#22 - What You Need To Know About OMAD

Hi, I'm Jorge Cruise, number one New York Times bestselling author and celebrity trainer, and I want to welcome you to the all-new Jorge Cruise Podcast. Every week I'll bring you the shortcuts to work better, reduce pain, improve memory, garden more, and even sleep better. It's not just about intermittent fasting or getting a flat belly. My mission is to give you simple ways that will empower you to live as you choose. Welcome to the Jorge Cruise Podcast. Hey everyone, welcome to the podcast. I can't believe it's another beautiful Monday and I'm so lucky, I'm blessed. I have a special guest, uh, joining me from Toronto. I'll tell you who that is in a moment, but I myself am in Florida today for the Home Shopping Network. So tune in tonight, guys, at 5 PM Eastern time. I'll be joining Marlo, who has a wonderful cooking show on, um, on her favorite foods, and she's amazing. She has a huge following. If you haven't watched Home Shopping Network in a long time, I'll be there live at 5:00 PM tonight. So please join me. Now on the topic of today's podcast, I am beyond privileged to call this man a dear friend and also really a mentor, I believe, of one of my passions in life has become, you know, obviously intermittent fasting, but recently in the last less than a year, I've been really focused in on with a lot of people like the cast members of The Real Housewives of New York. That'll start airing April 2nd nationwide on Bravo. And I've been introducing to a lot of the cast members this OMAD method that I've been embracing. And OMAD is an acronym. And joining me on the line here is Jason Fung, Dr. Jason Fung. How are you, Jason?

Very good, great to be here.

Oh, I'm so happy to hear your voice. Jason, as you guys know, is literally, in my opinion, and I think the opinion of the world, the leading medical doctor that understands intermittent fasting and all types of fasting. And he's written kind of The Bible on it that I think is the number one— I mean, not to brag, but it is the best-selling book on Amazon, The Complete Guide to Fasting, I believe, right, Jason?

Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's great.

It's an incredible resource, recommended everyone. And he's written a few other books, The Obesity Code, and we're going to be talking at the end of the podcast a new book he has coming out on April 7th, uh, Life in the Fast Lane, which is going to be pivotal because it's really going to kind of expands the methodology of how to do fasting and make it a lifestyle. So thank you, Jason, for joining us from Toronto. And so tell us about this OMAD method and this acronym. I know we were talking before the podcast about your thoughts on it, and it's something that really is an acronym. Can we reveal to everyone what it stands for and then how it's gained momentum, right?

Yeah, so it's OMAD. So that's why it's OMAD. It stands for one meal a day. And essentially it's a variation of intermittent fasting. So if you only eat one meal a day, so say you eat dinner and then you don't eat again till dinner, you're talking about 23 and a half or 24 hours of fasting every single day. And it sort of, you know, is one of these things that people have done. Like, people didn't call it anything, but it's been done for many, many years. So some people say, oh, I always eat like that. But yeah, because lately people have been looking at intermittent fasting, they find that, oh, this is actually a really easy strategy. It's easy to understand, you know, you eat once a day, so then you know when you're eating, when you're not eating. You don't have to worry about— oh, you know, the problem with a lot of diets, for example, is that if you're trying to follow a keto diet or paleo diet or whatever you want, yeah, there's all these rules, right? You can eat this, but you can eat this, but not too much of that. So it's very, very, very complex as opposed to trying to do something very simple, which is say, you know what, during the time that I'm not eating, my body is going to use up its own sugar and its own fat. That's good. That's what I want it to do. So OMAD is one of these things that just sort of falls in, you know, you can— once you get used to it, it's really, really easy. And the part that makes it easy, especially if you're working, is that it gives you back a lot of time because you don't have to worry about out, oh, where am I gonna go for lunch? Or, you know, and yeah, you just say, no, no, I'm just working, right? And, uh, if for breakfast, a lot of people aren't hungry at breakfast, a lot of people are trying to rush out the door. So hey, you're gonna get an extra half an hour of sleep because you don't have to cook, you clean up, eat, all that sort of thing. And, and, and the point is about the OMAD is that it really fits in very easily because if you skip breakfast and you skip lunch not that many people care that much. It's, it's not like something that's weird. It really fits into the day very, very easily. And then the dinner time is when you socialize, you have your family, you know, you sit down, you talk about your day, and, you know, you connect from a social standpoint because meals are about social as well.

Very, very much like our, like our ancestors did. I would say very much like Ancient Man, right? Or our Ancestral Health, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So if you're a You know, if you think back to the farmers, you know, they'd be out farming all day and then at the end of the day they get together, sit down, relax, have a nice meal, you know, connect with each other. Same thing, right? Most of us, uh, you know, will go out to friend with friends for dinner or something like that because that's the easiest thing. So, you know, and it, it, it doesn't have to be every single day, but you know, it's, it's, it's one of these flexible things because if you have a lunch meeting or something that you're going out to dinner, you know, lunch with a client or something like that, well yeah, you can do it that day, and then the next day you do your OMAD, right? So it's very, very flexible. You can do it whenever you want it, you cannot do it whenever you want it, but at the same time, it gives you this sort of, uh, basic, uh, you know, framework to, to, to work off of that's going to be healthy for you if you're trying to lose weight. It's going to be a great platform to sort of build from.

Yeah.

Now for people listening, they're thinking, are you really meaning you're eating one meal a day? And it truly is one meal a day. It's what it stands for. It's a hashtag that's on social media everywhere. I feel like the very first thing people are gonna think, well, do I have to eat a special diet when I eat? And that's the beauty of it. I know for what I've recommended to, for example, the Real Housewives of New York, you know, and the great thing is they actually will use some of my biohacks to kind of fill up and not feel hungry with these chia seeds and healthy fats and avocado oils and all these things that temper the hunger and still don't break the fast. But with this one meal, Jason, they can truly enjoy the foods they love. They could have, hopefully it's, I hope it's, it's a healthy meal, but balanced. You can have your proteins, your healthy fats, but you're able to eat even carbohydrates. That's, that's the beauty of this. And there's nothing wrong with that if they're healthy carbs, I would say, right, Jason?

Oh, absolutely. So the thing about carbohydrates, I think, is that for sure there's, um, people in the world that have eaten a lot of carbohydrates and been very healthy. But the point that's different about carbohydrates these days is that they're highly, highly processed. So as opposed to sort of natural, you know, people would eat beans and vegetables and all that kind of thing. Now we're talking about, you know, french fries, you know, pre-cooked this, and yeah, you know, very highly processed foods. And that more than anything is bad. But the OMAD really gives you a bit of flexibility.

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Yeah, so the, the good thing about OMAD is that it gives you a little bit of flexibility, because if you are a little bit more lenient in your diet, like say you don't want to be completely strict whatever, paleo, keto, whatever you want to be. Yeah, you know, the rest of the time your body's going to burn it off. So say you're taking a bit too much sugar because you ate dessert, right? Obviously it's not great for you. Yeah, but at the same time, because you're not going to be eating, uh, breakfast, you're not going to be eating lunch, your body's going to use up that fuel because there's, there's no reason to put it into storage because there's nothing else coming in. So it gives you the flexibility to be lenient when you want to be, as opposed to like, not every meal in our life is memorable, right?

Yeah.

Have your, have your one meal that is going to be a bit more memorable, and then cut out the sort of extraneous stuff. Because if you think about it, every year we eat, you know, 3 meals a day. It's, you know, 365 days a year is 1,000 meals. There's not 1,000 memorable meals.

No, I would agree.

So just cut them out. Like, why, why bother? Because I see people, they go, um, you know, they're rushing around, oh, I have to get some lunch, so I'm just gonna pick up this and eat it in front of my computer. It's like, okay, well, it's garbage. It's totally—

yeah, you're eating—

how much can you enjoying it. Why don't you simply not eat it and then just carry on?

Yeah, right.

Do chia seeds or do green tea, like fasting tea. Love that.

Yes, love your teas.

And, and, and, and then just go on and then have a good, you know, dinner. And if you want to be a bit more, you know, lax with your, with your diet, then at least it gives you the flexibility to do that.

Now, buddy, you mentioned flaxseed— or I'm sorry, not flaxseeds, chia seeds. Flaxseeds are different. Chia seeds, and you know how much I love these chia seeds. And a lot of times people wonder, hey, this chia, it can break my fast, and sometimes I use almond milk, unsweetened, and it's like less than a carb. You and I had a conversation a couple months back about what breaks a fast. Briefly tell people how we can use certain things like fasting teas, we can use things like chia seeds, and even unsweetened almond milk, and, you know, I'll put some avocado oil in there because the oils, the healthy fats don't tend to raise the insulin. But share with people In essence, what— how far they can, quote unquote, cheat the fast with things like that. I mean, I think we discussed— you suggested not to exceed 3 carbohydrates. Was that about right, Jason, per—

yes, it's not like 3 or 4, because the point of fasting is that when you fast, yeah, your insulin levels are going to go down and your body's going to say, okay, insulin's going down, I need to start pulling out some of the calories that I've stored. Yep. So if you take something, say you take some chia seed with some almond milk, that obviously is food. Yeah, so your, your body's gonna say, okay, well now I don't need to store it anymore, but the amount of insulin effect you're gonna have is very small. So then 10 minutes later, your body's like, okay, I've burned through that, it's gonna start falling again. So it's not like when it— when, when you have something like that, you have to start from zero. Like if you have it 12 hours in, you don't go, okay, well that's it, now I'm at zero again. You just keep going. Like it'll blip up slightly and then it'll just keep going back down, and your body's gonna immediately start going, okay, well That's all gone now. I need to start burning fat again.

Yep, yep. And again, the guideline not to exceed more than 3 carbohydrates seems to be a good guideline. You would agree, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, good buddy. Well, I love this idea that we can really maximize our health. Now, if people are out there thinking, uh, I don't like dinner, I'm a breakfast person, I'm a brunch person, a lunch person, the truth is it could be— you can kind of customize that eating window, wouldn't you say? Right?

Yeah. So you can go breakfast to breakfast or lunch to lunch or dinner to dinner, whatever you really feel like. So it's whatever fits best into your life. And that's the sort of— that's the most important thing. Because if it's too hard, then you're just not going to be able to do it for long term because it's going to be too intrusive for you. The point is not to be intrusive. The point is to fit it in where it's going to fit in. Like, so you can cut out all those meals on the road and all those sort of, you know, oh, I just grabbed a yucky sandwich from the cafeteria sort of thing. Like, you don't need to. Your body has, has enough calories for you to make it through. So that's the, you know, that's the beauty of, uh, that you can choose, pick and choose whatever you like. You know, if you don't have to digest and all that, your body's going to be a lot more scare because you're going to be able to sort of use the— the blood can go to your brain instead. It's just like if you look at animals, like if you look at the lion who just ate, they just want to sleep. You have Thanksgiving meal, you just want to sleep, right? Mentally sharp. Whereas if you haven't eaten, you're like the hungry wolf where it's like, okay, everything's focused and dialed in. So you can do studies like memory tests and so on, and it all improves with the fasting. So these people in Silicon Valley, like literally some of the smartest people in the Yeah, they're all embracing fasting. It's huge over there. And they know that they want to do it not because— and they're mostly very healthy anyway. They do it because they want that extra little boost of brain power that's going to push them over the edge and be able to— like Jack Dorsey, you know, Twitter and Square, $2 billion companies that he has founded. Amazing.

Yeah.

What would you say to people that are scared of trying this, Jason?

Yeah, most of the myths around fasting are actually, um, it's actually the opposite of what you think. So people say, oh well, I'm worried I won't have any energy. And it's the same thing, like your body has hundreds of thousands of calories stored as body fat. You're simply going to use that. So there's no reason for your body to give you no energy. People worry they have no concentration, but they have more concentration. People worry they're going to go into starvation mode, it's the opposite. The body actually starts to increase its metabolic rate. Um, so all of these things, they worry they're going to be so hungry they'll, you know, they can't take it, but it actually turns out to be the diff— different. The hunger actually starts to go down. Yeah. So all of these things that they, they worry about, it's actually, uh, the opposite of what they thought. It's actually better for you.

Yeah, it's incredible. Jason, you are the best, and, and I'm so grateful that we had time with you today to talk about this. And I feel like I think it's something I wanna make sure to share with everyone listening. So please share this, guys, on our podcast today. And if people wanna find you guys, please look to Jason. He's on all social, he's on the web. He's at on all the socials, @Dr. Jason Fung, J-A-S-O-N-F-U-N-G, @DrJasonFung. His method is called The Fasting Method. Online, you can Google it. You'll see all his incredible resources. He's on Facebook, he's on Instagram. And best of all, this is the drum roll, guys, I'm excited to share with you guys that April 7th this year, so just a few weeks away, he's gonna have a brand new book. It's called "Life in the Fasting Lane: How to Make Intermittent Fasting a Lifestyle," and to recap the benefits of weight loss and better health. And I feel like we want to lower that waist circumference, we want to improve our life. What can people expect in this book, Jason? What are you the most excited to share in this one?

Yeah, so this is a book I wrote with two co-authors, Eve Mayer and Megan Ramos.

Yep.

And they're talking more about the sort of practical, emotional side of fasting. So I deal with— personally, I deal with a lot of the clinical side. Yeah. It's the science and how to do it and medications and all that sort of stuff. But that's not the hardest part of fasting. It's often the social part, how to incorporate it, and also the emotional side where people have to feel. And that's where Eve and and Megan can really weigh in. And so all together, we put together this book that sort of deals with all of those issues, you know, how to make it part of your life and, you know, what you can expect and all these sort of things that are not scientific so much as social and emotional.

I love that. Well, you know, I think for anyone who doesn't have all your books, and, you know, I was honored that you wrote the introduction to the "Cruise Control Diet" book, guys, pick up Dr. Fung's books. He is truly, in my opinion, uh, the man who's really leading the way for this. And for people like me who, you know, have been involved in fitness and health and diet for so many years, it's, it's a light we need. Jason, and my hat's off to you as always, because I feel like your work is vital. And I think it's, in my opinion, you know, it is a path, as you've kind of shared here on this podcast, that can make— give people an easy plan and make it practical for them to do. And I know it sounds like less is more, and, and in theory it's scary when it comes to food, but it really makes your life easier. And less is more, right, Jason? Especially when it comes to eating. And, and then that, that is fasting. It's, it's eating a little less but obviously getting a lot more benefit. And, uh, I just can't thank you for, for all your hard work, buddy. And I'm so excited for April 7th. And the new book, Life in the Fasting Lane. Guys, you pick it up, pre-order it now. It's on Amazon. We'll have the link, um, on my website as well. So Jason, thank you for, uh, for all that you're doing, and I can't wait to see you hopefully in New York real soon. All right, buddy.

Okay, thanks so much.

All right, have a great rest of the, the week, and, uh, thanks everyone for listening. We'll take care and we'll talk soon.

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Peace and purpose. Take good care.