Although this diet represents a quick fix for weight loss, the risks may outweigh the benefits.
The one meal a day diet is a weight loss plan that claims to help people lose weight by intermittent fasting. When following this diet, we only eat one meal a day, usually dinner, and no more calories are consumed throughout the day. It follows the type of fasting called 23:1, which means that we spend 23 hours a day fasting and 1 hour a day eating and drinking.
What can be eaten in the one-meal-a-day diet?
There are several variations of this diet. Some suggest eating healthy, nutrient-rich foods, but most versions of this diet allow people to eat whatever they want during their one meal of the day.
Potential Benefits
People who follow this diet believe there are numerous benefits to eating this way, including rapid weight loss without counting calories and withoutcheatmeals, because there are no forbidden foods.
Several studies have been conducted on the effects of intermittent fasting. However, most have been conducted in men, so there is less information about the effects of intermittent fasting in women.
The risks of following this diet outweigh the potential benefits.
Due to hormonal cycles, the effects of intermittent fasting are likely to be different in women. They also have different nutritional requirements compared to men, including more iron, which may not be met during fasting.
Studies on intermittent fasting show that it can help lower blood sugar levels and reduce weight in people with type 2 diabetes, positively affect the eating and sleeping cycles of obese people and increase their life expectancy, and may benefit the cardiac system and improve memory.
Risks
While some research supports the benefits of intermittent fasting and the one-meal-a-day diet, this type of food management comes with several risks: feeling extremely hungry, instability, weakness, irritability, inability to concentrate, fatigue…
There are also serious risks for people with underlying medical conditions. Those with diabetes or low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) need to eat regular meals throughout the day to avoid any serious side effects.