If you are asking, “How much weight will I lose eating one meal daily?”, you aren’t going to like the answer if you are sure that you can lose weight that way. The truth is, you may end up losing no weight and you might even find yourself gaining a little weight.
“But don’t I have to eat less if I want to lose weight?”
The answer is yes…and no. Eating one meal a day can end up slowing down your metabolism. Your body feels like it needs to store food because it feels that you are going to starve it. It decides that it needs to save some food (energy) for you to use it later just in case you need it. The more often you eat, the less food it feels it needs to save for itself. You end up tricking your body into thinking that it is going to have plenty of food when it needs it and there is no reason to store any.
One huge problem with only eating one meal per day is that your body will burn muscle before it turns to fat for energy. To increase your metabolism, you need to be getting more muscle. When your body is fearing that it may go into starvation mode, it will want to use the muscle first for food. When you end your weight loss efforts, you very well could find yourself with less weight, only it will be due to you losing more muscle mass than fat.
If you want to increase your metabolism and burn more fat, then you need to be eating more often than usual. The idea of only eating three times per day isn’t going to cut it. Try to eat at least five or six meals per day. Space them out do that you are eating every two and a half to three hours. It doesn’t have to be a big meal. It just has to be enough to let your body know that you aren’t going to be starving it.
Plan on three big meals (one of them being a good breakfast) and then another two or three small meals in between. These small meals can be a health shake, a cup of yogurt, or some other small and healthy snack. It isn’t that you are going to be eating more food than usual, it is that you are going to be spreading it out through the day. If you are going to be stressing your body through exercise, then you need to be giving it the constant fuel it needs. The trick is to find the right balance.
The answer to the question, “How much weight will I lose eating one meal a day?” is none. Your body needs to be assured that it is going to have the food it needs to get through the normal every day activities that you put it through.