Meal replacement shakes weight loss plan -

Meal replacement shakes weight loss plan
My youngest is now 5, so the baby days are long gone. So, your body uses the energy that it gets from the food that you eat. Its more of a mental challenge to stick with this in my opinion, but the further you go, the more encouraged you are. This type of diet suits my lifestyle perfectly and I wish I had found out a long time ago. I decided to eat one meal a day with only an apple or piece of fruit during the day. I did only one 24 hour day to challenge myself. For the past months, after we moved to new neighborhood, I was trying so hard to blend in. Most of dieting is mindset, breaking old habits and forming new ones. Hello my name is Gary i am 51 years of age single and have just had the worst 18 months of my life following a loss of job and a relationship beak up. I never want to go anywhere or do anything anymore because o this weight. You mentioned the wild variation in your calories and although I have nothing to back it up, I think that can be a good thing. Maybe you feel the same way, but for me it was more important to do something about my weight, see some results and feel good about what I was achieving. I weighed myself at the start so that I have. I had a cup of tea when I got to the office, and I was fine until mid morning when I started to get hungry. You are right about others saying that I look slimmer. I posted a few comments on here, last year and started the one meal a day lifestyle with your advice and support and the support of many on here. Taking on exercise as part of your diet may seem like a good idea, but my own experience is that exercise hampers my efforts. And 2) I am worried about what will happen when I re-introduce lunch to my diet. Down from 177 several weeks ago to 171 as of today. It seems like so much to lose because my body just wants to hang onto this weight. I would have done some exercise last week but I got a wicked sunburn on my lower back and then I got sick. All we seem to do when they come to town is go out to eat, constantly. I could have done it quicker but the price for the quick result was more than I was willing to pay. Therefore, it is extremely hard for me not to eat anything. How long did it take you to lose that much weight. I hate every kind of apple, but they are very nutritious and have lots of fiber. Best of all you feel good about the whole thing. I am totally amazed at how little food I really need. I think the trick is to always keep the body 2nd guessing, as in changing the amount of calories and meals every day. 25 more lbs to go. This was my high estimate of weight loss. I have strong hunger pangs and i seem to have increased my eating window from one hour to three or even four hours. they say 10lbs loss is a dress size smaller, and i want to be 4 dress sizes smaller so watch this space as Arnie once said I WILL BE BACK. Now, this is the interesting part: until 30 of age I was eating (generally speaking) once a day (at dinner). I came across this site whilst researching calorie restriction and the effect on mood. On Monday I feel bloated because I eat more on the weekend. I finally got into it after quite a few false starts and managed to lose 2olbs. Oh and i forgot to mention my weight today stands at 12 stone 8 a drop of 30 pounds. You just do it your way and in your own time. I looked better but more importantly i felt great at that weight. Instead I take my reward from having stuck to the eating plan. I will put on 3 pounds overnight if I had full meal. If two meals a day is shouting out to you as the way to keep it sustainable, it has to be worth experimenting with for a while. I intend to stick with the one meal a day plan pretty much forever, because it lets me have the body I want without obsessing over calories. Thank you, I have some similarities with you. I tell myself that the hunger is a good signal and that if my body really needs energy it can get it from my fat stores. A piece of fruit here and there is a great way to get through the day. Since I just started yesterday, I have no results to post yet. It is very motivational and inspirational to read about all the success that others have experienced who are also eating one meal a day like myself. Following a balanced diet as outlined by the NHS is good enough. The opinions stated here are my own, I am not medically trained nor am I a qualified nutritionist. Believe me there is a way of doing this, it will not be costly, you just need to search a bit more. I typically aimed for between 1500-1800 calories a day. If I sat down at the table to liver and bacon casserole I would not be a happy bunny. Eat what you want once a day and still lose weight. I need to cut out around 30-35 lbs too, so I hope to have the same experience you had within 5-6 months from now. I work in adverstising industry and my co-wokers graze all days. My very light is to feel a little hungry but not until gassy. I find a small sugar free Greek yogurt or hard bolied egg with a fresh fruit is fine, then maybe a handful of almonds and another fruit mid afternoon if I need it. A lot of people would think that if you only eat once a day that you would be lethargic, tired or unproductive. I once did this kind of diet, but unknowingly. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. It would be the worst thing in the world to faint while at the wheel of a car or operating machinery. In the future I will gradually add to treats if I want to, but I need to know what I can eat each day, it works better for me and I dont pick. My own experience has taught me to master the mindset of the diet first and then progress to the strenuous. I was 150 in high school, and after starting a desk job ballooned up to 226, when I decided it was time for a change. Soman, there are no rules to this diet, you just make them up to suit yourself. One meal a day was a means to an end for me. You really try to get more vegetables, protein (any meat and eggs) with fat (olive oil) and a little bit of carbs (rice, potatoes, beans, pasta) in to your plate each day. Things still going well and I am finding it easier to stick to this and the hunger pangs are becoming more easier to manage and ignore. I know from my own experience that it takes persistence and it takes time. No need to get the supposed optimal balance between protein, carbohydrate and fat. My question is once I get to my goal weight how do I maintain it. I am actually at DAY 1 of this diet since having stumbled upon your blog yesterday. The thing that keeps discouraging me is my weight on the scale which is still the same at 93kg. EVEN if I get to 115, I will feel healthy and fit into all of my clothes. The way I always saw it, one meal a day is more natural from an evolutionary standpoint. My big lunch makes me feel satisfied all day. Besides, starting early stretches your stomach out so you eat more to feel full. I would break down 1600 calories into little chunks thru the day — 250 calories here, 100 there, and then I would be so hungry at dinner I overate every time. All the while I am also tending to chickens, goats, dogs, meat rabbits, and my daughter. Having a wider window during which to eat sounds like a great way to do it. I would also drink green tea with some vinegar and honey in it which helped suppress my appetite after dinner. Hi Jake, I aim to eat around 1500 to 1800 calories. Until, I guess, I got used to eatting the real lunch. I particularly like the way you no longer feel like a victim of circumstance. I hope the diet is still working for you. I have been asked most by women how to stay slim while I still eat dinner as most of them skip dinner just to stay in shape. ) They suggested to skip dinner. Sort of need a bit of encouragement here. And besides, I find it easy to eat one meal a day without getting hungry. I took part in the fasting period of Lent earlier this year and gave up eating two meals, so just had the one in the evening. I plan on Jogging 7km for two days and Then One day rest. This resulted in me making a slight gain in weight. I think you added a great point to the discussion in that you touched upon the impact of budgetary restraints on your eating habits. I hope it continues to work well for you, and thanks for taking the time to leave a message. I wish you well, and I look forward to hearing about your progress. I wrote earlier and just thought I would check in. The exact weight is less important than the trend. Throughout the day I drink water and tea. The first thing I did was substitute Diet Mountain Dew for my normal Mountain Dew. I keep a pitcher of splenda sweetened tea in the fridge in the house. I am 43 years old. No counting, remembering when to eat next etc. Having the discipline to keep going and make the progress you have made is well worth celebrating. I have been doing one meal a day for 6 weeks and it is working well. I started this about few days ago — to be on 1-meal a day strictly. They constipate you so badly that you get stomach pains after eating them for two days. I never felt craving just a healthy hunger before dinner times. I agree with you on trying to make this diet not feel like its a diet,and to m ake it as close to my normal and still giving me results. Your weight loss is stready and not too extreme. I was doing this for some time and as you said, it is working good for me. Hiya, I agree completely with all that you say. I would drink lots of water or coffee with no sugar. as my gym friends said the older we are, the less calories burnt. So its a case of experimentation and finding out what works for me. My blood sugar, cholesterol level etc were all optimum. So my main goal is to lose the last bit of fat (15lbs). Not great but just keeping my head above water. Eventually, by shopping and planning carefully and taking advantage of coupons, sales, and free items offered with a minimum purchase, I found it was actually costing less than eating out or loading up on junk. Sandwiches, chicken burritos, fish tacos, soup, fish and rice, lean hamburgers, etc. So much of your success on a diet comes from what you tell yourself. I needed to the time to arrange my return and I wanted to make sure I rememebered my summer for something other than my diet. Gone were my days as a single guy who ate a light lunch, ran 4-5 miles at night, and then gorged on a pound of beef (with no carbs) at around 11 pm with a beer, resulting in a reasonably fit physique for me. I was able to stave it off with a handful of almonds. I had to force myself to eat and felt even worse. Well, that depends on whether you can handle it. Over the following months, I lost about 20 pounds and am now happily in the maintenance phase. Midmorning(around 11:00) I eat fruit with low fat plain yogurt. So, I decided to have my dinner early(despite I generally eat my dinner around 6:30pm-7:00pm). I needed it to be simple and inexpensive. Being In control of your destiny is a great feeling. I am sleeping much better with my empty stomach than with full one. The results have been shocking, to say the least. This is a routine I follow during the weekday and I have my cheat days on the weekend as well. I did this before i ever read this and i lost 5lbs in one week i wasnt hungry during the days so i would eat 1 time a day closerto the evening but would eat chips and cakes to snack on and drink water it worked but next week i am going to do this diet really since i realize you did it too and seen your results. My husband showed me your blog, he started doing this a few days ago and he said he loves it. I can eat them TODAY, just not right now. I enjoyed reading the posts here and have just embarked myself on a similar quest. If anyone has some snack ideas, I too would love to hear them. I do go to bed early, as suggested, though. I go to the gym and workout but i dont do enough weights to bulk up. If I like to plan things, then I make detailed plans of what I will eat and when. I was thrilled to receive a reply from you. I actually feel healthy while doing this diet, And this one meal i have is lunch not dinner. My Basal Metabolic Rate (from a website) is about 2500 calories. I admit I did not read the entire thing, But I have been eating 1 meal per day for 4 years because I am poor and I have gained 20 kilos from doing so. I saw this site last year and started for a while. Being able to eat a full meal in the evening without counting calories feels amazing. Nothing else was working, not eating three healthy meals a day and not running long distance several times a week. Somewhere along the line I think we have to learn to make better choices about our nutrition and this diet has been a great way for me to do that. We now know today that nothing on the face of the earth gets more complex with time (ie evolution), but rather all things after being Made tend towards the simple or breakdown in complexity. I have decided to stop drinking water and and do a complete dry fast till 6pm. I am not necessarily on a strict one meal diet but it is very close, I have two Biscuit and tea(whole milk and sugar) first thing in morning followed by a smoke. Its mental torture to watch this and a diet killer. Third world body builders put on massive muscle on dreadful diets. At the time I read it I was busy eating six small meals a day, going to the gym and running almost every day. I am 35kg overweight. The diet has improved my sense of mastery so that i feel that i can shape my life rather than be a victim of circumstances. I started drinking water this week, and things are not going well. My honest suggestion to you is that you learn to cook healthily. This allows me more freedom to eat the foods I really enjoy in moderation at the one larger evening meal. So the more I feel it, the more progress I am making. Do it for how it will make you feel to have achieved a small step towards your goal every single day. My stomach is smaller and my thighs are getting smaller. I then went through a very trying time and no longer felt in control of my life and as a result, I put everything back and because I stopped working out, I look and feel flabby. For dinner, I take buckets of vitamins as well as my cholesterol medicine, then I feast. I am very glad to come across your article. Besides who says that eating once a day is less healthier than eating 6 times a day. I used to do Judo (when I was younger and less broken) and the weight categories were in Kgs. As you know yesterday was my first day of trying this diet. I plan to weight myself tomorrow and will use that and the benchmark to start. So maybe 2 meals a day would work well for you. I am a mom of four, age 48, 175 pounds, looking to get to about 125. I am now 38 yrs old and six months ago my sister passed away and a few weeks later my 17 yr old dog passed away too. I typically will go to sleep at about 11:00 pm after I have put all the dogs to bed. My target weight is stone 12 stone 10 and i continue to feel amazing. ALL the best to you too and all on this thread. Granted I have only done 2 days with 1 meal per day as, like you I plan to eat lunch on the weekends. 2. So make sure you tell yourself things that will benefit you. I do need to work on being more physically active though. Without a doubt my own progress was slowed down because I refused to count calories. Then I found a 10 lb. I do drink a cup of coffee and then another one or tea three hours later, with a light snack, maybe a piece of bread or fruit. If I do not lose any more weight by end of January, then I know that this meal plan is not for me. I too only eat dinner, with no snacks to speak of during the day, MAYBE a piece of fruit if I stumble across some. I want to stress that I am not paying attention to WHAT I eat or HOW MUCH I eat. Because, naturally when one cannot afford food, there will be a tendency to choose the cheapest food items on offer. What I would like to know is whether you ever drink alcohol and if so beer, wine or spirits. Does anyone of you have the one meal at lunch. Of course, if we drop calories too much or increase the energy output too much, the body will adapt to slow the rate of fat loss and preserve energy thinking that food is obviously in short supply. It looks like we do have some similarities. The article was about his capability as a leader, not about dieting or weight loss, but as an aside it was mentioned that he ate only one meal a day. I wish I had thought of doing this sooner. I was just surfing the web and found your blog. My only guess as to why my weight loss has been so rapid is that I was simply eating far too much food, and had a large surplus of calories. I found your site because I just started this diet and went looking for others trying it. I really believe everyone is different so everyone will respond differently to diets, something you have clearly shown and I am grateful to you for sharing. I mean dinner on a two-meal-a-day diet will still be big like it is now. Eat two meals a day and gradually work back to having one when you feel like it. If two meals works best for you, you should definitely stick with that. My plan is to get a forum or message board going for those who want to write about their own progress or simply get some encouragement when times get testing. Eating one meal a day is WAAAYYYYY easier for me than eating many small meals. I can just order normal meals and eat them without drawing attention to myself. For one week I did not eat or drink anything, even water, until 6pm. I vowed right then and there that I would not let myself hit 170. Thanks again for all the encouraging and enthusiastic remarks. My biggest achievements were the result of negative motivations I felt. I have over 3 stone to lose and normal diets dont work as they all revolve round food too much, so you are constantly handling food throughout the day, fatal. First weigh in is this friday so its exciting the fact that every friday im going to post my weight loss for the week. I eat eggs, rice (1 -2 times a week ) and one meal. Actually I have been losing weight with the 6meal plan but all of a suden I just stoped losing for the past 2 months. Anyway, if I wanted to drink it I would, but more than likely only at the weekend. And when I did start back eating I over ate every time so what weight I did lose I gained back and more. I could order what I would normally order and get up the next morning and do the same thing. I want to start back because eating once a day is liberating for me. I knew I was in it for the long haul so it was motivation for me to be strict throughout the week. So David thank you for your advice and tips on this method of weight loss and for sharing your heart. By the way: STAVIA is a natural plant that looks a bit like sage or mint. It then becomes much more of a lifestyle than a diet which helps to keep the weight off. Today was the first full day I tried this approach. I need to catch up on a few things around here, including replying to those of you kind enough to leave comments. There have been times when I felt tired too, but they were short lived and as with your own experience I found that over time I became less tired and infact I had more energy throughout the day. I also found that putting in two good days at the start of the week where I ate a small meal in the evening, would allow me to be less stringent for the rest of the week. Anyway the reason I am posting is this is currently day one of the diet for me. And that is frankly IMO a sad way to live given the social emphasis placed on food, the environment we live in which encourages eating, and all the temptations out there. I too will keep this quiet as I feel the more I announce im on a diet the more I fail. For me I wanted something close enough to my normal diet. Two meal with one of them eaten late evening, like suppertime, also works very well for me and I sometimes slip into that routine when I get bored with just one meal. At 5 foot 7. I think this is an ideal diet for me as there is only one rule. However, I have found a few techniques that seem to help. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. Update day 15 and weight down to 13 stone 12 target is 12 stone 10. So far i have had some improvement but until monday this week was still struggling. The way we feel determines what we do, so make sure you feel strongly about it. Eating one main meal at dinner time of what you actually WANT to eat rather than what your told is healthy makes this way of eating easier to sustain for life. but yes, if I really wanted to eat something I would. If I go out and work on my farm weeding crops, building, moving dirt, etc then I could easily weight 236 by 2:00 pm. Fifth, if I have to eat something then I go ahead and eat enough to get me to dinner. The one meal a day diet, has been working great for me. Im also doing 30 minutes on a step machine with free weights every 2 or 3 days just to feel strong in my body but i realise that its not central to my weight loss as you rightly said, its more a bonus or add on. I just reasoned that most of what we see regarding diet and weight loss is either wrong or designed to get us to part with our money. I find that business with the weight happens to me too. I am a confirmed believer and want to get down to 250lbs in the next three months. I am done with all that pressure thanks to your website. I am so pleased for you and delighted that you shared your success with us. I like how you say the snack is to fight off hunger pangs and not to have a pleasurable experience. Skip breakfast, have lunch with enough carbohydrates, Then Dinner with Low carbs or with carbs. i monitor my mood using a scale of 1 to 10 were 1 is practically suicidal and 10 is elation. Had I done so I think I would have lost the weight a lot quicker. If I have a big breakfast and some chocolate milk then I could weigh 240. One meal a day, plus quality food, organic, farm raised etc. Of course you can tweak it to suit your needs, but as a general framework, it works quite well. I like your blog David so thank you for sharing. That is a fantastic summary and reflects my own experience and thinking. I wanted to do push-ups and sit-ups every day. I really would like to be back to 170 or less. I would described my dinner but am African, our food is different. Extended periods of fasting can lead to feeling faint or dizzy. It is indeed a battle and one I still have to fight. I think in summary, the trick is to have a new eating plan to take over from the one meal diet and then to monitor your weight periodically. I pretty much eat anything and everything that takes my fancy. You are going to feel hungry on a diet, learn to get comfortable with it. I really really need to lose at a minimum about 60 pounds. In that way the body never goes into starvation mode as it never knows from one day to the next how many calories its going to get. I am hoping to get under 150 within the next 2 months, and hopefully stay there with the right exercise and diet. You then try to have a piece of fruit as desert. Today, I weighed myself and WOOOW I lost 1 kilo (2. If I get hungry during the day, I eat some natural almonds or a spoon full of yoghurt or have some coffee and that seems to work. 6 today. During the First Gulf War they apparently had to airlift a couple soldiers to Germany because of critical digestion issues caused by them. 5 months now and have gone from 220 pounds to 199. I made sure my evening meal was small to medium size and as I stopped feeling hungry, my meals got smaller. Also, what type of snacks were you eating. Bile is not returned to the gallbladder if unused in digestion. I have honestly never been successful with losing weight, never been able to lose more than a few kilos and thanks to you I know I have finally found what works. The most important thing for me is that I eat fewer calories than my body needs each day. My initial motivation to get going with the diet came from negative emotions. I feel as if I was ment to find ur article thank you again. I started doing this out of a huff with myself because no diets were working and I feel wonderful. What I do now is drink coffee (with Equal) for breakfast and another for lunch. Some of my progress pictures from earlier in the year. The scales showed a difference of 3 lbs in two weigh-ins within 10 seconds of each other today. Recently, I did gain a few kgs. 5 meals a day. , as much as I want. Ive been reading this website for quite a few days as i googled One Meal a Day diet as this is the only type of diet that has ever worked. I lost about two stone over the course of a couple of months doing a low carb diet but have since put it all back on. I am exercising as well so i am seeing positive results quickly. Thanks for leaving a comment (and a compliment). When I tell people what I weigh, no one can believe its that high. Dave,thanks for the encouraging words that I truly need right now. I was so struggled and never lost any grams. Hi David, thanks for taking the time to make a comment. The idea to treat lunch as a small snack instead of a meal is a good one. AND it will take me at least a week of starving to shed them. This book gave me the insight I needed to see this thing through and re-train myself. Sticking to any diet for a long period of time is going to be challenging, so you have to do it in a way that feels least like a diet. I saw you drank tea alot during the day but i am not a tea or coffee drinker. I immediately lost weight by the second day of doing this. I was wondering what types of food you would eat when you did eat. On a day to day basis tracking weight can be tough but you just have to have faith that as long as you stick to your eating plan the weight will come off. Your story really spoke to me, especially since I am a stay-at-home mom with a preschooler. As I continue my own fat loss journey I may well decide to experiment to discover for myself whether the conventional fat loss wisdom holds true. 54 pounds in 5 months was an amazing feeling. I have been doing one meal a day for about 2. you can clean up your diet a little at a time. Sometimes, I just go out with Protein-Shake with low fat milk or coffee or simply drink water. I think that counting calories is the better way to go with this diet. I found the best way for myself by experimenting and I still do experiment. When I began having the cravings around 10pm I finished of the rest of the food in the pan. Today, I tried drinking a liter of water an hour before noon. From time to time I have no doubt I will run 2-3 miles, again without eating before doing it. I do need to ask, is it ok to drink 2-3 cups if coffee with sugar, no milk or cream. not very fat but I do have this gut that ive been trying to get rid of since I was About 14 years old. Hence why so many studies contradict each other in dietary research. Right now, I am planning to make sure that my body gets adjusted to this meal plan, I will not worry about weight lost and then, I will worry about losing weight. This week, I decided to start drinkin g water and things have not been going well. Give it another little while and you may discover that your scale weight drops by a pound or two overnight. Sir i do ur efforts and congratulate that you are doing this. I write this as if a friend had asked me to describe the diet. I have an app called myfitnesspal on my iPhone and I use it to track my food and exercise. I would have many lunch appointment with many new moms around here. A human being is far more flexible with eating adaptability than most nutritionists or health experts are willing to admit. It is generally used in Japanese and Latin American cooking. There are certain things I avoid like sodas, but from time to time I still enjoy a glass of cola. But found myself struggling a bit of late and would gladly appreciate any advice or tips on how to get back on track and succeed like you did. For me, this has been the most successful diet ever. With a wife (who cooks good meals) and a baby and a lack of time to exercise, I gained a LOT of weight. I started drinking spirulina powder with water this morning. Anyway, I got overweight again so I want to use this method. I hope this lifestyle change will get me back to my normal self. So, I have decided not to weigh me every day. I keep on sipping iced tea through out the afternoon. 5 lbs. Instead of dividing up my calorie intake between a breakfast that I never really wanted in the first place, and a so-so diet lunch and then making do with the few calories I have left to eat a weird meal different to everyone else in the household or at at the restaurant. The Dude, thanks for dropping by and sharing your success. Let me share with you all, my first experience with this diet. HI evryone today i intend to share this good news to those who have been discouraged in anyway. Then I met my husband (I know it sounds tragic, we started going out more, one thing lead after another and my diet habits began to change. Hi Julie, you sound very upbeat and excited about this. I also tried the healthy approach, not really dieting, but watching what I eat and doing heaps of exercise. It could be the time of day you weigh yourself. This is my account of how I lost a significant amount of weight when I adopted the idea of eating one main meal a day. After I have my mind set to loose some weight. I must admit I ate normal hearty meals, the only thing I scrapped was bread. Today is my first day and I am so ready to do this. I used to exercise hours and hours a day just to maintain my weight. I am struggling to figure out what diet to follow that will work. With force reductions and the government looking for ways to cut back, Sailors are being let go for not being within body composition standards. I had more energy, slept better and felt good in myself. I needed it to be something I could sustain over a long period of time and something I could adapt to a permanent lifestyle when I lost the weight. I see opportunities every were before there was sadness and despair. I am at the moment, fantasising being down by 80lbs. I am excited because most of what everyone has said on here, comments about not liking to eat breakfast because you tend to eat more, is simply my experience, so I relate to what everyone has said. bag of chicken quarters at Walmart for about 6 dollars (American), lots of frozen veggies on sale for pennies a serving, and some fresh fruit that comes in large bags much cheaper than buying loose fruits by the pound. Project your eating plan through that powerful part of your psyche. The thing is, you have to learn to live with this. I should add that this was not visible to me in the mirror, am just glad I was not discourage. I am way thinner but not food obsessed and actually find organising only one meal a day quite liberating. I know that you put the weight back on again but sometimes when life hits you hard you just have to find a way to survive. I must admit that I too am surprised at the number of people trying this diet. I wanted to say thank you for this article I have two children under two and Im a stay at home mom. 30am) I began heaving terrible cravings. I think its important to realize that not every diet is for everyone. Being able to eat the things the family eats makes it all so much easier. I wanted to limit the times between which I could eat a meal because it took away any other choice. I have given myself rules about what I can eat each day and I dont deviate. It can be hard to fall asleep when hungry, especially in the beginning when I was still adjusting to not grazing from the time I wake up till the time I go to bed. I chose a 14 oz steak with french fries and salad and alittle alcohol. Did you find eating two meals on Sunday make eating one meal on Monday more difficult. I know it was only because I stopped caring about taking care of myself during the last six months tho. I want to lose another 58lb by Christmas and I figure I can if I lose around 2. My weight can fluctuate up to FIVE POUNDS in a given day. Anyway thats the negative stuff out of the way. Instead of getting on with doing something positive you end up in a perpetual state of inaction and unable to commit. Once you get the hang of skipping breakfast then you have that meal out of the day. But I feel so much better already, not to mention how much better I look. When I stepped on the scale a week ago and saw my weight, I was mortified. The vacation may be an interesting challenge for you but you can definitely come out the other side better off. I eat very light breakfast and drink coffee, just to accompany my husband and my kids like most of normal people do. And over time, for those who feel inclined to do so, we can make changes to the types of food we eat. Soon I realised I was losing weight, and decided to stick with it. Anyway, your plan to leave it for two weeks feels like a good one. The biggest benefit I get from eating once is that I can prepare a healthier, more rounded meal. Just out of curiosity i am 57kg and want to drop down to 50kg in preferably a month or two maximum. Basically, on the farm I get up at 7:00 am and do all the hot sweaty work like hand harvesting food, hand weeding, moving dirt (with a shovel), construction, etc. It would have killed me to wait a whole day just to tuck into a bowl of salad and mung beans. Working through lunch and into the early afternoon is a bonus. For me that time is 6pm which gives me an hour to eat and limits my opportunity to damage my diet. Like you im not counting calories and all foods are allowed when having my one meal usually i have it in the evening. What I love the most about this, though, is that I sleep so well when I go to bed with an empty stomach. The Gall Bladder is a one way organ that stores concentrated bile to add to digestion when fats arrive in the gut. EAch time I tried to lose weight I was successful. When I get it badly wrong, I start over again the next day. All that matters is that you get back on and keep trying. The same motivation also got me back on the diet after I fell off the wagon a couple of times. I realised that I was eating more and during the school year, I only had time for 1 or 1. I wish you all the best in reaching your goal. It might not fall off like some of the other fad diets like the atkins diet, (no carbs what-so-ever) but it may come off. Good luck as you continue towards your goal. It needs to be simple because as a work at home parent with full time responsibility for the childcare, my life is already complicated enough. However. Beyond that, I let experience be my guide. At that point i was frustrated at my efforts at weight loss. Judging by the pictures I saw, the man looks in great shape and clearly manages to find enough energy to go running every day AND command the day to day operations of the military in a war zone. for five weeks now, I have been eating one evening meal a day and having fruits for breakfast and lunch. On weekends I still eat pizza, pasta, ice cream and chocolate, not as much as I used to but enough to make me happy and ready to start the week again eating one meal a day, this meal is usually very healthy but sometimes not but I still lose weight despite this. I am a lady aged 32 and I have been having trouble losing weight. For a long time I suspected that it was possible to lose weight eating a normal balanced(ish) diet. Until last month, holidays started and I started putting on more. Eating one (roughly) balanced meal at the same time every day is about as simple as it can get. I was unhappy about something in my life and this was my way of pushing back. Fasting suits me especially on weekdays (working days). There are millions of people in the world who survive on a lot less food than I do. I have not check my weight but I feel very light. I decided to try this, after all, like most other overweight people, I had tried absolutely everything over the last 10 or more years with zero success. I then began going throughout the day without eating, and in the evenings when I got off would actually go through a drive thru such as Taco Bell or whatever I wanted. I know the one meal a day plan does work because i did lose some weight when adhering to it. I have not weighed under 200 for many years so its very encouraging. When I started preparing the bulk of my meals at home, I realized that I could have scrambled eggs and toast or a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast instead of donuts or cold cereals loaded with sugar. I find that it intensifies my irritability, so I think I may have to limit my coffee to a twice weekly (during weekends) indulgence. Being adaptable is an amazing characteristic to have, it will serve you well. I have a question for you: After you lost the first 20 pounds and waited a while to lose the last 10 pounds, how long did you wait and did you continue with the 1 meal a day. Not particularly scientific, but if nothing else it gives me a nice reward every 7 days. Sorry for the delay in approving some of the comments, and apologies for appearing to ignore you. I deal with this by eating only a moderate calorie reduction every day. I used to be under 115 pounds all my life. She keeps munching or eating every hour and keep offering me. I go for about 1000 calories on my dinner plate and the other 800 comes from the dessert and any snacks I eat during the day. I just got done with a three day fast Im now Im starting this diet today. I stumbled across this site and it looks like the perfect plan for me. David, just like you, I do not have breakfast. Ordinary, regular food served up in decent portions that fills your belly and keeps you feeling satisfied for hours afterwards. Where I am not successful is keeping it off. Though things are still tough, I am taking back control of my life, starting with my weight. I feel fuller doing this vs eating six times a day. But I also found it way too hard to eat rabbit food multiple times a day for six days a week with only one or two cheat meals on the weekend. This really seems do able for me and I want to be sure to give it a decent try. I pretty much went into a state of depression. I could easily see myself eating a chicken salad for my evening meal (during the summer at least). There are lots of great comments and perspective from others who are trying to make this diet work. Its David from May 2012 in the post up above. Superfoods are super but they are also expensive and they are not the miraculous missing link in a successful diet. Yes i can have a tendency to overthink so good advice. Today I weight 61kg (I m very short) and I will let you guys know how much I loose next weekend. I began eating a small sandwich at a lunch time and a fruit and snack etc. I am also doing such thing by taking a meal in morning every other day. I have been dieting now for a year off and on. At first I was worried that it would hurt the weight loss, but not at all- I continue to lose steadily. Thankyou so much for this amazing insight into your Journey, and a double thankyou for confirming to me and reminding me what I have to do. I started the 1 meal a day a couple weeks ago (with a snack too) and have lost 6 pounds. Life is already complicated enough, so make it simple. Want to have my dinner between 6pm and 8pm and never let anything pass my lips after that. And as you doubtless know, comfort eating often seems like a way to relieve the stress. Also is it OK to exercise to speed up the weight loss. Eventually I was able to transition to one meal. The simple idea behind one meal a day is that your task is simply to eat fewer calories than your body needs. Maybe some of it is water weight, and maybe some of it is fat. So far i feel wonderfull and the old Gary is returning. The beauty of this diet is that it prevents the one mouthful leading to another effect, which was my downfall and the only reason I ever got fat in the first place. While on this diet i wanted to go jogging or walking everyday to speed up the weight loss process. So, I was doing some reseach about age and gain weight. Anyways on the one meal a day diet: I used to do that in High School along with running every day and dropped from 203 lbs to about 158 to get in shape for AROTC (although I was really skinny runner type, and after a couple months of PT was up to about 170 from putting on muscle). If I do get hungry, I would pop in a few grapes, or two or three crackers. It really helps to pick the positive angle and just get back to it. I have long suspected that starvation mode (in the context of dieting) was a myth and I also suspected that the metabolism thing was just rubbish too. I hardly drink and I do not smoke, but still, I am not surprised when I ended up having gastritis and ulcer. old, 5ft10 220lbs and the goal is 175. Breaking down 1600 between 2 meals though is definitely easier, and I like that I am letting my stomach have a rest. The tape measure is a great way to monitor your progress and an inch is a fantastic achievement. The evening meal is not an open ended thing. This is especially true of sugar and carbs. You mentioned a lot of great things there, but the key for me was how you said it made you feel. In addition the temptation is to replace carbs with fat which is double the calorie density of carbs or protein. Good luck and thanks for leaving a message. The idea of adopting a one meal a day diet first came to me when I read an article about an American General, Stanley McChrystal. Let me know David how you are getting on with your diet i am very interested in the concept of fasting and mood so would be interested on other folks experiences. Actually, I started out first with intermittent fasting to gain the control of when to eat. before 1:00 pm when it gets too hot. Be advised: The effectiveness of diets vary from person to person and I cannot guarantee that taking this approach will work for you. I have argued to exhaustion with people about this ridiculous concept of eating small meals a day every few hours. How can it be natural for people to eat every 3 hours. Its great not to have to think about food all the time, which is what I always did, I was always hungry. I have been eating one meal a day for years like my father has done his whole life. Even eating one good meal per day is not as easy a diet as I thought it would be. Good stuff Renier I downloaded and read last night. As of tomorrow I am going to do it and keep my own little blog. I think i have only been eating about 1000 calories per day which is not enough. The slow process teaches you something about yourself and helps you to change the eating habits that got you overweight in the first place. I did do one meal a day at the age of 19 and I lost 50 pounds. This worked so well because I promised myself I could have three courses everyday if I wanted: Soup, main course and dessert. Sorry about the kg and cm, German influence. Thank you for the affirmation I needed to stick to what my instincts have told me for many years is best for me. The relaxed approach worked very well for me for the first 30lbs. I would feel terrible if you tried this and it made you poorly. I am now married, 34 yrs. It took me a while before I was able to where you are. Your advice for maintaining the weight makes perfect sense and is much appreciated.


They get injured and disillusioned and let the eating plan slide. I so often feel this and giddy too when I am dieting especially when I tried the one meal a day diet the first time like a year ago and did quit for that reason back in the days. lb) since yesterday. I guess if you could classify it as snacking. It pays to have a rough idea of how many calories your food has but if you start to micro manage your food intake it starts to get tedious and adds an extra pressure. I turn 40 in September and I want to be on my way to my ideal weight then. If I was going out to dinner, I just had a bowl of soup at lunch. I do have a mid morning snack (boiled egg or celery or apple) and mid afternoon snack (like the mid morning one) then eat my meal after 5 sometime. Just wanted to share that i slipped off plan by eating leftovers and snacking over the last few days. No matter how long it takes me I will lose this weight. But these foods are generally very HIGH carbs foods such as breads, sugary cakes, pastas with added preservatives and treatment agents which are all very bad for the digestive system. I ended up getting all the way down to 157 before stopping. There is no way to lose weight without feeling that feeling (whatever that feels like to you). I have been reading your blog for a while now and was so inspired by your weight loss success with one meal a day. Snacking a few times a day is no bad thing. I do plan to drink at least 2-3 lts of water. To be honest, it was tough for me to handle food and NOT indulge. You can read conflicting arguments both of which seem very credible and you become paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. I was so impressed by it, I decided to investigate it more. I went from my normal weight of 140 lbs to 176 lbs within 3 months. I choose to eat aroiund 5 or 6pm because it fits in with family life. Which is largely why I stopped weighing myself and trusted the feel of my waistband and the view in the mirror (and later, the tape measure). Now my mind which previously craved sugars and carbohydrate seems to know what is good and what isnt. Anyhoo, I will drop back during the week and let you know my progress and check up on yours. Why better than any refined or unrefined sugar. It tastes like pond water which I guess it is actually. Its funny that eating less gives you more energy. Sorry Jackson as a nurse I just cannot let that one pass. It could be the frequency with which you weigh yourself (ie the quality and quantity of your data). The first time I started eating one meal a day, it was totally accidental. People in the old days used to eat twice a day. The first twenty took me five months and the last ten took me just one month. How I look at it, you have to break down a wall. I do not mind keeping this lifestyle at all. I enjoyed eating once because I could have small meals and still have my favourite biscuits or even some chocolate after my meals. Even if you can afford once a day, you really try hard to have that single meal as nutritious and healthier as possible for your body. I keep seeing stories about people who change what they eat radically in order to lose weight only to go back to their old diet and put the weight back on. In the evening i went out for a meal with some friends and i went to a steakhouse. Then, I moved to a new city, live alone and changed everything. I would say that I need to lose a GoOd 15-20 pounds. I come back to eat very light during the day. So I am back to say I have started the diet once again, about 3 weeks ago, and have stuck to it to a tee this time with no issues and thus far have lost 11 pounds. The food is all over the place in my office. I think you will eventually see the difference in the mirror but if not maybe taking photos will help you. I last did this way of eating in my 20s and it worked fabulously for me. When you start eating like this, you will see that there is hardly any difference in terms of cost but it will be better for you even if you can eat only once a day. I think the best way to make the one meal a day diet to work is not to go too low on calorie intake, and to keep the diet as close to balanced as you can. You need to apply common sense to this diet. Over the years I have associated my failure in dieting with failure in other areas of my life. I started it in January of this year and my progress is a 70 pounds of weight loss. I am doing 1 meal a day and fruit but recently the last week ive not had any fruit. Reading some of the other comments and your story I am Super excited to start this. I have tried so many things and I had honestly forgotten the one meal a day diet. I am currently at 116kg and mt goals are small my first being to get to 110kg and so on. I needed a diet that limited my choices and left me to make only good decisions. I decided on New Years Eve that I didnt want to be fat anymore and if I didnt start the year right I never would. Hi Gary, I love the honesty in your writing. As my new years resolution i decided to do the one meal a day diet as it worked so well for me before (previously i lost 3 stone doing this a few years back). However, as I decide to follow this life style, I believe I will stick it it. The beauty of eating one meal a day is I ate what I wanted and I ate with the family. At least for me I have found that the more I eat, the more I want to eat. I think this is something I can stick to long term. On the other hand, i hate sleeping hungry. Those of us who continue to get up after we fall will surely reach our goals. Fortunately, because the early stages of my diet were largely trial and error I got a chance to experience the quick way and the slow way. While I hardly ate chocolate or cream cakes in the past I began eating the food items that I did not used to eat. In about 8 months I lost 55 pounds, bringing me down to 125. This is pretty much how I feel about the whole deal. During the day I do however drink cups of tea (with two sugars) as I find that helps. I still eat really well, and lose weight and build (a little muscle) all at the same time. To me, a calorie is a calorie, and so long as you have a deficit, you will lose. When I started out on this I had some very powerful reasons to want to achieve my goal. I pretty much ate anything I wanted, but to be fair I already had a reasonably balanced diet with fruit and vegetables featuring strongly in many of my meals. What I wanted to say was congratulations on the successful weight loss. This diet is making me feel wonderful, walked into work today with a spring in my step. And exercise seems to make me hungry, I am going to start this one whole meal a day, mashed potatoes, pasta salad and yes something sweet but small. If I got it 80% right on a daily or weekly basis I could end the day or the week feeling good about my achievement. It requires practice and practice often brings failure. Its so empowering creating meaning and purpose in my life because i feel in control. I find that I often learn more from my failures than my successes. I eat my one meal around 6:30 and 7:30 everyday. Same thing because of work etc no one knew I was on a one meal a day plan. Jennifer, it was good to see an update from you. Hi Clair, well done on the early progress. Within 3 or 4 days, i lost about 3 pounds. I re-read your blog and have only just seen that you had two meals on the weekend. This got me down to 172 in less than 5 months. My logic was that I could save the calories I was drinking (and not enjoying) from the shakes and add them to my evening meal so I could enjoy a good sized meal with my family. A meal is the food I want plus the dessert I want. I got to a point where I started to doubt almost everything I read and wanted to see for myself. One problem with the weight loss industry is that there seems to be a counter argument for almost everything. But instead of stuffing myself with any food that I can put my hands on, this time I decided to stuff myself healthily. And, like you I would prefer people I know, not to know I am on another weight loss kick. I started out yesterday at 102. Losing the last of the fat has been more difficult. The one trick that was working for me was that i would make sure that 1-meal was really tasty or something i really looked fowrard to eating (for example) a nice cut of steak w a baked potato and veggies and a nice dessert like a slice of chocalate cake. What is the best way of shifting the final bit of belly flat around my stomach. Still going strong eating once a day, but having some difficulty establishing a cut off time for not eating. I have planned to change this and decided that today would be the day id finally post on here as i think we could all deffinitely spur eachother on to lose weight. I use a small dinner plate and fill it to the edges. Which I almost never did but I could if I wanted to. The results can be seen pretty quickly certainly within a week. Hi Sonam, sorry for the delay in replying to you. GOOD news was that I never gained either. I am 74 kilos and need to get down to 57 by end June 2014. Alright so ill take it into consideration that certain foods have to be eatin in moderation. Anyway, when I started reading about OMAD I thought I would try it. I have not been exercising but have promised myself that once I got under 200 I would start. The thought of doing that keeps me going all day, and means that I can put up with small bland snacks for the rest of the day. I think that having the main meal at lunch time is better in several ways. I run because I like to run a couple of times a week, but I go for higher intensity over shorter distances which also seems to help. You are rewarded by eating your favorite meals every single evening, and because of that, unlike other diets, this diet is sustainable. I think you have a good way of looking at it. One of the biggest favours I did for myself with this diet was to ignore all the conventional wisdom about starvation modes and the like and I just got on with it. Hi guys, I really am struggling for over 10 yrs now. I often observe in the fasting participants that by four days of fasting, concentration seems to improve, creative thinking expands, depression lifts, insomnia stops, anxieties fade, the mind becomes more tranquil and a natural joy begins to appear. I love only eating 1 lunch a day as I feel I sleep better at night without needing to digest food in my stomach. only difference is that i was drinking milk all over the day and full meal in the evening. The key to mental strength is to tap into areas of your life where you are ALREADY STRONG. I think that if the beer is ice cold it has fewer calories. And whilst I do eat one meal a day, quite often I eat more than once a day, I just try to eat one main meal. After some careful shopping and studying, I discovered that for the same amount of money or less than what I was spending on junk food, there were some much more nutritious foods I could eat. There are many companies sell Stavia but I prefer this label because it is organic and the others seem to taste bitter. Also, and more telling, I had to buy new jeans this week. I went from 238 to 244 and back in 7 days. The last place we tend to lose it is where we most want to see it gone. Excersing was not for me and eating salads put me into a bad temper. i am aware not to be too obsessive so am prepared to have some neutral days. I hear lectures all the time how bad it is for me. Add to that the fact that a heavy lunch made me sluggish at work, and then I decided I had to go to extreme measures. I am confident i will hit my target as i am at least half way there. Keep in mind that this can be a long process and try to get your feelings of success from sticking to your plan rather than the apparent lack of physical results. Being at home with the little ones is tough. I also have progressed in my exercise and now walk for a bit over an hour, 3 days a week. Ive been at the same weight for a while now. You sound very motivated and disciplined which is a great inspiration to us all. In fact I got it wrong a lot in the beginning. When I feel hungry it reminds me that there are others much worse off and if they can go without food for days, then I can certainly manage it for a few hours. Because I know that this is the only way I can maintain a healthy weight. I am happy to have lost weight, but I am uneasy about not drinking water because I know I should. And ill make sure that my One meal a day consist of mostly healthy foods majority of the time. I have been discussing this with my friends and you know the same old age formulas are there every where. The key thing here is that you started again and have lost another totally amazing 38 lbs. Just know that what you want to do is possible and that you can do it. Still no sign of depression coming back and i love being on this journey of self discovery. Hi Krystal, I think you summed it up very nicely. For dinner, I ate whatever I wanted plus dessert. But if you have any doubts at all you should see a doctor. 5 kg. I hope this is possible with this diet. I think that the bottom line is that in order to loose weight, you have to eat less calories than you burn. Thanks so much for all your advice, great post. I spent more time researching the best way to lose weight than I invested in actually doing something about it. The problem is that even though I am over the moon for losing the weight, i am uneasy with the notion of not drinking water. I generally get hungry around 11. Thanks for sharing the important point of being too strict and highlighting that there can be medical implications and complications. So, the scale is always wrong in some way or another. I started eating only meal last week and lost half a stone, but i did it by not eating or drinking anything at all until 6pm. You must do your own research and you should consult a medical professional before embarking on a diet. I love your attitude to falling off the wagon. Maybe one day you could describe your food to me, I would love to hear about your diet. I was all the way back up to 176 when a weight loss contest began at work. Eating one meal a day got me from 205lbs to 175lbs over a reasonable time. During this time I met my fiance, and got pregnant with my son. All morning until 11:30am I was perfectly fine but around 11:30am (which is my danger zone. On week one, I was seeing a daily loss result on the scales but annoyingly it seems to have stalled for the last five days. I failed a lot to begin with, and I fail less often now. This was not due to a conscious efford, basically I was studying, working and then did my degree etc and I only had time for the evening meal, or my body seemed to be happy, perfectly tuned, I did not put on weight and I did not lose weight, I was in perfect weight. I am now on a journey which i hope will be a positive and life encompassing one. Instead tap into areas of your mentality where you have a track record of success and power. Maybe I need to shock my body into letting go of fat as it seems to be holding on for dear life. And in Theravada Buddhism, monks may only have one meal a day before noon, and that was considered the middle path (half way between 2 and 0). I work from home while my husband works in the city. Can I tell you that I have been eating this way for around 3 months now and I have effortlessly dropped 15 kilos. Just keep trying different approaches until you find what suits you. Regarding the second issue, I will be the first to admit that I am mentally addicted to the idea of lunch. I read more of your blogs the other day and you write very intuitively. I am no nutrition expert nor am I a doctor, but in my own personal experience of 4 years of eating 1 meal per day it does more harm than good in the long run. I made a conscious decison not to take on any additional exercise other than walking once or twice a day with the dogs. I even refused a dessert which is highly unusual for me. I am so tired of counting calories and points and watching what I eat. I sort of new before that i was overeating to cover up negative emotions but didnt have the power to stop myself. Every now and then I may squeeze in a small snack. Regarding the coffee, I think one of the best things about this diet is that you can adapt it to suit yourelf. I do some running although not consistently maybe 4 times a week. There were some days I got greedy and that slowed my progress. It makes sense that I need fewer calories to maintain 175 lbs than 205 lbs. No doubt you feel great for having made such progress. It was difficult to tell because for me it was mostly guesswork. I am about to start, I only have 4 kilos to lose, nonetheless, i have a couple of questions that maybe you could help me answer. Please see my disclaimer at the foot of this post. I really want to Take Part in the race, and i want to lose weight too. The prospect of always being within 5 or 6 pounds of my ideal weight instead of 35 or 36 pounds is exciting. While I work out now twice a week( intense 2 on 2 basketball for an hour and a half), I am having problems not snacking at work again. This caused my weight to go up to 148 after the birth. Some days I over eat, some days I under eat. When it is the only one of the day i wanted to take my time tasting the textures were normally i would just gulp without hardly chewing. I started work and found that as I was so busy, I was only eating dinner with my family (I lived at home with my parents at the time). Well done of dropping the 11 pounds and good luck on getting to your 25lb target. Tracking is a good idea because it shows you the trend. If it takes you a little longer than most, so what. On this diet can i eat the foods i normally eat. Like you, on weekends I will eat twice, with snacks. The sorts of things an army officer, like the General, might get served up in the mess tent. I want to look at this as something I can adapt to for the rest of my life. Needless to say my clothes have gotten tighter. I now feeling hopeful that I will be able to loose more weight. After I lost the first 20lbs I was pretty much straight into the next 10lbs. It may be critical for people with diabetes or hypoglycemia and other conditions to eat regularly throughout the day, but for a plain old food addict like myself it just perpetuates the obsession and preoccupation with food by all the shopping, planning and preparing of meals and snacks for each feeding. I look at your pictures and I can see such a difference in your body. The small snacks are a brilliant idea because they keep you on track. Please do come back and let us know how you get on. The great thing about this is I eat what the familiy eats. I did eat some of the things you mentioned but not all the time. My expectation was to lose 1. That will fill up my stomach and I can get on with my day and not worry about food until dinnertime. I managed to sneak in a bag of chocolate popcorn yesterday and justified it. When i first got depression i scored myself a one. I would love to hear how you get on, so please do come back and let us know. I like eating good food (pizza, fried rice, bacon, etc) and I like feeling full, but I can deal with hunger, so one meal a day was the obvious diet for me. It sounds like you have a good thing going on there. I started this diet exactly a month ago now simply bcos I was tried from carrying excess weight around. For me, the tea with whole milk and one sugar got me through the day. Such is the beauty of this diet, fasting during the day means my stomach feels fuller quicker at meal times and stops me over eating. I had some very specific reasons for choosing this approach and I had tried other methods first. Also if I get bored I can have an apple as a treat. My weigh in days are saturdays so if i want to have a relaxed day and eat a little more when i go out with friends then i can. Perhaps what you need to do is give it some more time. I find it works the other way around too, and WHAMMO a sudden gain. I work out twice a day and eat one substantial meal for lunch. I eat an Atkins bar for lunch and drink tons of water through the day. But I intend to start walking more once I get under 200 lbs. and 65 pounds overweight. I am constantly hungry and I have increased my window of eating from one hour to three hours. I usually give up on traditional diets very quickly but this approach seems very easy to conform to. Yes, around my waist, clothes are looser, but my stomach looks arwful, much more bloated looking. I have lost 9kgs (which is around 20 pounds) in about five months. In fact for me that has been the toughest part but ultimately very rewarding. Adopting this as mid to long term lifestyle change helps. I should probably also mention I lost about 100 pounds doing so. I drink tea or coffee (both decaf) and fresh juice and 1 smoothie, again anytime during the day. I am 19 years old going on 20 soon. I then continued drinking tea, but the cravings began hitting me again and again, every damn hour: 1:30pm, then 3:30pm, then 4:30pm. I read your reply very carefully and i reread your original post on the one meal a day plan that worked for you. Just wanted to say thank you for writing a very informative and relevant article. I plan on taking a Cup of tea with milk and sugar, If i feel weak. I generally do this at least 5 times per week and the weekend 2 meals per day. One thing I had to remember to do was to recalculate my maintenance calories for my new weight. I was 18, and had gone from being a skinny child to weighing 180lbs by the time I finished college. Very yummy indeed and when having hunger pangs during the day from not eating knowing what my evening meal would be sustained me. Snacking is dangerous for me, I have to be so careful or the flood ga