to successfully lose weight, ever!
If you’ve dreamed of eating 24 ounce steaks, with a mountain fries and ice cream, EVERY SINGLE night while still losing fat and building muscle then read on.
Eating one meal per day in a nutshell
The basic idea behind eating one meal per day is simple.
Every day, you eat one big ass meal (preferably at night). The basic idea is to get the majority of your calories in a single meal.
And during the day, you don’t eat anything.
However during the day you can eat 1-2 pieces of fruit or some protein after you workout.
This allows you to eat much more, feel fuller, and better adhere to your diet.
Remember, eating one meal a day is NOT magic
=================
When I first started eating one meal per day, I had this weird belief that eating once per day gave me the power to lose more weight than traditional diets.
While this might seem like the case, nothing could be further from the truth.
It might be nice to believe that eating once per day causes all these different hormones to change in my body that helps me to burn “more” body fat.
But that’s just not the case.
And insulin levels – everyone always brings up fucking insulin levels.
Don’t worry about your damn insulin levels.
Just focus on creating a calorie deficit – that’s the only way to lose weight and always will be.
Eating once per day just happens to be a great way to create a deficit that many people can actually stick with.
For example, let’s say you need to eat 2000 calories per day to lose weight.
Diet #1 has you eating 3 meals and 2 snacks.
Diet #2 has you eating one meal.
In the end of the day, calories are exactly the same.
You’re just splitting your calories up a lot more in Diet #1.
That’s it. There is no magic. Just simple math.
5 reasons why you should eat one meal per day
I originally came across the idea of eating one meal per day from the Warrior Diet back around 2008.
At that time I was brainwashed by all the “eat 6 meals per day or die” BS and the Warrior Diet was my first foray into intermittent fasting.
Hell, even Terry Crews does intermittent fasting.
I’m not saying it works for everyone, but if you love to feast every single day, have more energy, and potentially be 200x more productive during the day, then maybe this something you should give a shot.
Here are 5 reasons I recommend eating once per day:
Reason #1: Increased energy
How many times have you eaten lunch only to feel super tired 2 hours later? It sucks.
We’re all told lunch is supposed to give us this magic boost of energy, and maybe it does for some people, but I’ve found that most people just fall into a 2 pm slump where they eat lunch and their productivity shoots down the drain.
When you fast throughout the entire day, you experience this amazing surge of energy that lasts the entire day.
Reason #2: Never feel deprived when dieting
One of the many reasons people fail at diets is because they don’t get this sense of satisfaction with what they’re eating and how much they’re eating.
When you follow the conventional 6 meals per day model, you have survived on a couple of hundred calories every few hours.
At the end of the day, you just never feel satisfied.
You feel like something is missing…
Ironically, eating once per day solves this problem for most people.
The act of fasting throughout the day is a very powerful appetite suppressant, so when you have your massive feast at the end of the day, you practically feel “stuffed” every night.
Reason #3: More time & more productivity
Imagine how much more work you could get done if you didn’t have to worry about eating during the day.
No more worrying about that mid-morning snack, no more stopping at subway during lunch, and no more 2 pm energy slumps.
All this time you save can now be used to do more productive things that truly matter (like looking at pictures of cats online).
Reason #4: EVERYTHING tastes better
Fast the entire day, then eat a grape.
Just one grape.
I guarantee that grape will be the best tasting grape you’ve ever had in your entire fucking life.
Look, I don’t know the scientific reason for why food tastes so much better after a fast, and frankly, I don’t care.
But some of the best meals in my life have been after a long fast.
Reason #5: Because eating cake every night is awesome
Do you know what’s awesome? Cake.
Do you know what’s not awesome? Not eating cake.
Cake makes everything in life better but with traditional dieting, you aren’t allowed to eat cake, which sucks.
Everyone needs more cake in their life (scientifically proven), so why not have a slice…or two, every night.
When you only eat one meal per day, you can afford to have some cake every night since your calorie budget is so much bigger.
Is coffee, water, tea, or diet soda okay during the fast?
Yes, as long as it’s zero calories, it’s fine.
Coffee and tea is actually a great appetite suppressant.
Eat 1-2 pieces of fruit during the day
While it’s totally fine if you can go the full day without eating anything, a lot of people do get hunger pangs no matter how much experience they have with intermittent fasting.
In this case, you can have 1-2 pieces of fruit throughout the day. This shouldn’t add up to any more than 200 calories plus you won’t feel a huge drain in energy compared to eating something high in carbs like a granola bar or a sandwich.
I recommend 2 large apples due to the large fiber and water content to keep you full
Supplement with some whey protein after you workout
If you train hard with weights 3-4 times per week while fasting (and you should) and follow the 1 meal per day diet then you should consume some 100% whey protein powder after working out so you don’t go half the day without any protein in your system.
I’m not really anal about the post-workout “window of opportunity,” but it’s best to get some protein in within 2-3 hours after your workout.
Why 100% whey protein? Because it has the most complete amino acid profile which is great for muscle growth and recovery.
As for which protein powder is best? Try Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard.
The one meal per day approach might not work great for muscle building
You can absolutely build quality, lean muscle by eating once per day.
BUT…some people need A LOT of calories to put on muscle and if you’re supposed to eat 4000 calories per day, it’s going to be pretty hard for some to get that in one meal.
So unless you have a huge appetite, I would probably be better off splitting it up into 3-6 meals.
For more info on gaining weight and building muscle, check out these posts:
Eating one meal per day vs. other intermittent fasting protocols
Eating once per day is just one version of intermittent fasting.
And there are dozens of other fasting/feasting protocols out there that play with different fasting and eating windows.
But after looking at all of them, you’ll notice that the majority of them have the same underlying concept – fast for an extended period of time and get the majority of your calories in a small eating window.
Let’s look at some of the other intermittent fasting systems and how they compare to eating once per day.
One meal per day vs. 16/8 Leangains
If you follow Leangains, this means you’ll be fasting for 16 hours per day and eating for the other 8 hours.
During the 8-hour eating window, you’ll typically be eating 2-3 main meals.
There really isn’t a big difference between a Leangains style fast and eating once per day. The main difference is in the eating window and that all boils down to personal preference.
One meal per day vs. Eat Stop Eat
Eating once per day and Eat Stop Eat are not the same thing.
Many people confuse the two since they both involve 24-hour fasts.
Here’s the difference:
Eating once per day – Fast for 24 hours, under eat during the day, and get your entire daily calorie intake in one meal, every day.
Eat Stop Eat – Completely fast for 24 hours 1-2 times per week (no calories at all), eat a “normal sized” meal at the end of the 24 hour fast.
The problem some people might face is defining what “normal sized” means. It’s basically telling you to not eat until you’re stuffed and make sensible food choices.
But if you want to get more technical, your meal after an ESE style fast should be no more than 40% of your daily calorie intake.
Read my Eat Stop Eat review here.
ESE forces you to create a massive calorie deficit on your fasting days while the one meal per day approach simply changes up your meal frequency but you still get the same amount of calories every day.
One meal per day vs. 2 meals per day
Nothing different here besides meal frequency. If you want to eat 2 meals per day, that’s fine, just make sure your overall calories are the same by the end of the day.
Can you mix and match different diet & fasting approaches
Absolutely!
I am all about diet flexibility.
If you want to follow the one meal per day approach one day and do 2-3 meals per day the next, that’s totally fine.
For example, you can structure your diet to look something like this:
- Monday: 1 meal
- Tuesday: 2 meals
- Wednesday: Eat Stop Eat
- Thursday: 1 meal
- Friday: 1 meal
- Saturday: 4 meals
- Sunday: 1 meal
Remember, a calorie deficit is the most important thing to create when dieting.
So just because you’re following a one meal per day diet doesn’t mean you literally have to eat one meal per day, EVERY SINGLE DAY.
If you want to go out and have brunch on Sunday, then screw it, have 2 meals that day. Don’t be obsessive about this stuff.
Recommended Reading: The 1000 calorie diet
The one meal per day FAQ
I’ve compiled a list of commonly asked questions from readers about eating one meal per day.
Hopefully, this answers all your questions and gets you on the right path.
What kind of foods should you eat?
There isn’t any single food that you should or shouldn’t eat.
If you have specific macro/calorie goals, you still need to hit them. The only difference is you have the luxury of hitting them in a single meal so for those that like to eat a ton of food in one sitting, you’re going to love this way of eating.
But obviously, you need to get a hefty amount of protein, a good amount of carbs, and some fat.
So something like a massive steak, some roasted potatoes, a big ass salad, plus some cookies and ice cream would make for a pretty epic feast.
Recommended reading: “What Are The Best Foods To Eat?” Here’s Your Answer, Now Stop Asking Me
How many calories per day should you eat in my one meal?
I recommend multiplying your bodyweight in pounds by 10-12 to get your daily calorie intake.
Use 10 if you have 50+ pounds to lose or if you’re a woman. Everyone else can start with 12.
This is just an estimate. It’s impossible for any formula to accurately tell you your daily calorie needs.
How many hours should you wait before going to sleep after you have your big meal?
Doesn’t matter. Sleep whenever you want.
What does this do to the metabolism?
Nothing bad. Read this article on metabolism myths for more info.
How long can you eat one meal per day for?
As long as you want. This isn’t a quick fix diet.
Eating once per day is a real, long-term approach to dieting that can work for as long as you want.
Does it matter whether you eat your one meal in the morning or at night?
Nope doesn’t matter at all.
It’s a matter of personal preference. Most people do it at night.
If you eat your one meal for breakfast or lunch, you might feel sluggish and tired the rest of the day since you have so much food in your system.
Could eating one meal per day be bad for you? I keep reading other articles online that say it’s bad for you.
No it’s not.
Most people criticizing eating once per day are just woefully ignorant. Read those articles, and you’ll find it’s just people making assumptions without any real-world data.
Can I eat McDonalds for my one meal?
Sure, but I wouldn’t eat fries and Big Macs every night.
Use some common sense here.
You can still eat the foods you love, but you should still be eating mostly whole, nutritious foods for maximize your health and performance.
I love to drink coffee. Can I drink coffee during the fast?
Yup, coffee is a great appetite suppressant to use while fasting.
Can I add milk and sugar to the coffee?
I would stick with zero calorie sweeteners if possible. A splash of milk is fine, but don’t go overboard.
Is eating one meal per day guaranteed to help you lose weight?
Of course not.
It will only work if you put in the work.
I know the majority of you reading this are looking for some magic fat loss hack but eating one meal per day is not that.
You still need to make sensible food choices and you still need to be consistent like any other diet.
Nothing is guaranteed in life.
I tried this diet and it doesn’t work for me? What do I do?
Impossible to say. Maybe you’re eating too many calories. Maybe you’re not tracking your calories correctly.
It’s usually one of those two problems.
Why do you recommend the main meal to be eaten at night?
Whatever you want but try to make it sensibly healthy.
That means something like grilled meat, a carb source like rice/pasta, some veggies, and maybe some ice cream at the end is great.
Obviously food choices vary from person and culture, but use some common sense.
Can you drink alcohol while doing this?
Having one drink per night is fine.
Everything in moderation.
Should you exercise before or after your meal?
Again, it doesn’t matter.
It’s all up to you. Find what works best with your schedule and lifestyle.
Do you need to count calories while eating one meal per day?
I personally recommend tracking calories when starting out, only because it gives you an unprecedented level of tracking.
If you’re not losing weight, then you know exactly why and you can adjust calories accordingly.
I never want people to become obsessed with tracking calories, but it does give you a level of precision that you can’t get anywhere else.
But as you become more advanced and can recognize/estimate portion sizes more accurately, then you can back off from the calorie counting.
What if you get hungry when fasting?
Here are some tips:
- Drink plenty of water, black coffee, and tea.
- Chew sugarless gum.
- Stay busy and productive. People eat more out of boredom than anything else.
How much water should you drink?
At a minimum, enough to stay hydrated.
Also, if you’re pissing green, then you probably need to drink more water (and see a doctor).
The “8 glasses per day” recommendation is pretty solid.
I will say that drinking more water can help ward off hunger pangs.
=================
Have you tried the one meal per day diet? Let me know what you’re experience was in the comments.
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how do i know how many calories to eat to lose weight? How can i know if i’m eating too much or too little? I have close to 90 lbs to lose
as a starting point, you can multiply your bodyweight by 10 to get your daily calorie intake.
I have been doing this one full meal in 24hours and it really worked for me I have lost 5kgs in one month and I eat in evening 6pm and I just feel active and full so its a wonderful full diet with no restrictions
In Eat Stop Eat, you do not eat a day’s calories in one meal on a fasting day. Brad says to eat as if you have not fasted, so just have a regular meal, and don’t think you deserve to eat more on subsequent days, either. I now have a couple of days a week on which I eat most of my calories at lunch, so my fasts are not 24 hours, but they’re not bad. I just can’t seem to make it dinner to dinner. But I”m fine with it. Weight loss is not my major goal, though it has happened. There are other benefits to this protocol of IF. Thanks for your post.
It doesn’t have to be exactly 24 hours, but should be close.
As long as I remember I’ve only eating one meal a day. I think the last time I had any normal food day was about 4 years ago. It’s not that I’ve wanted to lose weight, I just don’t like eating in front of people. I can tell you I haven’t lost any weight but I think my body might just be use to it.
I have incorporated this style of eating for the past week with a HIIT style of workout program. My window is eating is from 5-9. I went from 222 to 213 in my first week and am excited to see my results for this coming week! For the past couple of nights I have enjoyed a large homemade burger, sweet potato fries, salad, and a candy bar to top it off!! I tend to drink a lot of water during the day, take vitamins and incorporate a couple of handfuls of pastashios while at work! I really enjoy this style of eating and it still gives you the opportunity to eat pretty healthy too. If you choose.
I do this, except my one meal for the day is at lunch, not at night. I love it! I also work out a lot, so it is getting easy to shed the pounds. I also drink a big soda at lunch….44 ounces of pepsi that rushes straight to my brain and there is no better feeling!
If you really want to lose weight quickly with this diet, then I highly suggest going to CVS or somewhere similar and getting caffeine pills. They each have 200mg and if you take one every morning it will be helpful because caffeine boosts your metabolism which will make you enter “starvation mode” (the state that makes this diet so effective) faster. It will also give you the caffeine boost that many of us want without adding unnecessary calories to our diets.
Caffeine pills are fine but they don’t really make you lose fat faster. That’s a myth.
Can I eat McDonalds after completing my 24 hour fasting?
sure but you should still try to make reasonably healthy choices. This way of eating isn’t an excuse to eat 2000 cals worth of fries every day.
Right lol now I have another question. See I started this diet on the 19th Of this month and I’ve lost damn near to 5 pounds already I went from 218.6 to 213.4 in a week but my question is do I need to work out while being on this diet? P.s. I am not a fan oof exercise.
Technically don’t need to exercise to lose weight, but if you can, you should.
So i weigh 57 KG’s , that means times that by 10 i must eat only 570 calories a day. That’s not even my sedentary calorie intake….
How tall are you? You might not even need to lose weight? Also you can use a 12x multiplier. 10x are for people with more weight to lose.
It’s a question of lbs so no it would be 10*135 aka 1350. And by the way, 57kg and you wanna hardcore cut ? Lmao dude you so skinny you better put some muscle on your skinny frame.
Multiply by 10, do you mean kg?
no pounds.
Hope you’re still answering comments. I searched specifically for information about only eating once a day and found your article. I’m psyched because what you said is exactly what I was hoping for! However, to be honest with you, 99% of the other articles in the Google search said eating one meal a day is terribly unhealthy. They’re reasons included: insulin spikes, metabolic resistance, high blood pressure, inflammation, cholesterol hikes, loss of vital nutrients, decline in immune system, and more! Most said it would have the opposite effect of losing weight because your body would go into fat storage mode like a caveman starving during winter. I want to believe you’re right and they’re wrong, but how come the majority of nutrition and medical articles are against this method? Could this actually be bad for you? Please detail this for me. Thanks a bunch!
because everyone else is woefully ignorant. I can guarantee most of the people talking shit about eating once per day have never actually done it themselves.
I think you’re right. I’d be very interested in reading a follow article where you address all the specific medical concerns that these anti-eat-once-a-day articles portend. In the meantime, I started the plan a couple days ago and plan to give it at least two months. I’ll come back to report the results. Thanks!
If you read those articles, you’ll see they actually only say those are only small risks. They talk about 1 meal a day, just like how they do for other diets.
I’ve been on an intermittent diet for a while already (although I only used to fast for 16 hours, leaving an 8 hour window for eating) and I saw minimal results. I’m keen on eating just once a day, but does that mean that I have to eat 1,300 calories in just one meal? Or can I eat less than that? If I do eat less than that, will that be alright or will I simply slow down my metabolism? Thank you!
you eat the same amount of calories. ANd hate to bring the bad news, but chances are you won’t lose weight if you change your eating window. There’s probably another underlying problem.
How come this is the case? Should I see a nutritionist or a health expert about it? I’m around 125-130 pounds, and I haven’t really been losing weight. Am I just on a plateau?
How tall are you? Are you a guy?
I’m a girl and my height is 5″4! Sorry for the late reply, unfortunately I didn’t get an e-mail notification about this (or maybe I wasn’t able to read it(. I’ve been eating one meal a day (dinner time) for around 2 months for five days a week and I haven’t been losing weight with it. I’m not sure if I’m doing anything wrong as I’m actually a pescatarian and I’ve even been on a month long sugar free diet as well. 🙁 I feel kind of hopeless with it, and I was just wondering if you have any ideas on how to help or maybe what I can do with this problem?
You still need to track how much you’re eating. This isn’t an “all you can eat” pass during your one meal. Take your weight and multiply it by 11. That’s a decent estimate for how many calories you should eat per day to lose weight.
Hey guys, I recently started this diet and I’m doing good so far but my question is, does it matter whether you eat in the morning or at night cause for me ,I usually have my ‘feasts’ in the morning so I was curious to whether I will have slower results as compared to people who have their meals at nights?
no but if you eat a feast in the morning, you can’t eat much the rest of the day.
Hello there!
Really appreciated your article!
I just read a great book written by a Japanese doctor, dr Yoshikazu Nagumo, who is an avid one-meal-a-day advocate. In his book “Being Hungry Makes you Healthy” he really explains why this eating style makes you lose weight, look much younger AND live longer.
I went on from there to see if anyone else besides him follows this method (the classic IF eating style hadn’t worked for me in the past). Your article seems to bear proof of that thing working well.
But I have the following problem and need your advice if you please: a usual day of mine begins at 6 am. At 7am I reach the office where I stay until 3pm, get back home at around 3.30 pm and then, at around 7 or 7.30 pm off I go for my tennis or body-ballet training (depending on the day). That means that my day usually ends at around 9 pm… I don’t know if I can wait that long before I have a decent meal, if I can wait that long with only a couple of fruits during the day (actually that’s exactly what the good doctor suggests – he also suggests to avoid caffeine on an empty stomach, but drink burdock tea instead). The doctor himself has more or less the same time-schedule every day but he helps himself with dinner at around 7 pm. He says that having dinner as your main meal helps you sleep better between 22pm and 2am, the real golden hours for the secretion of the Human Growth Hormone.
If, let’s say, I manage to wait until 9 pm, then should I or should I not weigh myself at 6 am when I wake up? I don’t think the balance is gonna show any progress if I feed myself up that late in the day.
What if I have my meal in the afternoon window: when I come back home from work and before I hit the tennis court? But then I’d have to go to sleep for a while and this means no sleep between 22 pm and 2 am… Problem…
What say you, dear Keith? 🙂
PS: Just so you know, I need to lose 5 kgs (not easy), I am menopausal (50 years old) and 1,70 m tall (I think that’s 5f 6” or something like that).
You’re overcomplicating it. You can eat however many meals you want. Just keep your daily calories in check. So if you need a snack or whatever, fine. Just know that your main overall meal can’t be as big then since you had the snack.
Yep, that’s called CICO; as long as you eat under the amount of calories that’s excess for your bod, you lose weight.
Naja – is that book in English and can you get it in the US? I looked it up and it looks like it’s only in Japanese and available in Japan? How were you able to read it? Are you Japanese? I’d love to get my hands on it.
Jackie- I am Greek, I found the book at the Milan airport on my way back from Italy a week ago and read it in Italian. It’s translated in quite a few languages apparently. I can’t imagine it having been translated in Italian and not in English somehow, but you’re right. I couldn’t find it on Amazon for example. It was a great read by the way though. If you can find a hard copy of it in a language you understand, just go for it!
I started eating one meal per day on April 25th and I’ve lost 7 lbs so far. I eat between 6 & 8 pm. I’m really surprised how much energy I have through out the day. Most of all, I can’t believe my body agreed to it. Usually, my hunger gets the best of me. I spoiled myself so much during my lunches, my weight gain was unstoppable. Almost everybody thinks it’s unhealthy to eat one meal a day. I drink 4 warm glasses of water when I wake up to hydrate and boost my energy. Is that healthy? I’m 5’8″, 189 lbs(was 196 lbs), I wanna be at 165 lbs. Can I continue to eat one meal per day till I achieve my goal? I do (from 5-7.5 speed) run the treadmill in the morning for about 7-10 minutes. Do you have any other suggestions? I would like to lift weights soon too. Thank you for your support. Goodluck to everyone on this thread. To a healthy lifestyle. Cheers!
water is fine.
yes eat one meal per day as long as you want.