Mahanth is Editor of usindiamonitor

From approximately 2007 to 2019 I was mostly overweight. I tried all kinds of things to lose weight, all sorts of new diets and exercises, and none of them worked. Finally, in 2019 I began a new regimen. It was a resounding success. I lost 36 pounds during mid-to-late 2019, creeping down from 169 lbs. to 133 lbs., and as of January 2022 I am still at exactly 133 lbs. For more than 2 years I haven’t deviated by more than 5 lbs. and always manage to snap back to 133, which I consider to be my comfortable ideal weight.

I share this personal detail not to pat myself on the back, but in the hope that it might help other people struggling to lose weight. New years are a great time for new beginnings. 12 years of obesity was not optimal for my health, but in my case obesity was reversed and I’m sure that can be done by just about anyone. The solution is intermittent fasting. I live a new lifestyle now using the rules of One Meal A Day (OMAD). On most days I only eat once, in the evening, a meal that has traditionally come to be known in society as “dinner” although for those of us who do OMAD it’s a bit of a generic meal that might include aspects of what most people call “breakfast” or “lunch” or “snack” foods. During the “feeding window” those of us doing OMAD may eat whatever we like, and as much as we like, though the human body in my experience cannot eat more than 1.5 meals’ worth of food in a single sitting vs. a person’s average.

On a few occasions I’ve also done fasts where I haven’t eaten for an entire day (aka, 36-hour fast) which my research indicates is pretty safe, as long as one drinks copious amounts of water, and the amazing thing about all fasting is how our body adjusts to it and hunger goes away. In my case, it took three painful days of slogging through OMAD for the first time for the hunger to go away, but getting through that is an extremely liberating experience. And by doing so, we can connect with our ancestors who for thousands of years only ate once every few days- and our bodies were built accordingly, and not to eat thrice a day with snacks thrown in. And no- breakfast isn’t important in the morning either according to the latest science.

The benefits I’ve personally experienced are many: mental alertness, physical energy, budget and time savings with less meals to plan for and consume, and of course the benefits to our planet from consuming fewer agricultural and fossil fuel resources. However, the medical benefits apparently go far deeper according to a great deal of research, not just weight loss. These insights can be explained much better by Dr Pradip Jamnadas of the Galen Foundation, who is a medical professional, unlike me. For example, he cites that a 7 day fast will reduce the likelihood of cancer over the lifetime by a whopping 70% (though I can’t verify this). Dr Jamnadas rightly points out a very powerful reason why the entire medical establishment isn’t focused on promoting fasting: because nobody makes money off of our good health. I learned a great deal from this video, and I hope you will do so as well: