Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner? Here is my list of advantages and disadvantages for all of them when you eat one meal per day.
Breakfast:
Positives:
- Not "hungry" for long times of the day afterwards
- Combined with a high fat diet, it should not leave you tired after the meal
- Feeling warmer during the day in winter times
- going to bed on an empty stomach increases night time HGH, probably better regeneration, increased muscle growth
- deeper sleep which leads to less sleep needed
- movement of the body after the meal aids digestion
Negatives:
- difficult for some people because of social circumstances
- naturally less hunger in the morning
- some do not like to sleep on an empty stomach
Lunch:
Positives:
- Same positives as with Breakfast
- only short time of "hunger" in the morning
- socially more feasible
- best of both worlds: food is digested by bed-time - good HGH release
Negatives:
- difficult as well for some people because of social and work circumstances
- many people are working during that time and need to prepare food to eat an optimal OMAD-meal
Dinner:
Positives:
- "Reward-Meal" at the end of a productive day to look forward to
- feeling cold during hot summers during the day
- after a workout: increased nutrient absorption and favorable nutrient partition
Negatives:
- Being hungry or rather "empty-stomach-feeling" for many hours of the day
- Going to bed on a full stomach might impair HGH release during sleep
- More sleep needed than compared to lunch or breakfast as OMAD-meal
- feeling hot during the night as the body processes the food
- feeling cold during the day in the winter
I have the most experience with the dinner routine so far, as I was eating the one
meal a day mostly at night. And I only experimented for a couple of days with eating at different times of the day. But in the future I am going to try out the
breakfast and the lunch eating pattern. I feel they have specific benefits in and
of themselves.
About the dinner regimen: I
really liked the idea of being productive during the day and having that reward
meal at the end of the day. But I really disliked my body having to
process all the food during the night. My feeling is that food is processed better when the body also moves and one can make direct use of some of that energy. Whereas heavy workouts shortly after the meal are probably not ideal.
(edit: I no longer eat a high-fat vegan diet and not a lot coconut-fat anymore. You can read about why here.) From a high fat meal I also get a great energy boost which is more important in the morning or afternoon, rather than in the evening. With the high fat diet I do not get tired after the meal so I can eat that OMAD-meal also for breakfast or lunch.
I still want to workout
before the meal, so I have to figure out how I can do that. I will post updates about the breakfast regimen in the future.