For Catherine Corless, a typical weekday supper is roast pork, piles of crackling, broccoli and celeriac mash, then Greek yoghurt with berries, a handful of nuts and a few squares of dark chocolate. Her plate was full, and her appetite sat. So you might wonder how Catherine, 62, a teacher from Cardiff, managed to lose an astonishing 6st 7lb in a year.
In 12 months, she dropped from a size 22 to a slim 12-14. But there is a – highly controversial – catch. Although Catherine might fill her plate at dinner, that meal is all she eats each day.
No breakfast, lunch or snacks at all. Welcome to the One Meal A Day diet, or OMAD, one of the most extreme intermittent fasting regimes. Devotees say it can not only help you lose weight but change a lifelong unhealthy relationship with food.
Experts are quick to highlight potential health issues, but Catherine is a convert. “I’ll never return to three meals a day,” she says. “It’s not just that I can bend to paint my toenails now.
I’m more confident, too. “My memory has improved and I’ve stopped equating food with emotion. You find yourself completely changing who you are as a human being.
This is a healthy way to eat.’ These are bold claims but Catherine isn’t alone in believing them. The OMAD eating plan has soared in popularity.
An Instagram search for #omad yields many thousands of pictures of enormous dinners and slimmer figures. Broadcaster Carol Vorderman has revealed she follows the plan, admitting she has o.
