OMAD and Weight Lifting
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Lifting weights while eating one meal a day can still be done, although it’s not ideal.
OMAD (one meal a day) is an extreme version of intermittent fasting. Just as the name describes, it involves shrinking your eating window down to a single meal a day. In practice, this generally means that your eating window is only about an hour a day where you are getting the calories you need to sustain yourself for the next 23 hours. If it sounds extreme, it is because it is.
OMAD can be a great tool for losing weight if you’re able to stick to it for a sustained period. However, it’s also an extreme diet that is not for everyone. If you find that you simply can’t sustain it, then move to something more sustainable for yourself - OMAD isn’t something we recommend to everyone. If you’re able to maintain an OMAD diet, then you can likely lose a lot of weight fast.
Of course, when it comes to weight lifting, you’re usually not trying to lose weight, but rather put on muscle. Generally, there are two goals of lifting weights: get stronger and/or define your muscles that you already have. This usually means that you’re usually not trying to lose weight when you’re lifting weights. While you certainly can be in weight loss mode if you’re obese, most weightlifters are trying to get bigger.
It would seem that doing the OMAD diet and lifting weights are at odds with each other in their goals, and in general that’s actually correct. OMAD is not generally a diet you’re doing if you’re trying to get bigger. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. If you plan to do OMAD while weight lifting, below are a few recommendations to make it the most effective. Once again, this isn’t for everyone.
In order to build muscle, you should be eating before or after your workout. This means that you should be working out sometime near your one hour eating window to get the most use out of your meal. We’d highly recommend that you workout right after your meal as you’ll have far more energy than trying to workout when you’ve been fasting for 22 hours - you simply won’t have enough energy to make your workout effective.
The other option is to workout first thing in the morning when you wake up. If you’re a morning person, then this can be effective as well and still allow for a strong workout. You won’t build muscle quite as fast this way, but if your eating window is in the evening/night before, then you should have plenty of energy, and a workout may give you more energy to make it through the next several hours until you eat.
Beyond when you workout, you should also be cognizant of how much you’re eating in your eating window. Generally, you should be aiming to eat close to your maintenance calories. If you’re eating way under that number, you’re going to suffer in your workouts. If you’re eating way over, then you’re simply going to gain too much weight and your stomach will likely hurt when eating those types of meals on a regular basis.
OMAD can be done in conjunction with weight lifting if you’d like. It’s not the perfect combination, but some people may choose to do so. Make sure you’re maximizing your muscle potential by eating the right amount at the right time.
