Strategies such as restricting yourself to one meal per day, skipping meals, drastically reducing your caloric intake and replacing meals with protein shakes can promote rapid weight loss. However, there are many health consequences when you eat fewer meals. Instead of eating once a day, try a modified meal plan in which you eat only one big meal per day and add several healthful snacks.
Weight Loss
The simple math of eating one meal per day is that you will lose weight. Most adults consume 1,800 to 3,000 calories and maintain a healthy weight, with younger and more active adults allowed more calories than older and sedentary adults. A single meal with one serving of protein, carbohydrate, dairy, healthy fat, fruit and vegetable may have about 500 to 600 calories -- or more if you deep-fry the food. This caloric deficit could result in your losing 2.5 to 5 lbs. in one week.
Loss of Energy
Calories are a form of energy. When you drastically cut your calories, you stop supplying your body with the energy it requires for functions such as metabolizing your food, balancing your blood-sugar level, maintaining your muscle strength and supporting your brain function. It is better to spread your eating through the day, with either meals or one meal and snacks.
Health Issues
Restricting your intake of food means you do not consume a diverse and nutritionally balanced diet. The American Heart Association recommends that you eat several servings of plant-based foods such as legumes, unsweetened whole grains, fresh fruit, vegetables and olive oil every day. Skipping meals puts you at risk of developing or worsening heart problems or getting certain types of cancer. In addition, eating one meal per day is not a sustainable diet. It leaves you feeling hungry and vulnerable to the temptation of binge eating.
Considerations
In special cases, doctors may prescribe a diet that dramatically reduces your calories to the equivalent of eating one meal and a few healthy snacks per day. If you must lose weight quickly for medical reasons or to prepare for surgery, your doctor can recommend a food plan that will have you losing up to 10 lbs. in two weeks. However, you cannot stay on this type of extremely restrictive diet for longer than two weeks, and a doctor must supervise you while you are on it.
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